Brandy McDonnell

A&E Writer for The Oklahoman. Initials so sweet they must be used. Always busy because I'm not to be trusted when I'm bored.

[Brandy McDonnell @BAMOK]

Broadway actress Erin Elizabeth Clemons makes her #OKC stage comeback in "The Last Five Years" at @okcciviccenter https://t.co/5PaVMlBFKF

[Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar]

All these “what does OKC do now?” clips and posts are nonsense.

JDub was healthy for 1 game.

Ajay Mitchell was healthy for 2 1/2 games.

That’s an All NBA player + a rising star. That’s all of OKC’s shot creation/ball handling/playmaking besides SGA.

One loss was in double OT.

Still came down to the final moments of Game 7.

Spurs are great. Gonna get better. That’s an issue for every team.

But OKC could just draft at #12, get healthy and roll the same squad back next year and be much better.

And it’ll still be a 2 team race at the top.

Big changes to a young championship team that was a few plays away from a return trip to the Finals without 2 of their top 5 players isn’t the move.

[Nick Gallo @NickAGallo]

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Mark Daigneault:

"He has no personal ambition. All he wants is this group to win... His intentions are solely for everyone else, not him."

[Brandy McDonnell @BAMOK]

Watch as Tulsa's Route 66 Capital Cruise sets a Guinness World Record https://t.co/UnIrprNWEy

[Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar]

Alex Caruso: "The marriage has been great between me and the Thunder organization. I'm thankful to Sam..

My first two years have been great here. The city, the organization.. The salt of the earth.. Those are values that I hold very highly. It's the way I was raised, how my parents are, how my family is."

[Brandy McDonnell @BAMOK]

Tulsa's record-setting Route 66 Capital Cruise draws 3,500+ classic cars https://t.co/3dr6lnXNE4

[Michael Martin @MichaelOnSports]

Most people from California aren't exactly dying to move to OKC when they've never been there before. I asked Jared McCain about sort of falling in love with his new home city.

“And the city, everywhere I've gone, they're always trying to help and always trying, always, no matter what. So whether it's being able to just pay for somebody's coffee, help somebody out, give someone a picture, like whatever it is, I try and do that. I think that love just kind of all comes back around to you and that energy comes back and that allows me to fall in love with a city.”

[cinesthetic. @TheCinesthetic]

Happy 96th Birthday to Clint Eastwood 🎉

His son, Kyle Eastwood, says the legendary actor and director has retired from filmmaking.

[Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar]

Jared McCain says that when the team went to New York, SGA took him shopping.

"Little things like that mean so much to a young player."

[Clemente Almanza @CAlmanza1007]

Alex Caruso on Ajay Mitchell: “Just continues to get better.”

[Clemente Almanza @CAlmanza1007]

Ajay Mitchell: “We went through injuries, but we gave it our best shot.”

[Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar]

Jared McCain on OKC fans:

"They showed a crazy amount of love."

"I'm scrolling through TikTok and I see my face on a latte." He said he had to go and get one of those lattes.

"When you come to a city like that, you want to play hard for them"

[Clemente Almanza @CAlmanza1007]

Isaiah Joe on being out of the playoff rotation: “As a player, competitor, it's frustrating. But in the moment, it's more of like what can I do to help the team win.”

[Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar]

Alex Caruso: “The disappointment of knowing your team is good enough to win a championship and you don’t is what weighs on me.“

[All Things Thunder @all_things_OKC]

Still heartbroken, but I’m as confident as ever that the Thunder will be back.

Sam Presti is smart enough to know how he can make roster moves this summer with the Spurs in mind.

This is not the end of this group and its title window. It’s actually closer to the beginning.

[The Oklahoman @TheOklahoman_]

Lu Dort’s ‘main goal’ is to re-sign with Thunder this offseason as contract talks loom https://t.co/OJKLSAMWUu

[Joel Lorenzi @JoelXLorenzi]

Lu Dort on his upcoming team option: "The conversation hasn’t happened yet. I have a lot of trust in this organization, in Sam (Presti). Really grateful for all the stuff he did for me to this point. I want to stay here. This organization, this city shaped me as a player. My main goal is to stay here."

[Justin Martinez @Justintohoops]

Mark Daigneault on being the fourth-longest tenured head coach in the NBA:

"My first thing is gratitude for everybody. Gratitude for Sam (Presti), obviously. Gratitude for all the people I get to work with. The people that do the heavy lifting, who put the wind at my back and everybody's backs with the work they do behind the scenes in the organization. Gratitude for the players and the team I've had the privilege of coaching. There's no team I'd rather be coaching. I'd rather wake up today eliminated from the playoffs coaching this team than any other team. It's not necessarily what we do, but it's how we go about it. And I don't take that for granted one day."

[OKC THUNDER @okcthunder]

Progress to appreciate and motivation to carry forward as a team

[Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar]

SGA on not having Jalen Williams: "Not having Dub for the whole year basically sucked. He's such a unicorn out there. He's a 20 point per game scorer, guards 1-5. Last season he got All NBA for offense, All NBA for defense and was an All Star. At 24 years old. Losing a guy like that hurts. Having a swiss army knife like that.. is a luxury.. and we didn't have that luxury this year."