Hooper is sorry he couldn't include everyone.
“I love all the players; I really don't have a favorite,” he said. “But an X-90 is only so big. I could only fit so many people.”
The last touch on his car was a quote from Frederick Douglass on the hood — “It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but THUNDER.”
Hooper said, “I think that speaks a lot to the team and the state and the city.”
And the Thundermobile is speaking to Hooper's fellow fans.
He and his wife went to Game 2 on Saturday night, and as they sat in stop-and-go traffic in the rain outside the arena, a fan ran up to the car.
“He starts taking pictures of the car in the pouring rain,” Hooper said. “I'm like, ‘This guy is crazy,' but I'm posing in my car.”
Hooper laughed.
“Traffic starts going, and people start honking, and I'm thinking, ‘Should I go or stay and let him take pictures?' Of course, I stayed and let him take pictures. I thought it was only right.
“I mean, he was out in the middle of the rain.”
The Thundermobile's adoring public is growing. Whether he's driving to work at Riverwind Casino or running errands around town, Hooper has seen lots of smiles, waves and thumbs up
There have also been some raised eyebrows.
Then again, Hooper has been folding his 6-foot-2 frame into that little purple car for the past six or seven years. He's used to people giving him funny looks.
“Whenever you drive a car like this,” he said, smiling, “you can't care what other people think.”
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