OKLAHOMA CITY – Wilson Taylor was just a kid with an NBA dream when his part in this whole Oklahoma City Thunder story began.
And it all started some 2,000 miles away in Seattle during the summer of 2007.
Before Russell Westbrook had even been drafted, or general manager Sam Presti had been hired, or the team had moved to the middle of the country a year later and become such a beloved addition to this small town community, Taylor was the 23-year-old from McAlester, Okla. who wanted so badly to put down roots. He was halfway through the master’s program at Oklahoma State when he landed the internship of his dreams, a foot-in-the-door job that would later lead to full-time work doing everything from scouting to video production to equipment duties.
Nine years later, through all those Kevin Durant years and the brutal injuries and the roller coaster ride with such glorious highs and painful lows, the equipment manager whose best friends just happen to be the Thunder’s superstars knows more than anyone how badly they want to shock the basketball world on Monday night. Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against the defending champion Golden State Warriors is standing in between the Thunder and their storybook ending.
“More than anything. I just feel like this is kind of like destiny,” Taylor, whose title is manager of team operations, told USA TODAY Sports. “We’ve gone through a lot, and everything has built up to this … For KD, and for Russ, and for Nick (Collison), I want it more for them. I know how much it would mean to them. I know how hard they work, so I’d almost be happier for them than for myself.”
This Thunder tale has been equal parts triumph and tragedy. The rise was sudden and startling, Durant and Westbrook leading a furious charge to the 2012 Finals only to fall to LeBron James’ Miami Heat once they got there. It seemed like they’d be charging for the mountaintop every June, but then came the relentless rash of injuries that changed everything.
The Westbrook meniscus tear in the first round of the playoffs in 2013. The Serge Ibaka calf injury a year later that kept him out of the first two games of a Western Conference Finals loss against the San Antonio Spurs. The Kevin Durant foot injury that kept the Thunder out of last year’s playoffs. And more – so much more.
Taylor, whose bearded, boyish face can so often be seen during game telecasts as he high-fives Thunder players during timeouts, recalls every obstacle that he wishes he could forget. For four years now, he has handled every home game and traveled to every road game – a front row seat to one of the league’s most compelling shows.
“The (Westbrook broken) hand (in Oct. 2014), the (Westbrook face fracture and) jaw (in March 2015),” Taylor says, adding a few more examples of Thunder hardship. “Everything we’ve been through, how close we are, how close we’ve come in the past … Each time, it’d be rock bottom. But then I was confident in these guys’ work ethic and the organization so I knew we’d be back. I knew we’d be back. We’ll be fine.”
When it comes to the relationship between an equipment manager and a team’s players, it’s not uncommon for friendship to be part of the formula. The very nature of the job is to act as a support system for players, providing everything they need to be comfortable and successful while doing so in the kind of organized fashion that makes it all reliable and routine. But this is different, in large part because of the timing.
Taylor and Durant arrived, in essence, at the same time. The skinny kid from the University of Texas was the Seattle SuperSonics’ post-Ray Allen star of the future, but that 20-62 record in his rookie season made it clear he couldn’t do it alone.
Collison was the resident greeter, a fourth-year forward at the time who would eventually take on the role of elder statesman of this Thunder core. Westbrook, the hard-driving point guard from UCLA who would take their program to the next level, arrived in June of 2008 by way of the fourth overall pick. Over time, Taylor would grow close with them all.
Yet of all the memories they’ve made together, the moments on and off the court that have created such a cool dynamic, there’s one that stands above the rest in Taylor’s mind: March 14 of this year, the day his Thunder pals gave him away to his longtime love, Felicia Hudak.
She knew a proposal was likely coming, so Taylor needed to up the ante when it came to creativity. So as they sat in a Milwaukee steakhouse on the night of March 5, Taylor and the Thunder players reconnecting their former teammate and current Bucks guard Steve Novak, the ideas started to flow.
“Six or seven guys went to this steakhouse, and (Novak) had a private room for us, and KD and I were kind of off to the side,” Taylor remembers. “He was like, ‘I know this (proposal) is coming up. What are you thinking? Have you talked to Russ and Nick?’ So I told him I’d been thinking about this whole scavenger hunt thing.”
Durant approved.
“He’s like, ‘Let’s do this,’” Taylor said. “And Nick and Russ were the same way. Right from the jump, they were like, ‘Let’s do this together.’”
The eventual plan was as elaborate as a Thunder road trip manifest: Six stops, each with its own special meaning and Thunder players at almost every one. Felicia was no stranger to the Thunder players, most notably from all those times late at night at the team’s practice facility when the young couple would shoot around just for fun. Yet still, it wasn’t every day that she ran into them like this.
A mid-day massage with her friend, Stacy, in which she received a letter explaining the day’s journey. The limo driver who provided the first clue, then took her to an afternoon nail appointment with her mother. The second clue from Mom, then the ride to the restaurant where they first met, Saturn Grill, and a third clue.
The trip to the Thunder’s practice facility, where a challenge, and Westbrook, awaited: make two free throws, and receive the fourth clue. Sounds easy enough, sure, but the inside joke is that even DeAndre Jordan could beat Felicia at a shooting contest. Then it was off to the Empire Slice House, where they first kissed at Collison’s Halloween party and where, fittingly, Collison would play the next part.
“I was sitting at the bar by myself waiting for her, and (Taylor) texted me that she was going way faster than he thought so I had to stall for like 30 minutes,” Collison remembers. “So I just sat there and talked to her. We had a couple beers. I know her pretty well, but she was kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I was like, ‘No, let’s just keep talking.’”
The grand finale was at the Gaylord Pickens Oklahoma Hall of Fame museum, where Durant waited on the side of the building for the pivotal last handoff.
“Positioning is key because I do not want her to see all of the cars in the back lot,” Taylor wrote on the two-page itinerary.
In the end, with Durant providing the final assist while wearing a backwards baseball cap and sunglasses and 12 Thunder players there to celebrate, their execution was flawless. And the answer, thankfully, was ‘yes.’
“She was completely blown away – like completely blown away,” Taylor said.
If the Thunder fall Monday, nothing changes about these relationships. But Taylor, who will be there to play his part as always amid the Oracle Arena madness, wants this like he wanted that chance at an NBA life so many years ago. Better yet, he wants it more for them than himself.
“It’s the way they carry themselves,” Taylor said. “I don’t know other superstars, but these guys are first in the gym every day, and they’re just top notch guys. I consider them my best friends, and I want the best for my best friends, not just for myself. That’s how I look at it. Those three guys (Durant, Westbrook, and Collison) are some of my best friends, and with what they put into it, I just feel like they deserve to be champions.”
