USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
Sam says OKC players showed great maturity, professionalism and accountability in their end of season exit interviews.
"They had every reason to come in and blame injuries. That was a big story of our season...
Shai, Chet and Dub played 27 games together...
Not one guy raised that as an issue that they wanted to reflect on. Instead, they tipped their hat to their opponent..."
Our championship year has been the greatest year in our city’s history. Not just from the thrill of victory, but because our success on the basketball court became a prism through which the world viewed our city’s renaissance. Like never before, it was our year of arrival on the world stage. That new plateau doesn’t reset. We’ll build upon it from here.
On behalf of the people of Oklahoma City, thank you to the entire Thunder organization - the players, the coaches, the staff and the owners - for what you have given our city, and for what you will continue to give our city. Though this season didn’t end exactly the way we wanted, we know that we have years of basketball excellence ahead of us (much of which will be experienced in a new world-class arena).
The bond between this team and this city is unlike anything else in major league professional sports. Thunder Up Forever.
The San Antonio Spurs have defeated the OKC Thunder to advance to the NBA Finals.
The Spurs did America a great service by ensuring we do not have to watch the flopping and flailing Thunder anymore this season.