OKC Mayor David Holt discusses community excitement for NBA Finals

It is an exciting time for Oklahoma City as we welcome thousands of people from around the world for the NBA finals.

The last time the Thunder were in the finals was back in 2012, and since then, our city has developed quite a bit.

Joining the News 9 team to talk about all that's changed over the past 13 years is Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

Q: How long have we been waiting for this day to get here? 

A: On one hand, 13 years, I suppose. On the other hand, you know, a few months or years as we saw this particular team, this particular iteration of the team rise. On another hand, I don't know, 130 years. I mean, come into Finals and have this level of confidence that we have, that's one thing, even in our past iteration of this team, where we were competing for championships, we were never the favorite. When we went to the Finals, we had to go up against LeBron. We thought we had the Warriors in 2016. I mean, we were still talking about going against the 73-9 Warriors. I mean, this is the time. This is the first time that we've ascended to this level of the playoffs. We're like, "Hey, we can actually do it." Understand that we're not counting our chickens, but I mean we've got confidence, we've got optimism, and obviously we've got a level of excitement that's off the charts. 

Q: How proud are you of how the city looks for those who have never been here?

A: Of course, it's the people who are here, but also it's the images that many of those people are showing. You have a lot of colleagues in town this week. You know, there are hundreds of members of the media from all around the world, so yes, I'm very proud and hopeful that you know billions of people around the world will see at least a snippet of what OKC represents. So much has changed even since 2012, as you said in your opener. Just to see an image of downtown taken from I-40 13 years apart would reveal a completely different city. Even the interstate in a different place. It's a totally different city, it's a city, obviously, that we're very proud of, and we do have this opportunity to show it off. They will actually remove a whole section of seats in the arena just for the media. When people go in tonight, they'll look up and go, "Oh, that's weird," and there'll be all these tables and all the media. Just in the last 24 hours, my head spins, I'm already losing track, but I've because I've done so many interviews. I've done interviews with Italy and UK, and Canada, of course, because they're very excited about it. It's wild, just an amazing opportunity. We'll capitalize on that exposure and that brand building for years to come. That's not just a two-week thing. This will give us credibility and open doors for a long time.

Q: You must have felt pretty confident when you placed a wager with Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett. What is on the line here?

A: Lately, mayors and governors have been throwing food back and forth between each other, but I give him a little credit. He was more of the experiential type of wager. If the Thunder win, I'm going to Indianapolis and I'm going to take a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I'm going to go to a Fever game, of course, Caitlin Clark is the star of their WNBA team, and we're going to get a steak and shrimp cocktail at Saint Elmo's, which I've never been, but I'm told that's kind of famous. In the highly unlikely scenario that the Pacers win, he will come to Oklahoma City and I will take him down our Olympic Riversport Rapids. I'll take him, we'll obviously have to do this year from now, take him to the Women's College World Series, and we will go get a steak at Cattlemen's, just because that's so iconic. So that's the wager, it's an experiential wager.

Q: One thing that's just been so neat to see, just driving to downtown to see the landscape. It just all came together in such a unique way. 

A: It's as we've been saying for 17 years, our first team, our only team, the community just rallies around it. We just had never had anything like that before. We love sports, but it's often been described as choose one or the other; we're OU and OSU, we're never united. Neither of those schools are technically in the city, so to have this brand that says Oklahoma City on the jersey that everybody can cheer for, it just rallies everybody. Everybody wants to be a part of it, and I've been saying for months because his team's been playing well for a really long time, don't miss a moment of this. I think people have listened. I think everybody is locked in on this. I don't think there'll be a high level of productivity in the next 10 days.