{"id":121057,"date":"2025-06-24T13:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T13:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/121057\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T13:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T13:51:11","slug":"oklahoma-city-thunder-fans-to-celebrate-nba-title-with-a-parade-after-years-of-heartbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/121057\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City Thunder fans to celebrate NBA title with a parade after years of heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Oklahoma City&#8217;s unwavering fans finally get to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nba-finals-thunder-champions-8076a3f4d6fec9b0c2bbbbd79f17ef38\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:celebrate a championship;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">celebrate a championship<\/a> after suffering through several close calls and heartbreaking moments the past two decades.<\/p>\n<p>The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers on Sunday to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nba-finals-pacers-thunder-game-7-2489e4d37b7b25dfd3a5f28c9e0fd001\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:clinch the NBA title;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">clinch the NBA title<\/a>, and the city will hold a parade on Tuesday morning to honor its first major professional championship. Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, All-Star Jalen Williams and their teammates will pass through downtown for an event that is scheduled to last 90 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma City first hosted an NBA team during the 2005-06 season, when the New Orleans Hornets temporarily relocated after Hurricane Katrina. Oklahoma City\u2019s fans fell in love with the team and a young point guard named Chris Paul who would be named rookie of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City in time for the 2008-09 season, and fans feverishly supported the team, despite its early struggles. The Thunder became contenders with young stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.<\/p>\n<p>Even with all that talent, they couldn\u2019t break through. They lost to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals in 2012, and Harden left for Houston. A possible run in 2013 was derailed when Westbrook was injured during the playoffs. The 2015-16 team led the Golden State Warriors 3-1 in the Western Conference finals before losing the series in seven games.<\/p>\n<p>Durant left to join the Warriors after that season, ending that version of the Thunder. Westbrook was the league MVP in 2017 and averaged a triple-double for three straight seasons, but the Thunder never got out of the first round those years.<\/p>\n<p>But with its new set of superstars, finally, Oklahoma City has its moment.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Oklahoma City&#8217;s unwavering fans finally get to celebrate a championship after suffering through several&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2596,164,292,126,364,517,938,189,6,11,7322,475,179,254,209],"class_list":{"0":"post-121057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chris-paul","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-indiana-pacers","13":"tag-jalen-williams","14":"tag-james","15":"tag-kevin-durant","16":"tag-miami-heat","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nba-playoffs","19":"tag-new-orleans-hornets","20":"tag-oklahoma-city","21":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","22":"tag-russell-westbrook","23":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}