The Occult Section

There seems to be a pattern emerging lately of sportscasters, NBA teams and MLB teams claiming they are being haunted by ghosts. See our other stories on the Knicks, the Lakers, the Marlins, and Bill Simmons. You may now add the Phoenix Suns to that list.

G-g-g-ghosts! Oh yeah, we play basketball, too! Please pay attention to us?

Be afraid, be very afraid. We’ve come to the following conclusion: lately, Phoenix Suns ghost stories have been much more intriguing than their game stories. (Feel free to fear both my conclusion and this tale).

And yes, we said – ghost stories. As in spooky, scary, haunted hotels.

“Something about the water running in the sink,” recounted Alvin Gentry, obviously bemused. “I think he should’ve recorded it, if it’s going to be legit.”

Paulie Poltergeist doesn’t have infrared video evidence. But! What if we said we have a first-person eyewitness account from one of Coach Gentry’s players. Well, sort of.

“I went to sleep and woke up the next morning. I remembered that I left my bathroom door open,” said Wesley Johnson.“But I got up and it was closed.” (Cue the scary music soundtrack from the horror movie of your choice.)

This hotel o’ horrors would be the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City. It’s 101 years old and seemingly boasts more than 100+ stories that include the words “creepy, chilling, supernatural.”

“So, I was thinking that I was still groggy from the morning and then I had a tub full of water,” Johnson continued. “That’s a lot of water for the pipes to be old and filled up like that. Then everybody else was telling me their stories.”

Simply put, the Suns went to OKC and saw a ghost. Actually, according to Johnson, an assistant coach saw a ghost as well. And, no, the ghosts weren’t NBA All-Stars named Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook.

“One of the coach’s sinks was on full blast when he got out of the shower,” shared Johnson, before returning to the tale of his own harrowing haunting.

“Just waking up in the morning and seeing that tub full of water had me kind of iffy about what was going on,” Johnson said calmly. “I wanted to change rooms but I decided to stick it out.”

According to Wikipedia (what better source for paranormal activity, right?), recent NBA history is slimed, err, littered with hardwood hauntings. In 2010, the New York Knicks famously blamed their loss on the haunted hotel. The Chicago Bulls have reported doors slamming shut on their own. And during the 2012 NBA Finals, this story again received national attention when the Miami Heat was staying in the visiting team hotel.

“Supposedly, I guess they saw a ghost,” Gentry summed up. “I didn’t think you could see ghosts, though. So, I’m a little confused by that.”

Stay scared, err, tuned. The Suns return to the OKC (and Skirvin Hotel) for a game on Friday, February 8th.

It does seem a bit odd to me that all of the paranormal activity mentioned in this story is bathroom related, with the bathroom door closing, water running, and the tub being full of water.

Technorati Tags: Alvin Gentry, bill simmons, celebrity, chicago bulls, florida marlins, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost hunting, ghosts, haunted hotel, haunted house, haunting, Kevin Durant, media, miami heat, MLB, nba, new york knicks, News, oklahoma city, paranormal, people, Phoenix Suns, Russell Westbrook, Skirvin Hotel, supernatural, the lakers, thoughts, Wesley Johnson, wikipedia

As a native New Yorker, the last thing I was thinking about during the devastation of Hurricane Sandy (or Superstorm Sandy, as I guess it is now officially called) was paranormal phenomena that would occur during the storm. But that’s not stopping a player for the Brooklyn Nets from jumping to conclusions.

Duh-ron Williams

Did Hurricane Sandy pack a UFO in addition to damaging winds and torrential rains? Apparently, at least one New Yorker thinks so and he’s talking about his experience in a new interview.

Speaking to GQ magazine, Deron Williams said that he saw a UFO in Manhattan during Sandy just before the lights went out.

Can you imagine that? It must have been one freaky experience!

Here’s how Deron describes it:

“Well, I don’t know if you’d call this a “New York moment”, but I definitely saw something I’d never seen before. The night all the power went out, I was standing out on my balcony, looking outside the window. Out of nowhere, I saw this big green flash across the sky. It wasn’t lightning. It looked… It looked like a UFO.”

He continued to persist that it was a UFO he saw but if you really read his description and think about everything that went on in New York that night, you’ll probably have no trouble guessing that what Deron most likely saw was a transformer blowing or some other electrical thing.

It could have also been an aurora, though there’s no saying whether that type of phenomenon can be seen in NYC.

The article points out the obvious explanation, as there were tons of transformers blowing all throughout the city that night, and they do give off an eerie glow when they blow that doesn’t quite look like lightning. I’m not quite sure how a flash of light automatically becomes an alien spaceship, but then again, I don’t throw a ball through hoops for a living. I, like, went to college and stuff.

Technorati Tags: barclay's center, basketball, brooklyn nets, celebrity, debunking, deron williams, extraterrestrial, flying saucer, humor, hurricane, hurricane sandy, media, nba, nets, new york, new york nets, News, paranormal, people, sandy, superstorm sandy, thoughts, ufo, ufos

Back in January I gently chided the New York Knicks for claiming that staying in a haunted hotel caused them to lose a basketball game. Well it turns out this particular hotel in Oklahoma City is scaring the Be-Jeebus out of the entire NBA!

Too soon?

Allegedly men staying in the hotel have heard a woman’s voice proposition them or seen an image of a naked woman in their room. Plus there are the “normal” ghostly reports of things being moved and dressers shaking.

The stories — and the NBA players that are scared of them — have become a bit of a legend themselves around the NBA this year. A number of teams have stayed there (it is one of the nicest hotels in the area and is convenient to the arena) and a number of players have not enjoyed their stay.

Apparently, the Lakers are doing their best Ray Parker Junior “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghosts” Immitation. If there is a ghost, Phil Jackson will just play mind games with it, or Kobe will just give it one of his angry stares and that will be that.

I think this is hilarious. I imagine 7 foot tall men are like “Not a naked woman in my hotel room!” and then going to play basketball and being really bad at it. Show me a story where my hometown Celtics are afraid of this hotel, and I’ll shut up, but until then…HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Technorati Tags: basketball, celebrity, ghost, haunted, haunted hotel, kobe bryant, los angeles lakers, nba, News, oklahoma, paranormal, people, thoughts

I suppose if I were on the New York Knicks, I’d come up with reasons such as “my hotel was haunted and that’s why I played so badly.” After you run through all your legitimate excuses, it’s certainly time to get creative. I suppose horrible coaching plus poor playing aren’t valid reasons anymore.

So the New York Knickerbockers claim that the hotel they stayed in in Oklahoma City (to play a team I’ve never heard of) was haunted and frightened several of the players. Note that nothing actually happened to anyone. Nobody experienced anything. They were just scared of the possibility.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Knicks were afraid, very afraid. And it had nothing to do with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

For two days, several players had trouble sleeping because they were convinced that their downtown hotel is haunted.

“I definitely believe it,” Jared Jeffries said. “The place is haunted. It’s scary.”

Eddy Curry claims he slept for only two hours Sunday night because he couldn’t stop thinking about ghosts roaming the hotel.

For years, guests staying at the Skirvin Hilton have reported ghost sightings and strange noises. Legend has it that sometime in the 1930s, a woman jumped to her death while holding her baby in her hands.

“They said it happened on the 10th floor and I’m the only one staying on the 10th floor,” Curry said. “That’s why I spent most of my time in (Nate Robinson‘s) room. I definitely believe there are ghosts in that hotel.”

Assistant coach Herb Williams teased Jeffries and Curry for believing that the Skirvin is haunted, but Curry wasn’t laughing.

“There are too many stories,” Curry said. “Something is going on there.”

So what’s their excuse for all their home games? Oh, snap! Perhaps they should change their name to the “New York Scaredy Cats.” Ha!

Technorati Tags: basketball, eddy curry, haunted, haunted hotel, herb williams, jared jeffries, knicks, nate robinson, nba, new york knicks, News, oklahoma, oklahoma city, paranormal, people, skirvin hilton, thoughts