Last night, the hyper-athletic and talented Oklahoma City Thunder fell prey to the majestic passing and wizardry of Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs to drop to 0-2 in the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. The Thunder will return home on Thursday for Game 3 in OKC where they will rely on their passionate home crowd to will them to victory in what is surely a must win situation for them.
In addition to the usual scoring from their big-3 of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the Thunder will need stellar defence against Tim Duncan by the combination of Serge Ibaka and the scowl-faced Kendrick Perkins.
Like Ibaka and Perkins, on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court told the Plaintiff in a copyright suit to “get that weak stuff out of here” by declining to hear an appeal to sue the Thunder for using the phrases “Go Thunder” and “Let’s Go Thunder”. The Plaintiff, Charles A. Syrus, claimed he had copyright protection over the phrases because he used these phrases in a song about the Thunder. Mr. Syrus sued the team’s ownership group wanting 20-30 percent of the team’s “net gross” because the mascot, cheerleaders and fans used the phrases and the team included them on signs.
The Supreme Court affirmed the appeal court’s reasoning which found that common phrases are not protected by copyright simply because they are in a song. Furthermore, the court found that these phrases do not reflect the minimal creativity required for copyright protection.
OKC fans rejoice. Unfortunately, I predict that they will only be able to use those cheers for two more games this year. Prediction: San Antonio in 5.