Orlando Magic Summer League Announcers Responsible For Crazy Rumor

Thursday, July 10, 2008


Our Summer League friends Dante and Galante have been hard at work this past week bringing you boring Basketball and ridiculous commentary. One of the things they joked about on Day One is even being taken seriously by those in the Basketball community.

The two were taking emails on what the new Oklahoma City franchise should be called when an emailer suggested the Oklahoma City Thundercats. The two joked about the 80s cartoon for awhile and then talked about old cartoons for about a half an hour. Well apparently the Seattle Post Intelligencer and those on the Yahoo message boards didn't get the joke....

Other than green trim on the sneakers of Westbrook and Ronald Dupree, and one person on the Oklahoma City bench wearing a pair of Seattle game trunks, the team bore no resemblance to the one that would have been here representing Seattle. Kevin Durant was there to cheer his quasi-teammates on, wearing a simple white T-shirt and the black shorts, not the Seattle gear that thousands of fans in the Pacific northwest bought over the past 12 months.

P.S. - Word on the online street is that the OKC team might adopt the name "Thundercats." Someone has already parked oklahomacitythundercats.com and okcthundercats.com....
Are you kidding me people? It'd be one thing if they were joking about the name "The Oklahoma City Silverhawks" or the even "The OKC Speed Racers". But the Thundercats? Are people really that gullible??? I guess so.

Be sure to read through the Yahoo Answers page for a laugh. Here's my favorite....
I think its too high school/NBDL kinda name. I wish the creators spent more time on it than slam the weather and an animal's name together. Its like cmon. Honestly. Call it the Bears or something, but Thundercats? Can you imagine it? "And the Thundercats are the King of the World, they are your NBA Champions!" *shiver.
Actually that sounds awesome. I take everything back.

Heartbreak! Oklahoma NBA team caught on camera (Seattle PI)
Oklahoma City Thundercats? (Yahoo Answers)
Orlando's Summer League Announcers Are Insane (Awful Announcing)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 9:52 AM

25 Comments:

I vote for Bombers.

TomahawkFlop said...
Jul 10, 2008, 10:24:00 AM  

I was so holding out for Shirt Tales. Think about it, Nike could design unis that, after a Durant dunk, shows off the words "POW!." Or, after a Ridnour turnover, "Oops!"

Better yet, let fans text the messages to the shirts. *shiver

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 10:49:00 AM  

OKC Jim Ross's

GMoney said...
Jul 10, 2008, 10:51:00 AM  

I love it. Dante and Galante should start suggesting ridiculous crap about other NBA conversation pieces just to see what makes its way into the media elsewhere. They should claim they saw LeBron looking at houses over by Tiger Woods' in Orlando, and that the Magic will be a serious player for him in free agency. That one might make the front page of ESPN.com.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 11:02:00 AM  

I am interested to see what they choose for OKC's mascot. Silverhawks sounds pretty cool, but the Triple-A baseball team (Rangers affiliate) is already named the Redhawks, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have Silverhawks and Redhawks in the same town.

The Redhawks were the Oklahoma City 89ers until 1996, maybe the NBA team could take the 89ers name. I hope they choose something uniquely Oklahoma and not just go with a boring stock mascot like Charlotte did with the Bobcats.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 11:07:00 AM  

Once they sign Lion-O this team will be unstoppable.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 11:10:00 AM  

am i the only one that thinks this would be an awesome name for a team?

BackBergtt said...
Jul 10, 2008, 11:28:00 AM  

it'd be the greatest sports nickname ever and the arena could get hyped with everyone's favorite "thundercats, Thundercats, THUNDERCATS HOOOOOO!"

yeah, i'd instantly be a fan if they take that name

the great bambi said...
Jul 10, 2008, 11:55:00 AM  

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it couldn't happen. Charlotte is the Bobcats, and in this day and age, they constantly are referred to as the "'Cats." Maybe if my fellow Americans could handle using full names (I blame ARod and JLo for this), it would be a possibility. Too confusing though.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 11:58:00 AM  

that doesnt make sense. two of the most popular teams in baseball are both called the sox and we manage just fine. hell we had a kentucky/arizona final in hoops and it was wildcats v wildcats, the world went on living.

plus noone gives a shit about the bobcats, in charlotte or outside of charlotte, i dont think theyd be much of a problem

BackBergtt said...
Jul 10, 2008, 12:04:00 PM  

Oklahoma City Thundercats? Hell no!

If you really wanted something ridiculous why not Oklahoma City Transformers!

You can have the starting lineup arrive in a red semi! Cheerleaders would have robot routines and they would sell beer in energon cubes. Siiiick!

Think about OKC and let's do it!

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Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 12:13:00 PM  

No self-respecting pro or college organization should ever call themselves the Redhawks.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 12:16:00 PM  

Kevin Durant, Hoooooooo!

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 12:46:00 PM  

Call them the Stallions. or like above go all cartoon and call them the Scooby Doos, or Speedbuggies, or Thunderbirds, or He-Men, or The Powerpuff Girls, or My Little Pies, or Pound Puppies, or Gobots, or Cobras, or Phantoms, or Team America! (F**K Yeah!), or Ahhh Real Monsters!, or Underdogs, or Bullwinkles, or Ninja Turtles, or the Tumbleweeds, or the Men with no Name, or the Team formerly known as Seattle, or the Round Ball Rockers, or the Muppets, or the Boweevuls, or the Locusts, or Hanson, or the Triggers, or the Thorpes. Anything but Dundercats.

Unknown said...
Jul 10, 2008, 2:14:00 PM  

I can think of a lot of worse nicknames for a team than "Thundercats".

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 2:48:00 PM  

People joking about the "Bombers," stop being assholes. 168 people died.

My bet would be the Bison, as the American Bison is state mammal of Oklahoma. It's lame, but I'm not expecting much. It would be one of those cool singular names, and it definitely would stray from the franchise's existence in Seattle.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 2:51:00 PM  

We have to make this happen. If they do an online vote to name the team, they are screwed!

testing thing said...
Jul 10, 2008, 3:36:00 PM  

dante and galante was just on the scott van pelt show, and scott specifically mentioned awful announcing and this post while talking about the thundercats

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 4:00:00 PM  

Dante + Galante + audience - supervision = win.

Let's be honest, no one would give a rat's ass about Orlando Magic summer league basketball unless these two clowns livened it up.

I bet someone in Orlando is taking heat over this when they should be getting praise -- their hires actually found an audience.

I still vote "Sonics", and sell the naming rights to the fast food chain:
"Kevin Durant - he's not just good, he's Sonic good!"

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 4:32:00 PM  

"I still vote 'Sonics', and sell the naming rights to the fast food chain."

Sorry if this was addressed before and I'm just being redundant, but Sonic Drive-In is based in Oklahoma City after all, so it just makes perfect sense.

In the words of Kenny Bania, "it's gold Jerry! Gold!"

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 6:01:00 PM  

"Let's be honest, no one would give a rat's ass about Orlando Magic summer league basketball unless these two clowns livened it up."

I don't even like playoff basketball, much less glorified practices in the summer league, but the Dante & Galante stories have me considering the idea of watching the summer league games at work. ESPN/ABC should make these two the second team (behind Breen/Van Gundy/Jackson). Tell me that wouldn't be a hit from sea to shining sea.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 6:05:00 PM  

Actually gmoney, I think that it would have to be the OKC Government Mules (only those who know who Jim Ross is will get that).

The fact that people actually believed that is absolutely hilarious. I can't wait until the people who made those websites find out it was all in jest. They'll feel pretty silly, I'm sure.

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 6:06:00 PM  

I vote for the Oklahoma City "Dokies". The Okie Dokies!

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 6:45:00 PM  

Thunder. Thunder! THUNDER! THUNDERCATS! HOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Anonymous said...
Jul 10, 2008, 7:02:00 PM  

"Welcome to Oklahoma City baseball on FSN, tonight the Golden State Warriors take on the Oklahoma City Slobberknockers in this.."

Mike Brown said...
Jul 11, 2008, 1:15:00 AM  

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