I'm an OKC native, and have been an OKC basketball fan from the beginning (before the Thunder) when OKC hosted the Hornets after Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago. I recently found some OKC Hornets memorabilia I got as a kid when going through some old stuff I kept from my childhood.

OKC hosted the New Orleans Hornets after Hurricane Katrina for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons. My family used to go to the Hornets games occasionally at the "Ford Center" during this time.

In the 2005-2006 season (Chris Paul's rookie year), one of my parents was staying at the Ritz-Carlton on a business trip in Washington D.C. The OKC Hornets happened to also be staying at the same hotel during an away game against the Washington Wizards. My parent managed to get nearly the entire team's autographs (including Chris Paul, Desmond Mason, Byron Scott, J.R. Smith, Speedy Claxton, Brandon Bass, and others (some of them multiple times for some reason too…I'm missing 3 minor players' autographs).

My parent gifted me the team autographs on the Ritz Carlton note paper after the trip, but I never got around to framing it 20 years ago.

In Feb 14, 2007, the OKC Hornets wore a red Valentine's Day jersey for a single game and never wore them again. The original fan jerseys were sold at the stadium, but were never sold outside of the stadium to the general public.

Years later, reproduction jerseys were sold by Mitchell and Ness as a Hardwood Classic edition jersey. I have one of the original Adidas authentic versions of the jersey that was sold in the stadium during the game.

I'm looking for any suggestions on the best way to frame some of these items together to display alongside my other Thunder autographed memorabilia??

I also have 1 autograph I need help identifying the signature. Does anybody know who it is? It's in the picture with the team lineup in the gameday book.

Thunder up forever!!!🏀🦬🌩

9 comments

  3. I have been an okc fan from Perth Australia for 14 years now and I never knew about this. Thats cool as hell

  6. I remember Paul, West, and Desmond Mason, but had no idea JR Smith was on that team.

  7. I expect to see this in a few decades on Antiques Roadshow, and the appraiser absolutely hyperventilating over it.

    This is crazy cool.

  8. This is so cool!! I was at that opening night game! I was 7 years old, and became immediately hooked on the NBA!

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