Oklahoma
Newspaper Deletes Column Comparing the Oklahoma City Thunder to Israel
Screenshot via The Oklahoman on X.
It would be reasonable to expect The Oklahoman, a daily newspaper headquartered in Oklahoma City, to cover the Oklahoma City Thunder’s quest for a repeat NBA championship. A now-deleted op-ed comparing the basketball team to Israel was a bit more surprising.
The Thunder won their first NBA title in 2025 since the team was sold, relocated from Seattle, and renamed, and are currently battling the San Antonio Spurs for the Western Conference title. (The Thunder lost Game 1 shortly before publication.)
On Monday, the Thunder’s hometown paper published a “curious comparison” between the team and the state of Israel in an op-ed written by guest columnist Eitan Reshef, reported Sean Keeley at Awful Announcing.
“Always find the local angle, we suppose,” wrote Keeley.
According to Keeley’s report and screenshots he shared, the op-ed was headlined, “Like Thunder, Israel is an underdog that has become hated” and shared with an image of a basketball bearing the design of the Israeli flag, white with blue stripes and a Star of David.
Screenshot via X.
“The op-ed went viral on social media and not, perhaps, in the way the author intended (or maybe exactly how the author intended, who knows),” Keeley added. “It was pulled down from The Oklahoman’s website shortly thereafter.”
The link to the op-ed on The Oklahoman’s website now has a 404 “page not found” error, and the Internet Archive did not manage to capture it before it was deleted, but several websites that syndicate the newspaper’s content still have it live, including MSN.
The Oklahoman did not comment on Reshef’s column or why it was deleted.
According to the op-ed as it was syndicated at MSN.com, Reshef, the author, is “a native Oklahoman and “a Chicago-based entrepreneur, investor and former advertising agency CEO.”
“As both a fiercely proud Oklahoman and a Jew,” wrote Reshef, “the parallels between the Thunder and the nation of Israel are difficult to ignore. Neither was supposed to become what it is.”
Reshef goes on to argue he has found “something strangely familiar abrew between the online keyboard warriors and the voices of punditry as they respond to the continued dominance of the Oklahoma City Thunder,” noting the team’s newbie status in the NBA and the resentment that the young team’s sudden success had invoked.
“The greater the Thunder’s success becomes, the more critics seem determined to diminish it or even root for its demise,” Reshef wrote, pointing out that Oklahoma City was “one of the NBA’s smallest markets,” but “built something remarkable anyway…by relying on the resources and skills we had with discipline and our own brand of resilience.”
“Israel’s story shares many of those attributes — a young, microscopic nation limited in natural resources, surrounded by hostility, perpetually under scrutiny, and constantly forced to justify its actions and existence,” he continued. “Israel nonetheless transformed itself into a global powerhouse of innovation, technology, defense, medicine and agriculture.”
Israel, the Thunder, “and even Oklahoma City” have “risen out of the ashes of a traumatic past despite all odds,” Reshef wrote, an apparent reference to the Oklahoma City bombing, and concluded by comparing the team and the country’s critics:
When dynasties emerge in sports, fanbases often cry ‘foul’ questioning the legitimacy of success. The more competent and victorious the organization becomes, the more emotionally invested outsiders hope for its failure. We are witnessing that now with the Thunder. They are young, composed, and incredibly well-managed. Instead of praising the blueprint, many fans react with disdain, espousing conspiracy theories amplified by social media.
Israel experiences a similar phenomenon on a far more consequential stage. Of course, criticism of governments and their policies is fair game. But the hyper-fixation on Israel often transcends normal criticism into deeper and darker discomfort with Jewish strength, sovereignty, and achievements. When Israel thrives across a spectrum of global stages, many observers convert healthy criticism into rabid animosity.
That reaction says less about Israel or the Thunder than it does about our human nature.
We are comfortable with underdogs. What unsettles us is when underdogs stop behaving like victims and consistently triumph. The world loves stories of perseverance until it produces an uncompromising might. Then admiration mutates into skepticism and distrust.
The Thunder are not hated because they somehow gamed the system. They are hated because they mastered it. Israel is not obsessively scrutinized because it failed, but due to its success despite deeply-rooted envy and darker historical motives.
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Kamden Mantooth caps wild week by leading Mustang to 6A baseball title
It was a wild week for Kamden Mantooth, who helped Mustang beat Edmond Santa Fe 5-4 for the 6A baseball title. After being forced to sit in the semifinals due to an ejection in the quarterfinals, he pitched 5 2/3 innings Saturday.
Joe Patterson was hoping it would be different this time.
The Mustang baseball coach is no stranger to state championship games.
But as Mustang headed into its Class 6A title matchup against Edmond Santa Fe in May, a state championship victory remained a goal that hadn’t been fulfilled for Patterson as a player or head coach.
“That was all together — playing and coaching — my (sixth) state championship game, and I was 0-5,” Patterson said.
Patterson can now revise that record to 1-5 as the Broncos beat defending champion Edmond Santa Fe 5-4 at ONEOK Field in Tulsa.
An unforgettable day for Patterson.
An unforgettable season.
After leading Mustang to its third title and a 39-6 record while playing a brutally difficult schedule, Patterson is The Oklahoman’s 2026 All-State Coach of the Year.
“It was one of those years where it felt like I wasn’t working the whole year,” Patterson said. “Just a special group and everybody involved did such an amazing job and the players got along and the senior leadership was just unbelievable.”
A year after going 19-16 and falling at regionals, this season was vastly different for Patterson as Mustang dominated from beginning to end.
The Broncos won 11 of their first 12 games and ended the season the exact same way, claiming victories in 11 of their last 12 matchups.
They thrived in tight games, going 12-3 in matchups decided by two or fewer runs.
“We lost a bunch of close games last year,” Patterson said. “We didn’t have as great a season as we wanted, so we talked about trying to change the team morale and change the culture just a little bit in the fall, and we really focused on that. Just trying to make the place a more positive place for the kids and emphasize them having a little bit more fun but still working.”
Born and raised in Duncan, Patterson’s love of baseball and sports in general go back to those days.
His dad, Bill, was Duncan’s head football coach from 1997-2003 before accepting an assistant position at Owasso and serving as the Rams’ head coach from 2007-2016.
A standout in football and baseball in high school, Joe Patterson was at Duncan as a freshman and sophomore before spending his final two years at Owasso and then playing college baseball from 2007-2010. He went to Oral Roberts for one year, Seminole State for a season and Texas A&M for his final two.
Patterson was named the national junior college player of the year at Seminole State and had a successful stint at Texas A&M, hitting .362 with 21 homers and 100 RBIs with the Aggies.
He’s been at Mustang since the summer of 2019 after coaching at Westmoore.
Former OU shortstop Brandon Zaragoza played for Patterson during his senior year at Westmoore and was a Mustang assistant for the last four seasons before recently being named Westmoore’s new head coach.
Patterson has had a huge impact on Zaragoza, who will take what he’s learned from his former coach into his new gig.
“He just brought pure joy to the game for me, especially with just his ability to, one, obviously coach the game, but two, to allow his players to go out there and perform,” Zaragoza said. “The coolest thing about Pat was his ability to just pick up on player knowledge. Just kind of knowing what he has in terms of personnel and then of course his ability to just game plan, strategize, just get his guys ready to play.”
Patterson always wanted to coach at a one-high school town like Mustang.
He has his wish now, and Zaragoza says it’s a well-oiled machine.
“That’s kind of how I describe it a lot to people,” Zaragoza said. “Just a well-oiled machine in terms of just the coaches that are over there and the attention to detail and the preparation. There’s no loose ends at Mustang. And given how big the school is, you can always get kind of lost in personnel or all that stuff, but just the way that Mustang operates, it’s top tier.”
Mustang didn’t necessarily have big names this season like some teams in the state, but the Broncos had several guys who shined.
Outfielder and Northern Oklahoma College-Enid signee Nate Sutton hit .449 with 15 homers and 70 RBIs.
Fellow senior Kamden Mantooth was second on the team with a .442 batting average. A shortstop, Mantooth started at pitcher in the title game and held Edmond Santa Fe to eight hits and four runs — three earned — over 5 2/3 innings.
“It means everything for us,” Mantooth said after the championship win. “We’ve been working for this since we were in seventh grade. We’ve been working for this, and we finally achieved our goal that we wanted.”
For Patterson, it’ll forever be a special moment as he had his 6-year-old son with him in the dugout and his dad watching from the stands.
Patterson had lost two title games as a player at Owasso and three as a head coach — two at Westmoore and one at Mustang.
The outcome was different this time, and it was well worth the wait.
“It was just a feeling of relief and happiness,” Patterson said.
Nick Sardis covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Nick? He can be reached at nsardis@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @nicksardis. Sign up for The Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Nick’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
Crews responded to a fireworks stand after it caught fire in Broken Arrow Saturday night.
Authorities urged people to avoid E. Kanosha Street near S. 236th E. Avenue as the road is closed and fireworks could spread in the area due to the fire.
Broken Arrow Fire Department released a statement confirming no injuries were sustained as a result of the explosions or fire.
Fire crews quickly controlled the fire in about 20 minutes according to Broken Arrow Fire Department.
The initial cause of the fire is under investigation.
Viewer Leslie Maxey, who lives close to the fireworks stand, sent in video of the ongoing fire.
“We were putting our daughter to bed with a book when we heard an explosion that was gradually getting louder and louder,” Maxey said.
This is a developing story.
What you need to know about Oklahoma ahead of the College World Series
North Carolina will face a dangerous Oklahoma team that is on a roll.
Oklahoma (41-22) has been just as dominant. The Sooners, making their 13th College World Series appearance and first since 2022, surged through the postseason as road warriors. They won the Atlanta Regional by upsetting No. 2 seed and ACC champion Georgia Tech in the final, then swept Big 12 champion and No. 15 seed Kansas by a combined score of 21-3 in the Lawrence Regional.
The Sooners, who are 3-0 in Omaha after beating No. 7 seed Alabama and knocking off No. 3 seed and SEC champion Georgia twice, are seeking their third national championship. Oklahoma won titles in 1951 and 1994 and finished as runner-up to Ole Miss in 2022.
Here are a few things to know about Oklahoma:
Best player: Catcher Deiten LaChance
LaChance is Oklahoma’s most powerful hitter. He is batting .333 with 12 doubles, two triples and team highs of 16 home runs and 65 RBIs.
Throughout the postseason, he is hitting .326 with four home runs and 15 RBIs. In Omaha, he is 5-for-14 (.357) with one home run and five RBIs.
Strengths
Like North Carolina, Oklahoma is a balanced team that is good at a little bit of everything and is built to frustrate opponents.
Oklahoma is a balanced hitting team like UNC, but the Sooners have hit a few more homers with 91, compared to the Tar Heels’ 82. That is largely due to the Sooners smashing 26 home runs in their 10 postseason games. In Omaha, OU has homered eight times, including five homers in its win over Georgia in its previous game.
The Sooners have stolen 129 bases this season. That is good for 24th nationally and second in the SEC.
Pitching-wise, OU is 18th nationally in strikeouts per nine innings and leads the SEC in shutouts.
Weaknesses
The most glaring weakness is the pitching staff, despite its ability to strike out opposing batters and record shutouts.
The Sooners have a 4.98 ERA as a staff. Only one pitcher with 10 or more appearances has an ERA under 3.60.
They also allow 4.51 walks per nine innings, which ranks 138th nationally.
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