Pat Presents: A New Thunder Tradition
On Wednesday night, Thunder forward Patrick Patterson hosted an exclusive movie night with a select group of lucky Thunder fans. As part of a season-long series called “Pat Presents,” Patterson will be inviting fans to see new movies with him in theaters.
Patterson started Pat Presents when he played for the Toronto Raptors, and it’s a rare opportunity for fans to interact with the players off the court. For his first movie night, Patterson invited 28 Thunder fans and their guests to a pre-screening of “Daddy’s Home 2” at Harkins Theater in Downtown OKC. I was lucky enough to score one of these invites and here’s how it went down:
1. Getting Invited
On October 26th (via his Instagram and Twitter), Patterson asked Thunder fans to submit a video or Instagram post demonstrating their Thunder spirit with the hashtag #PatPresents. Luckily, Patterson is on my fantasy basketball team so I was already following him and submitted my post right away.
Here was my Instagram post:
On October 31st, Patterson announced the 28 lucky winners and sent us all a DM with the details. Casual.
We each received an email confirming our attendance and the rules for the event:
- Please do not take any photos/videos while the movie is showing.
- Please do not ask for any photos/autographs from Pat or any of his teammates while inside the theatre. Pat will be signing/taking photos AFTER the movie.
- Please note that only Pat is committing to signing autographs/taking photos
After reading the email, I spent several minutes fantasizing about what “or any of his teammates” meant and convinced myself that I was probably going to meet Russ. (Spoiler alert: I did not.)
2. The Movie
By luck, we arrived at the movie theater at the same time as Pat. I talked to him for a short minute and my immediate impression was that he’s exceptionally nice and even taller in person.
Inside the theater, there were two rows reserved for Thunder players, but only one other player came. About 15 minutes into the movie, a man wearing a hoodie came in and sat in the reserved Thunder seats. It was not Hoodie Melo, but rather Andre Roberson. I was pretty excited about this, especially after Dre’s big night versus the Bucks earlier this week.
3. After the Movie
After the movie, I went straight for Dre and asked for a selfie. Low-quality pic, but a high-quality guy:
Then, I got in line to take a picture with Pat and have him sign my jersey (previously signed by Nick Collison):
After taking a picture, fans only have a short moment to talk to Pat. I told him he was on my fantasy team (he seemed surprised) and thanked him for his two threes versus the Bucks (Is that tampering?).
Overall, it was a great time and diehard Thunder fans should jump at the next chance to get invited to Pat Presents. Big thanks to Pat for embracing his new city and hopefully this tradition will continue for many more seasons in Oklahoma City.
