Thunder to host Aussies
The Oklahoma City Thunder will host the Melbourne United, a team from Australia’s National Basketball League in an exhibition game. The Oct. 8 contest will be held at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The UnitedThunder game is one of three that NBL teams will play against NBA teams this preseason in the U.S.
This preseason, the Thunder will welcome an opponent from Down Under.
Melbourne United, a team from Australia’s National Basketball League, will play an exhibition game at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Oct. 8, the NBA announced Monday night.
The United-Thunder game is one of three that NBL teams will play against NBA teams this preseason in the U.S. The Sydney Kings will play at the Utah Jazz on Oct. 2, and the Brisbane Bullets will play at the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 13.
“We are excited to welcome Melbourne United to Oklahoma City,” Thunder general manager Sam
Presti said in a release. “This event marks our third opportunity to host an international team in Chesapeake Energy Arena, and we are proud to help continue the advancement of the game through these competitions.”
The game against United is the second Thunder preseason game to be announced. OKC will play the Houston Rockets in a preseason game Oct. 3 in Tulsa.
The NBL is the top basketball league in Australia, where seven of its eight teams play. It has one team in New Zealand. In a release, NBL executive director Larry Kestleman called the exhibition games “a huge moment for Australian basketball.”
“We are one of the few leagues in the world that can actually challenge (NBA) teams and put up a good fight,” Kestleman told The Daily Telegraph of Sydney in January. “It’s either us or a few of the Euro League teams and that’s about it.” Thunder rookie Terrance
Ferguson is an NBL alum. He played last season for the Adelaide 36ers.
Former Thunder gets special shoe
Six years ago, Jeff Green was traded from Oklahoma City to Boston in a move that changed the Thunder forever.
Not long after the trade, Green’s life was forever changed as well.
On Monday, Green, now 30 and playing for Cleveland, shared a special edition Air Jordan XXXI commemorating his open-heart surgery from 2011. In a story on The Players’ Tribune, Green wrote about working through the rehab and the insecurities he faced post-surgery.
Green was traded by the Thunder to the Celtics in February 2011 as part of a four-player deal that sent Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City. Ten months later, doctors discovered an aortic aneurysm in Green’s heart during a training camp physical in December.
Green had surgery in January 2012, and was forced to miss the entire lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. Since missing a season, Green has played 390 games for Boston, Memphis, the Los Angeles Clippers and Orlando in five seasons.
In his Players’ Tribune piece entitled “The Scar,” Green goes into detail about the nine-inch scar on his chest, and his recovery. “My attitude got a lot better during that period. But I still couldn’t really process that fresh, raw scar — it was a constant reminder of how real this all was,” Green wrote.
“But after weeks of doing all that maintenance with very little impact on its appearance, I realized the scar wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t have much of a choice: I decided to at least try to own the scar. And the best way to do that, in my mind, was to make it part of my routine. I’m gonna show this thing off, I thought. I’m gonna take my shirt off anytime I’m lifting or working out. That way, I’d be forcing myself to adapt.”
Like Russell Westbrook, Victor Oladipo, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, among others, Green is a Jordan Brand player.
In a video released by The Players’ Tribune, Green talks about his special edition Jordans. On the side of the shoe, there’s a symbol representing Green’s scar. On the inner sock, there’s the name of the doctor who performed Green’s surgery. On the heel is the date of Green’s surgery (Jan. 9, 2012). The tongue of the shoe has the Jordan Jumpman logo inside of the American Heart Association’s symbol.