Before I start this article, I have some people to thank:

First of all, THANK YOU to the Bloguin community (or, as second round reach likes to call it, crime family). They were probably the big reason I won. I know that Mookie, who runs A Stern Warning, somehow voted for me 17,003 times. I talked to the Thunder Lady (Regan Lynn) who helped us out with the contest on Monday, and there were 18,000 votes cast. By the end of Tuesday Night, there were over 38,000 votes cast. That's all I'm gonna say. Big Thanks to Kyle at Rushing to Judgement, Josh at 3 Shades of Blue, Sheed at Bust-A-Bucket, Chad from a mysterious blog, Tecmo from PSAMP, Derek Hanson (the creator of Bloguin), Sonia from Twolves Blog, Erik from Points in the Paint, Romy from Hoop Heads North and College Wolf from Twolves Blog for voting for me. An even bigger thanks goes out to Don at With Malice, Mookie at a Stern Warning, and Brendan K. at Second round Reach for actually telling their readers to vote for me. It really is appreciated.

Second of all, THANK YOU to the Online Thunder fan community. Royce at Daily Thunder actually put out his vote towards me publicly in the Thunder Bolts, and that was a really nice gesture. I'm sure there were also some forum members from OKC Thunder Fans who voted for me, but I really don't know who specifically....it's appreciated just the same!

Third of all, THANK YOU to the Golden State of Mind Community. I've been commenting at that site for a litte over 3 years, and it was a touching gesture for them to reach across team lines to vote for me. Specifically, I'd like to thank IQofaWarrior, OlympicMike, Saintdee, Golden Boy, Disguy, and Misterho for voting for me. Also thnaks toh those who voted who I didn't mention!

Fourth of all, THANK YOU to all of my Sim League friends. Firstly, the guys at DJSL, a league I'm pretty new in, went all out in an effort to vote for me. Secondly, the guys at ABA vs. NBA, who put in a solid effort. And, last but not least, my brothers at EBL. I don't think the members want their AIM addresses given out publicly, and I can't refer to them as things like "Spurs GM" because it's meaningless to anyone outside of the league, so I'll just rest assured in that you guys know who you are. Thank you.

Fifth of all, THANK YOU to all of my friends from school (Classen School of Advanced Studies) and on Facebook. I'm sure they don't want their names given out publicly either, so, again, I'll just rest assured in that they know who they are. Thank you.

Sixth of all, THANK YOU to my family and my moms work associates (most of whom work at the OU Health Sciences Center)! My mom sent out a large chain mail to all of the relatives and work associates, and it was a rousing success. Thank you!

Seventh of all, THANK YOU to Eric Roth and Regan Lynn who organized this whole thing. They did a great job of making us feel welcome and organizing great events for everybody to enjoy.

Eighth of all, THANK YOU to all of the other Ultimate Thunder Fans. Lady Blue, Brick Man, Mullet Man, Thundor, Thunderhead, Samster the Thunder Hamster, Nauzi the Thunder Princess, and Thunder Man. They all dress up in wacky costumes, but they're all very personable people and awesome to hang out with. I didn't get negative vibes from a single one of them the entire time. An extra special thanks goes out to Thunder Man, who's extremely dedicated to his cause. He spent nights without sleep before the game only to be knocked out in the first round. That's hard to take, and I really do hope he keeps his head up.

Ninth of all, THANK YOU to the fans in the arena. I'm really surprised they were as accepting of me as they were, and even cheered me on. Shoutout to the Serbian guys and gals who sit next to me every game, and the guy who sits behind me. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, of all, THANK YOU to the Oklahoma City Thunder. To put it in short: It couldn't of happened without you.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, it's time to get to the actual story. It will seem kind of like a blog, and I apologise for that, but I want to give a window into the experience.

My day started with, of all things, mini-golf. There's no way to wind down your anticipation like a game of mini-golf. I played with my co-blogger, Ben, and he got some insanely lucky shots while I got all of the bad luck. I hoped it wouldn't affect the rest of the night....

I got to the Ford Center at around 4:50 (when I was supposed to be there at 4:45) and got in the door just in time to not miss anything. I got a press pass (non-locker room :-(), and was able to go down into the guts of the Ford Center. We were lead to some close-to-the-floor seats, and they showed us how our introduction would be. We then were told that we couldn't do the flag running because we had no time to practice, which was sad. They then sent us up to the concourse.

In the concourse, there was an autograph station. We were instructed to start writing out our autographs on posters to give to the fans. I looked at them and noticed that they read (Limited Edition: Number XX out of 1500). I then looked at the HUUUUGE stack of autographs we had to sign. It started out with everybody putting really pretty signatures on the posters, but it devolved into most of them putting scribbles, with me, Thunder Man, and Lady Blue being the only ones to really continue down the foolish path of good signatures. We were at the end of the table, so we created a huge queue of posters that the other ultimate fans were just burning through. My signature was the hardest, as I wrote ZORGON (in all caps, non-cursive) with four exclamation points. (Why four? I don't know, it's an OCD thing.) It basically resulted in people who just joined the people queue for mugs having to wait for me to write out my extreme signature. In retrospect, I should feel bad about it, but I think those few who actually cared about their posters will appreciate what I did. We left a few minutes after 7:00, leaving lots of partially finished posters behind.

We were organized into two groups: Zorgon (Me), Thunder Man, Mullet Man, and Thunderhead who sat in Section 116, and Samster the Thunder Hamster, Brick Man, Thundor, Lady Blue, and Nauzi the Thunder Princess who sat in section 106. We were told the unveiling of the Final Four would be during the second quarter, and I was pretty nervous. The game went by pretty well, with me and Thudner Man holding up the major cheering for the most part. It started off well, with the Thunder maintaining a consistent lead through the second.

Then came the unveiling. We sat there as our names were on the screen, to some small applauses. Then the names came in. Princess. Thunderhead. Lady Blue. And then, last, on the left....Zorgon!!!! I literally almost fainted. I knocked over two chairs and flailed my body around to celebrate. I expected the win, but there's still nothing like getting into the final four. I then noticed Thunder Man, next to me, was really down, so my humility took over, and I reassured him. Nonetheless, after the half was over, it was game time. The Thunder still had the lead, so moods were high.

I went to the service elevator (more like a room elevator), and went down to the depths of the arena. We were lead to one of the entrances of the arena, where we had to watch the game until the fourth quarter. We were all crammed into a tight space, so it was difficult to see and relax, but time went by like nothing. Before I knew it, it was the end of the 3rd and the Thunder were losing. I hardly blinked. Needless to say, while I was waiting, I was extremely nervous. I've been on the floor before, but not on the floor....in front of 19,000+ fans. If I talked to someone or relaxed, I could stay steady. But, if I started thinking about what I was about to do, I started breathing in and out really fast, my legs would start to buckle under me, and my brain would shut down. Now, one may think that I'm lieing, because I'm probably the last person you'd expect to get stage fright, but, again, this is 19,000 people. And they're going to be focused....on YOU. You're not the sideshow that half the arena yawns at, you're the thing on the floor that everyone focuses on and cheers for. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Then, the moment came. We were ran out onto the floor. And....from that point it's really hard to remember what went on. It's like a complete blur. I didn't feel anything in my body....I was running completely off of adrenaline. I never tired, and what I did was completely on a whim. But, to the best of my knowledge....I ran out on the floor. They did the intro to everything, and I was mocking/enouragine everything they were saying with wierd gestures and hand symbols. I have no idea how the crowd reacted to it, it was pretty wierd. They introduced Nauzi, the tuhnder Princess. Some people cheered. Then, Thunderhead. Everyone cheered. Then, Lady Blue. Few Cheered. (Sorry! Very nice person though!) Then, I was introduced. I have no idea how many cheered, as I was jumping around and trying to throw my entire being into cheering myself to victory. Then the arena emcee (whom I met earlier) said something to the extent of, "The fans have spoken! Thunderhead and Zorgon have been sent to the final 2!" Lady Blue and Princess left, but I didn't notice. My heartrate went to about 1000X a second. Then, the emcee reintroduced us for cheers. Thunderhead was introduced, and the whole arena screamed. I was introduced, and, again, I had no idea how I did, but I had a feeling that I was losing. Still, I put every single ounce of effort I  possibly could into dancing (or, as some would call it, "Wildly Flailing"). Then the emcee said, "The fans have spoken: Thunderhead Wins!" I was in complete disbelief, and I just fell to the ground. My legs had lost all strength. I lost in the finale....wow, just wow. Then, my sensible side grabbed a hold of me, as I realised that they probably wouldn't want me lieing on the basketball court, so I stood up.

Then, Eric Roth whispered to the emcee. He said, "Are you sure?", and I presume Eric nodded. The emcee then said, "Love's loves you both, you're both going to Boston!" The event might have been rehearsed, but I didn't care. I gave the emcee a big bear hug. Then, Rumble wanted to to a chest bump thing with me, but I wanted a hug, so he almost stumbled over as I hugged him and he chest bumped me. Then, as far as I know, I ran off the court.

Here's pirated video of the event. (Sorry about the horrible quality, but my computer is being horribly slwo in uploading. I'll get bettter quality tomorrow.)

After that, it was a whirlwind. Getting congratulated, and filling out forms saying I recieved my prize (I haven't, I have to go get it tomorrow), and stuff like that. All of the Ultimate Fans were then called out to throw T-Shirts. I wanted to throw them, but I was relegated to loading the cannon (it's a small price to pay) and I got people hyped up. I'm told it was about two minutes, but it felt like 3 seconds. On the floor, then off of the floor.

Here's pirated video of the T-Shirt Toss.

After that, it was pretty much over. I watched the game with Thunderhead (the other winner and the REAL winner) from the guts of the arena. The Thunder ended up losing, and I was dissapointed we didn't have a 5 game home winning streak, but, and I mean this in the best possible way, it was the best loss of my life for the Thunder and for me. Just....an amazing experience.

As I left the Arena, I got a few picture requests that I obliged, and a few congratulations. Thunder Head was more well-liked, but I think I can deal with that. After all, I didn't really make a great costume like he did. I walked the streets of Bricktown in sheer amazement at the fact that we're going to get to go to Boston, and amazement at what had just taken place. If somebody had told me that this was going to happen to me as a kid, I think I would have fainted.

But, right about when I reached my car (parked at Bass Pro), there was one final event. A car was waiting in line for the stoplight on the road, and the passengers delightfully told me, "You suck!". I shouted back "Thanks!" but I doubt they heard me. After all, you can't please everyone in life, and I'm glad that there are haters out there.

As Winston Churchill would say:

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

And now, as Dr. Frasier Crane would say:

"Good day, and good mental health."

Let's tear the TD Banknorth Garden a new one.

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