Oklahoma City Thunder: Fandom reaches all the way to China

Kevin Durant visited the Great Wall of China as part of a three-city tour of China last year.

Thunder phenomena stretches far. Oklahoma City absolutely could not purchase the publicity it is receiving through this NBA run.

Within 12 hours Thursday night/Friday morning, I received two emails. One came from my brother, who does a ton of business with Chinese officials. My brother received a business correspondence from who he described as a “very successful 50-year-old Chinese guy that lives in Shenzhen.” But before they got to the business, the guy started off the email this way: “First of all, congratulations to your city’s THUNDER qualified for the final championship battle!”

Then I received an email from Raymond Melton, environmental protection manager for the city of Oklahoma City.

“My son and daughter, Ryan and Kim, have been in China since Monday and have been able to catch parts of the last two Thunder games. They say the reaction to the Thunder has been awesome over there.