Oklahoma Newspaper Deletes Column Comparing Thunder To Israel

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending champions, with a talented roster that should set them up for years of success, so it makes sense that they'd have their share of detractors. A team at the top always does. There are other reasons why a neutral observer might not root for them: the origins of how OKC got an NBA team, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's reliance on drawing fouls, that "What a Pro Wants" commercial. That's just sports writ large: You can accept that people will hate your team for some rational or irrational reason, or you can try to argue with all of them and achieve the same level of success as trying to fight the ocean. If you pick the latter option, at least try to make sure your argument doesn't sound insane.

According to Eitan Reshef's bio, he's a native Oklahoman now based in Chicago, and works in digital commerce. He's not a regular columnist for the Oklahoman. While Reshef's article appeared under the publication's URL, it's a guest column for the opinion section and carries the following disclaimer at the top: "This piece expresses the views of its author(s), separate from those of this publication." Actually, it was a guest column; the article was deleted sometime Monday afternoon, hours after it was published. You might understand why when you see the headline: "Like Thunder, Israel is an underdog that has become hated."

Here's the opening paragraph: