Inside the 'Peake, the players are the crowd
The lights are always on and the doors are always open at the Courtside Club when the Thunder is playing at The Peake.
Even though nobody's there.
It might seem odd during a season without fans in the arena. Why turn on the lights? Why open the doors? Why look like you're trying to recreate a scene from “I Am Legend” or “The Day After”?
But the Thunder hasn't gone morose.
Quite the opposite, actually.
“It's important for the players when they walk in the building not to feel like they're walking into an empty building with all the lights turned out,” said John Leach, the Thunder's director of events and entertainment. “We turn on all the lights.
“Just to make them feel like it's normal.”
In a season that is anything but normal, the Thunder is doing whatever it can to help the players feel more comfortable when they come into the arena. The franchise is trying to create an environment for the guys in the short pants that is consistent and conducive.
“We're really trying to make sure that we're not
cutting any corners or doing stuff to take away from the experience for the players,” Leach said, adding that while the NBA has arena protocols to keep teams safe during the pandemic, the Thunder is taking additional steps to keep the team engaged. “A lot of it is specific to Sam (Presti, Thunder general manager). It's important for Sam that the players feel like they're going to work and things are normal.”
On a night the Thunder plays the first of back-toback home games against the Timberwolves, the franchise's efforts to make things feel normal will be in full effect.
They start as soon as the players enter the arena. While the procedures to get through security are different because of COVID, what the players see in the bowels of the building remains much as it has always been. There are still ushers in the back hallways. There are still team personnel moving around.
The number of people is diminished because of testing protocols and restricted areas, but there is still activity.
And yes, all the lights are on.
Leach said leaving hallways and restaurants unlit would be like having a dark office building when people started showing up for work. The vibe would be different. The energy would be changed. Things would just feel off.
The organization didn't want the players to walk into their office, their building, their workplace and feel weird.
Same goes for the vibe on the court. Sure, there are no people in the seats, but the rest of the sights
and sounds have remained the same. There is still loud music, the national anthem, the player introductions.
During timeouts, there are no skits on the court or videos on the jumbotron, but those things are done for the fans.
“We're treating it more like the players are our audience,” Leach said.
The Thunder even decided to have public address announcer Mario Nanni call the game like he would if there were fans in the arena. Same inflections. Same catchphrases.
“If they go on a run and Chicago calls a time out,” Leach said, “Mario's gonna say, `Chicago wants a timeout!' He's still gonna treat it like normal.
“The players still feed off of that kind of emotion.”
Then, of course, there's the piped-in crowd noise, officially referred to as “crowd sweetener.” The NBA has mandated it for the TV broadcasts, but the Thunder uses it for the benefit of the players, too. One night last month during a second-half rally, the crowd noise in the arena seemed a little louder than normal.
Did it help?
“Yeah, sure it does,”
Thunder energizer Kenrich Williams said a bit sarcastically. Seriously?
“It's kinda weird,” Williams admitted, “but you can definitely tell it affects players … as far as you're not able to hear your teammates as well, coaches as well.”
Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said he didn't notice the crowd noise being any louder, “but I did feel the energy in the building rise.”
Maybe there is something to the psychology behind what Thunder is doing.
Maybe cranking up the music and turning on the lights does matter.
“It feels normal,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “The approach to the game. The way the guys prepare. Then the way the guys compete and play, it feels like NBA basketball.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman. com. Like her at facebook. com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/ jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.