A Round of Applause...

Over the past couple of weeks you may have noticed my absence from the site. Those of you who are regular readers know that I've been on a bit of a vacation. I know, I know, what the hell am I doing taking a vacation during the week of the NBA Draft? Well to be honest I scheduled that vacation quite a bit in advance and wasn't even thinking about the draft or this blog when I booked my tickets (especially since the readership of this site was so small at the time). In any case it was the only week in June that I was able to take that vacation, so whether I wanted it to interfere with the Draft or not, it had to. Before I jump right back into posting, I wanted to take a quick moment or two and show some appreciation for what has gone on at the site during my vacation.

First off, I gotta thank dishingoutdimes, for not only taking on a more productive and regular role in my absence, but for the truly spectacular job of coverage he was able to produce leading up to the draft, as well as during the draft itself. His content, along with the NBA Draft itself helped to propel the site towards its greatest traffic / commenting week ever, which even lead to our very first overflow thread. Both were very impressive feats for such a young blog. It wasn't hard to see what I was missing out on the few times I had a second or two to check the site while I was out, and I hope everyone had a lot of fun with speculation discussions, as well as live draft commenting. As for me, I just couldn't justify taking too much time out from spending time with family that I haven't seen in over a decade to spend any amount of time jumping in on the action, especially considering how much fun we were all having the entire time. I highly doubt any of them are reading this blog, but if any of them are, thank you all so much for everything! But enough about my vacation (especially because I thank them all again at the bottom of this post), this is about thanking the guys who stepped up in my absence, and in this case, dishingoutdimes deserves a round of applause! Take the jump and see who else deserves your applause...

4D of course! Daddydai continues to plug away nearly each and everyday to find your daily links which keep you completely up to date on all things Thunder. When you have a regular daily series like our Loud Links, it becomes easy to take such a post for granted. I found that out first hand from checking the site every evening at 6pm CST looking for my daily Loud Links and found them missing a few times. The few times its happened, I thought to myself, wow, I don't say it enough, but 4D really does a tremendous job of compiling all the Thunder info on the net for us and placing it all in one great post. Of course its impossible for one man to keep this up for any length of time and not miss a day or two here or there, so I didn't bring that up to point out that he missed a day or two, but to point out just how reliant even I have become on Loud Links to satisfy my Thunder information needs. So to daddydai, thanks so much for your tremendous dedication and effort in bringing this very important post to us nearly each and everyday, and anytime you feel like you need a day or two off from them, just let me know and I'll do my best to try and meet the high standard you've established with Loud Links.

Next, thank you so much, yes you, the reader! To all our readers and commentors, thank you for all the activity you've brought the site over the past month. You guys are awesome, and I believe you are helping to propel WTLC to the top of the Thunder fansite list, and doing so in a hurry. Our member base is growing each and every day, and the level of involvement and discussion continues to follow suit. You guys are helping to make this site truly great, and for that I thank all of you! Keep commenting, and keep recommending us to your friends, and we'll continue to move forward as what we hope you consider to be the very best Thunder Blog on the net.

I didn't want to get too much into an actual discussion on what happened with the team in this post either, so very quickly, I'll say thanks to Sam Presti for drafting James Harden, as I believe the guy is the best fit for this team and really helps to solidify the backcourt of the future as we continue to build towards greatness. Presti not only drafted the right guy at #3, but was able to swipe BJ Mullens at 25 (essentially), when I believe he was pegged to go quite a bit higher. Finally he added a guy who I believe I read somewhere to have the most deadly shot in the draft in Vaden, who we're already going to go ahead and give the nickname Darth Vaden. I'm sure its been used somewhere on the net already, but hey, like I said, I've barely had time to check my own site, much less read anything else, so if it has been used before, who cares, we're going to use it too, and if it hasn't, well, its awesome.

Finally, I want to thank my family for spending so much time with me and letting me crash with them over the past week and a half or so. It'd been nearly 12 years since I've seen most of them, and I couldn't possibly have enjoyed myself any more than I did. I love you all, and miss you terribly already!