A can’t-miss neon T-shirt caught the gaze of Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein Tuesday night at Paycom Center.
Donning it was Thunder superfan Juan Guerra, who hasn’t missed a home game since the franchise arrived in OKC in 2008 and has been a contentious subject on the social media site X since the NBA Playoffs began for opting not to wear the traditional playoff shirt.
Hartenstein, the first-year Thunder center, took matters into his own hands during Game 2 of a best-of-seven series against the Memphis Grizzlies, grabbing one of the playoff shirts and draping it over Guerra’s shoulder.
“He got the neon shirt on and I saw it and just felt like he was doing it on purpose,” Hartenstein told The Oklahoman. “You can’t be too cool to wear the shirt.”
The practice has quickly become more than an average T-shirt giveaway. Other Thunder fans have constantly hounded Guerra on social media for choosing not to wear the shirt.
During this season’s playoffs, the Thunder has also continued its lighthearted jumbotron antics, which aim to peer-pressure fans to wear their playoff T-shirts. The camera pans to an attendee who isn’t wearing one of the shirts and clamorous boos follow.
Offering 18,203 fans matching shirts during the NBA playoffs is a tradition dating back to one of the franchise’s first postseason wins in OKC over Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers 15 years ago. And in Game 2 when the Thunder handled the Grizzlies 118-99 Tuesday night, the pranks continued.
“Whether I wear the shirt or not, it’s not going to dictate how many free throws (Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) gets to shoot,” Guerra told The Oklahoman. “It’s not going to dictate how many points we give up on defense. It’s not going to make somebody miss a shot for the other team because I’m wearing the T-shirt.”
For fans who choose to wear them, it’s become a playoff ritual and for those, like Guerra, who opt out of wearing them, they’ve become targets on social media.
Regardless of where you stand, it’s become a hot topic among Thunder fans.
“Honestly, like, nothing affects the way that I wake up, go to sleep, go to the game,” Guerra said. “None of it affects me. Like, I mean, honestly, I could care less.”
The Oklahoma City Police Department’s official X account has even joined in on the playoff T-shirt jokes, posting, “OKC ordinance requires those in attendance to put on the t-shirt! (probably). We’re watching.”
“I felt like he was doing that on purpose because he’s at every game, he has to know,” Hartenstein said. “To come in with the neon shirt, it was kinda funny to me because you don’t just go pick a neon shirt. I thought it was funny, I was just trolling.”
Why OKC Thunder T-shirts are ‘very impactful’ to some
As Rob McLaughlin was settling into his family’s longtime season-ticket seats Sunday inside Paycom Center, he was dialing a FaceTime with his older son who lives in Dallas.
McLaughlin, who shares season tickets and estimates he makes a third of the home games each year, aimed to offer his son a glimpse of the playoff atmosphere in Oklahoma City since he couldn’t make the trip.
Seconds later, he and his younger son, Kyle, found themselves drowning in boos from fellow Thunder fans who arrived at the arena early ahead of the Game 1 shellacking of the Memphis Grizzlies.
“I mean, we weren’t at our seats for 10 seconds,” McLaughlin told The Oklahoman. “I mean, literally, we were in our seats for 10 seconds and the camera got on us. I’m like trying to dial on the phone, and I don’t even know what’s going on.”
The McLaughlins were just the latest victims of the Jumbotron bit.
“I had full intentions of putting the T-shirt on,” McLaughlin said. “It’s just, I needed another 45 seconds to do it. We got with the program pretty quick. That was pretty funny. We did receive a fair amount of texts.”
Everyone keeps wondering how the Oklahoma City thunder gets everyone to wear their shirts for the playoffs. Well, here’s how – the camera will literally spotlight you and shame you into putting it on so that you don’t get too comfortable sitting without it! pic.twitter.com/ScA5YfIV8z
— Kira Zahara Ahsan (@KZA76_NBAstats) April 20, 2025
The practice has become so hyped that fans spend days speculating online which color and design each shirt will be.
“It’s huge, very impactful,” McLaughlin said. “It just sets the tone and everyone’s in it together. It’s just so reflective of our community, right? It’s not OU or OSU; we can all get behind the Thunder.
“It just looks cool, feels cool and it just works.”
Ironically, Rob was watching Game 1 of the Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves series the night before when Kyle, a sophomore at TCU who was in town for Easter weekend, commented on Laker fans not wearing their shirts.
Kyle and Rob had no idea what awaited them less than 24 hours later.
“God, the Laker fans are just so weak,” Kyle told his father. “They don’t even put their T-shirts on. That’s what’s so cool about us. We’re all in.”