Not only did the Oklahoma City Thunder lose one hell of a basketball player on Saturday night, but they also got rid of one of the greatest pop culture icons to ever capture this city in James Harden's beard.
I've never seen this town become so fixated on one object. Launched by cool (and now discounted) t-shirts and sparked by a viral video made by the whitest people in the world, the beard became a local pop culture phenomenon. It reached it's climax during the Thunder's 2012 NBA Finals run. Everyone wore fake beards and posted pics of them to their Facebook walls. If you didn't know any better, you'd think the entire city was going to a stoning. One shopping center owner covered his building with a giant beard. Hell, James Harden's became so popular that I got all hipstery and begged for it stop. I was concerned it would become overexposed. I guess we don't have to worry about that ever happening.