OKC Thunder superfan Jeremy Price details wild 24 hours after Luka Doncic's ejection

[ASFN Admin]

You must be registered for see images attach

In a single gesture from JT Orr, an uppercase 'T' created by his hands turned Jeremy Price from an OKC fandom lore figure into a household name overnight.

The Oklahoma City Thunder's 136-120 win over the Los Angeles Lakers became an afterthought. What should've been covered as a revenge victory for the West's top seed turned into the subheader. The headline was about Luka Doncic's ejection.

After Doncic drilled a pull-up jumper, his misinterpreted conversation with Thunder superfan Price resulted in a second technical foul. He previously picked one up in the third quarter. Despite pleading with the referees, he left the court with under eight minutes left as the OKC crowd egged him on.

The Lakers held a 108-107 lead in the fourth quarter when Doncic was ejected. After that, the Thunder went on a 13-4 run over the next three minutes to put this one away. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put in the final touches of his probable MVP campaign with 43 points.

Price's section keeps their trash-talking PG-friendly. He prides himself on never crossing a line. The superfan strategizes his ongoing conversations with Doncic to antagonize him. The results have been mixed. Sure, he might have had individual subpar games, but his team always seems to get a win in OKC.

"We all know how passionate Luka is on the court. Challenging calls or chirping back with folks," Price told Thunder Wire. "We do polite heckling from our section anyway. He was at the free-throw line and missed one. We just kinda intensified. I think he took that as motivation."

After the game, Price went viral. ESPN's Dave McMenamin put on his investigative journalism hat and interviewed him for his side of the story. The self-appointed "Courtside Tattoo Dude" has roamed the sidelines for years. He's become a niche celebrity and has grown on social media over the last two seasons as the Thunder became a title contender.

Featured in McMenamin's story, Price's popularity multiplied tenfold. That happens when you're the co-star of the NBA's viral moment of the night that featured the Lakers, LeBron and Luka — all three with cultish followings that combined out-populate most countries in the world.

After the result, Doncic's ejection dominated news cycles for roughly 24 hours. That's about the lifespan of most stories anyway, thanks to technology and the internet tempo-ing up the pace like prime Russell Westbrook in a fastbreak situation. By Wednesday afternoon, everybody had turned their attention to his return to Dallas.

The controversial ejection warranted a Pool Report. Crew Chief Tony Brothers unsurprisingly backed up Orr. The next day though, the NBA disagreed as it rescinded Doncic's second technical foul. Despite that, Price tasted national notoriety for 24 hours.

NBA Radio asked Price to hop on a call to break down his point of view on Doncic's ejection. Various communications departments blew up his phone's notifications. He didn't even dare to fall into the trap of reading every comment and message his X and TikTok pages had but understood the gist of it.

"A lot of hate from LA," Price said. "Folks telling me I messed up their parlays and that I got him ejected. I personally didn't. JT was the one that actually did... There were Oklahoma fans, Lakers fans, I even had Golden State Warriors fans going, 'Good job!' It's all over multitudes flooded between Insta, Twitter and TikTok. They were slammed."

This isn't the first time Doncic has brewed up a rivalry with Thunder fans. After all, he got at it with another courtside fan Juan Guerra II during OKC's second-round exit in last year's playoffs. The 26-year-old is almost as known for his on-court brilliance as his off-court antics. For Price, he's all for it still — even after what happened.

"We're motivated by cheering on our team. If we can have some people miss free throws or get distracted from their shots, that's what motivates us," Price said. "We're trying to help the team. It's not specifically at Luka. It's any team that's in there."

Considering how close the game was until Doncic was ejected, perhaps Price is right. If they can cause a player to miss a free throw or jumper, that could be the difference between a win or loss — especially if the Lakers return to OKC this season. If that happens, it'll likely be in the Western Conference Finals. The Thunder are locked at the first seed and the Lakers are basically locked at the third seed.

Considering how these two games went, everybody in the NBA would love for that to materialize. It'd go down as a classic playoff series where the Thunder try to slay their demon from last year in Doncic — but with a more experienced and better squad. Price will continue to do what he can from the sidelines.

"I think in warmups, I'd ask Luka for a hug," Price joked.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Thunder fan Jeremy Price details aftermath of Luka Doncic's ejection

Continue reading...