Thunder locker room a happy place
Desmond Mason visited the Thunder locker room Sunday night after the game and probably will do the same tonight. He’s in town for a few days and said he plans to attend tonight’s game against the Hawks, too.
Mason played for the Thunder last season — started much of the year — and was a popular member of the squad. Sort of a big brother on a team loaded with young players. Mason’s contract ended after last season, he signed with Sacramento and eventually was cut. Now he’s contemplating retirement and back living in Portland, Ore.
But Mason’s visit showed the light-hearted nature of the Thunder locker room, which can get a little stale when the media is allowed in from 5:30-6:15 p.m. each night before tipoff and in post-game. We know the Boomers have a lot of fun — their youtube hijinks prove it, if nothing else — clowning around on the road, and Mason loosened up his old pals Sunday night.
Mason was chatting with Jeff Green and Nick Collison (Collison and Mason played against each other in college, in the 2000 OSU-Kansas game at Stillwater), when he noticed Westbrook on the other side of the locker room. Westbrook was wearing a brown shirt loaded with insignias. When I first saw it, I thought the shirt was a Boy Scout shirt. Then I saw that it was more flight-oriented. Wings and things like that. Looked almost Air Force in nature. Mason dramatically stared at the shirt as Westbrook momentarily ducked back into the shower area for a moment.
When Westbrook returned a few seconds later, Mason theatrically turned, put his feet together and gave Westbrook a huge salute.
The entire room cracked up and Westbrook, a budding star who not 30 minutes earlier was going to the rack against NBA behemoths, was noticeably embarrassed. The scene was revealing for multiple reasons:
1. The camaraderie in the locker room seems legit. This team has its factions (I don’t mean that in a bad way), primarily the young crowd hangs out together. For instance, Kevin Durant, Westbrook, Jeff Green, James Harden, Kyle Weaver and D.J. White all attended the OSU-Texas game Monday night. The oldest of those six players is 23. But the veterans seem to mesh well. Kevin Ollie, 37 years young, lockers next to Westbrook. The fact that Mason, on the verge of ending his basketball career, is interested in dropping by and seeing old (young) friends is a sign that the Thunder locker room was a good place to be.
2. Sometimes we forget just how young this team is. Did you ever imagine an NBA player being embarrassed at being the butt of a joke? Doesn’t really equate, does it? Someone busts you? You bust them back, either good-naturedly or with venom. But Westbrook was embarrassed. I thought it was sort of charming. The ability to be embarrassed is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. It’s a very good thing. It shows that Westbrook still has a youthful spirit, which he ought to have. He’s 21 years old. Sometimes we project things on 21 years old, just because they happen to be in the NBA. That ought not to be. Westbrook is a 21-year-old, whether or not he can leap tall buildings in a single bound or not.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Dave do you realize your just one of thousands of people that bitch about everything? Glad you enjoy being a part of the mundane, condescending crowd.
Interesting article Barry, I hope the locker room camaraderie keeps this team together for a long time!
It’s the fact that Berry ALWAYS tries to be cute and provide little nicknames for everything and everyone. They never stick and he’s the only one saying them. So STOP!
The Thunder guys visited the Suite area during the halftime of the OSU vs TX game (except Durant) and they seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit – those boys can eat! Of course we all wanted to take pictures and they were very cordial to do so, but did seem a little embarrassed about all the attention. They do appear to be a really good group of young men!
Berry, have you noticed you are the only one calling them the Boomers? There is a reason for it.