Transcript generated from the episode’s audio. Speaker names are identified from the context of the conversation rather than from recorded speaker data, and automatic transcription may misspell names and terminology. Please refer to the video for the authoritative version.

David Raubach: I want to thank you all for joining us today on this episode of the Cancer Project podcast. We’re really privileged to have Brandon Rahbar with us. Brandon is a beat writer and reporter for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And he’s got a big following on social media. You can see some of his videos and commentary on games and then write-ups after the games, a great follow online, but he’s also had a personal experience with a family member going through cancer. And so, we’re going to talk a little bit about that today as well. So, Brandon, thank you so much for joining us.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, thank you for having me.

David Raubach: So tell us a little bit about what it’s like as a reporter for the Thunder. I mean, for those of us that are on the outside looking in, what does your day-to-day look like?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, so first of all, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a great gig. And it’s a great organization to just be around. It’s a great team to be around like from top down, just all the interactions, whether it be with Thunder coaches, players, staff, all those things. But you know, I get to go to basketball games and write about them and talk about them for a living. And you know, it was cool for me because I started, my first year being a beat reporter was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort’s first year with the team. So, I kind of feel like I went through a rebuild with the team and kind of saw them from the very beginning.

Brandon Rahbar: So, it’s kind of been fun for me because I’ve been able to chart like the beginning stages all the way through the championship and to see this team grow, see this team get more and more talented, but also see this team, you know, just kind of stay who they are from the beginning. Like, so I see all the similarities that were there, the building blocks from the beginning to what they are now. So many things have stayed the same, but of course the team has gotten much much better. But you know, I go to games, I write about the games, I talk about the games, I do podcasts, like you said, I do social media. But yeah, just pretty much anything that involves the Thunder, I’m usually there.

David Raubach: Who’s it? Which of the players is your favorite interview?

Brandon Rahbar: Oh man. J-Dub is pretty great. J-Dub is very thoughtful, but he’s also very funny. But the whole team really, like Alex Caruso is great because he sounds like a coach, okay? Like when he talks, Shai is great because he just always says the right thing. Like no matter the situation, whether it be a 20-point loss or a 20-point win, whether it’s game seven of the NBA finals, like he won’t be rattled. He’s always cool, calm, collective, professional, also gives very thoughtful answers. Really, this team, there’s lots of guys on this team. It’s a fun team. It really is. J-Dub, of course, always so fun. He’s going to smile throughout every interview. Yeah, it’s a great team.

David Raubach: Well, and I think you’re right about Shai. He’s very well spoken. He’s very eloquent and he gives these kind of deep introspective answers.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. So I yeah, he’s really enjoyable to listen to.

David Raubach: Have you had a chance to talk to Jared McCain since he’s arrived?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. So, he’s had one post-practice interview.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: And he’s very much like J-Dub.

David Raubach: Yeah, it seems like it.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. Like I’ve seen like the memes already on social media, like the mini me of J-Dub, because they both just like smile throughout, like, the conversation, like his whole 15 minutes post-game presser, he was smiling. And of course he’s like a Tik Tok, like he was famous on Tik Tok before he became an NBA pro. He’s got a great singing voice.

David Raubach: He does have a great singing voice.

Brandon Rahbar: And he released his first Thunder Tik Tok. So he dances, he sings, but he’s also a really good basketball player, too. Also, from what I’ve seen so far, a great interview as well.

David Raubach: Well, and I, one of the things that, you know, you always look, when a player gets traded, how does his existing team or his previous team respond to the trade? And that tells you a lot about who that person is and the relationship that they had with their prior team. And to a person, all of the Sixers players have been, have just talked about what a big loss it was, especially just from a cultural standpoint and just he was just a fun guy to be around. He brought joy to the team, joy to the locker room. So, I think that’s like he’s a good fit for the Thunder from that standpoint.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. Sam Presti always talks about, you know, bringing in or drafting people and not players.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: And Jared McCain fits that to a tea. Like you said, all the 76ers players, but also the fans, like any tweet or social media post you’ll see about Jared McCain and the trade to the Thunder, look underneath, all the comments are all from 76ers fans who are so bummed out that they lost him. Like you said, the on-court talent, but also just the locker room chemistry, the kind of guy that he is. They’re just so sad to see him go. I got so much joy for about 72 hours after that trade just reading Sixers fans’ comments on the trade and just how frustrated they were with this guy who was playing as maybe a front runner for rookie of the year before he got injured last year. And certainly he brings a good dynamic to the Thunder as a good three-point shooter and can create his own offense. Something that they need coming off the bench.

David Raubach: What? So, for those of us that are worried about the Thunder and how they’ve been playing the last, I guess, what did they start? 24-1 and then I think they’ve, what I think they’re like 16 and 12 or something like that since, to why should we not be worried?

Brandon Rahbar: The main thing I would say is just a lot of this has had to do with injuries. I mean, they’ve been one of the most injured teams in the NBA. And yes, they are very deep and they’re very talented like one through 15, especially now that they had Jared McCain can play, but it’s tough when you’re missing like Shai is out right now. Well, you’re missing an MVP, but J-Dub has missed so much time. You know, he was all NBA last year. And Ajay Mitchell is missing right now. And so those three guys are the three primary ball handlers, shot creators, playmakers, like they’re the offensive engines of the team. So, when you’re missing two or more of those guys, and they’ve missed all three of them the last few games, you know, it’s going to be tough to muster offense because role players are asked to do things they’re not normally asked to do, play positions that they’re normally asked to play.

Brandon Rahbar: So, I would say a lot of that is just injury related. Some of it is, you know, they are human and they are coming off a championship and it is a long season. There’s a lot of back-to-backs. There’s a lot of times where it’s three games and four nights. And so, you know, this team is kind of in their DNA to bring 100% effort every night. That’s just what they do. But it’s tough, I think, to match the intensity when the opponent every single night wants to take down the champs. So, you’re playing a Minnesota team that beat, you beat them 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals last year. You’re on the road. You’re probably playing three games and four nights and they’re bringing it 100% because they want to take down the champs and that’s every night for 82 games.

Brandon Rahbar: They want to take down the champs. So, I think some of it’s, you know, matching that intensity, not being 100%. I would say given last year’s 68 wins, the dominant run through the playoffs and the 24-1 start, I’d say that sample size is much more reflective of the team than this recent stretch.

David Raubach: Well, and they, you know, they’re young, too. I mean, we forget that these are like a lot of the players are in their early 20s. And so you just go through things during the season where it’s like, like you said, it’s just hard to get up for every game and match the intensity of the team that has this game circled on the calendar and has had it circled on the calendar all year. So, well that’s good. So, yeah, I think they’re still the favorites obviously and I had season tickets actually starting in the Chris Paul George era. And then of course we bottomed out and I rode all the way through that. So I’ve been a, I’ve been a proud supporter.

Brandon Rahbar: Well, I mean I’ve been a Thunder fan as they move, but a season ticket holder for a number of years as well.

David Raubach: So it’s been good to just, I mean, obviously last year was amazing. What was, I mean, what’s a story that you recall from the playoff run or the finals run or maybe game seven that a regular fan wouldn’t be privy to? Something that you saw or experienced?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. Okay. So after they win the championship and of course they’re just being swarmed by media, by fans, like everything is going on and these guys, they really truly do kind of take the time like on an individual level. I saw so many people, whether it be fans, whether it be media, whoever else. And these guys really just like take their time and they’ll talk to people. Give them hugs, take pictures with them, whatever it may be. Kind of regardless of what’s going on. You know, you see the stuff with Shai where he’ll sign every single autograph before a game. Whether it be, you know, five, I think the NBA counted one time was like over 500 autographs he did before a game.

David Raubach: Oh my gosh.

Brandon Rahbar: Just like taking the time, I’d say like throughout the whole process, like you can, you know, these are superstars. These are NBA players. But this particular group, I think just the character of them, like seeing them interact with fans and with people and kind of seeing them on a personal level one on one, like seeing that kind of behind the scenes has been really really cool.

David Raubach: It’s as genuine as it looks on TV then.

Brandon Rahbar: 100%. Yes.

David Raubach: Now, I think the autograph signing component for Shai and really all the players is just amazing. I mean, the time that they take before the games to really reach out and connect with fans, especially the kids. I mean, you can see Shai going and specifically talking to kids, and I think that’s really cool. I went to the Magic game, I guess, what was that, about a week ago when they beat the Magic, you know, they went up 25 points in the first quarter.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah.

David Raubach: And I had the opportunity to sit near courtside, so we were second row for that game. And because the game got out of hand so quickly, you had really players from both teams that were interacting with the front row. And it’s not something you pick up on necessarily watching the game on TV, or sitting up a little bit further up where I usually sit, but like the players were talking to the fans almost the entire game. And one of the, Jaylen Suggs was very like chatty with some of the front row Thunder fans and was he was having side bets with some of the fans, like, will I make a three-pointer? Like he had one guy, he bet $10 that he would make a three-pointer the next time down the court. And he went down and sure enough, Jaylen Suggs got the ball at the top of the key, shot the ball, made the three-pointer, came back down, told the fan, “You owe me $10.”

Brandon Rahbar: That’s awesome.

David Raubach: So that element again, these are superstars, but they’re also people and, and especially with the Thunder, I think you’re right. They really do, they’re great people in and of themselves and they’re really fun to just be around.

Brandon Rahbar: So it’s got to be fun for you.

David Raubach: Yeah, it really is. And it’s really because it has been fun because I’ve, like you said, I’ve seen this team from the very beginning of the rebuild and they just haven’t changed. Yeah, like you know a lot of these guys, role players, have like, obviously when you win a championship everybody’s stature like raises because you’re an NBA champion, you’re on national TV more, you’re talked about more. Whether that’s Shai down to number 15 on the team. So their stature has gone up, but who they are as people has remained the same. And I’ve gotten kind of a front row seat to see that behind the scenes. So it’s been really really cool.

Brandon Rahbar: Do, have you gotten to try on a ring or seen the rings?

David Raubach: I have. I have and they are nice. Very very nice. And also they’re so unique, like, you know, I’ve seen past, I haven’t seen them up close, other championship rings, but I’ve seen pictures of championship rings. The only ones I’ve seen up close and touch are these Thunder rings. But man, they are so detailed and so specific to this team, like the whole 00 mindset, all that, like, you know, inscripted into it and all those things. Yeah, they’re very very nice.

Brandon Rahbar: We, there’s a nurse practitioner that works at the Proton Center and her husband is an attorney for the Thunder, and so she, he got a ring as an employee of the Thunder and part of the leadership team there. And so she brought it to work for show and tell. I felt like I was back in kindergarten again, you know, like, oh my gosh, this kid got the cool toy or whatever, that like, and people were coming to her office and trying it on and taking pictures. So it was, yeah, that was really cool.

David Raubach: Those rings are enormous. They’re huge.

Brandon Rahbar: But there’s a, they didn’t, they get, it’s a ring inside of a ring for the players, right? So they have something that they can kind of wear out, which I think is like the coolest part of the whole thing because, you know, these championship rings, like you said, they’re huge and they’re not very practical. I don’t think to just like go to the grocery store, be wearing a ring because they’re so big. So to have the ring inside the ring that you can actually wear around, that’s more practical, was a great idea. Whoever came with that, great idea.

David Raubach: Well done. I don’t know where the camera is. Well done.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah.

David Raubach: So, I’m sure there’s some kids out there in middle school or high school or maybe even in college that are thinking, you know what I really want to do? I want to be a beat writer for the Thunder. So, Brandon Rahbar, how do you become a beat writer for the Thunder or really any professional team?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. So, my journey was a little bit different. I can tell you mine and then I could tell you maybe the more common way. Mine was different. Yeah, I always wanted to be a writer. Like from the time I was in fifth grade, I wrote a story. Like it was supposed to be a one page short story. I wrote like eight pages. It was probably really ridiculous. My teacher was probably like, “What is going on with this kid?” And I wrote the story. It was about the kids in the class, David Copperfield, the magician, made them all disappear. The story got passed around like the classroom, other kids reading it and like kind of getting that. I was like, “Oh, this is kind of cool. I want to be a writer.”

Brandon Rahbar: So, I always wanted to be a writer. And then I was always into sports. I was always into pop culture, movies, music, and things like that. So, it’s just kind of something that stuck with me. So, I go to college, majored in journalism and broadcasting. And I got a job with a Christian radio station right out of school. And I was there for 10 years. And while I was there, we started

David Raubach: This is here in Oklahoma City?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. Yeah. KFF in Oklahoma City, 91 FM. I was there for a decade.

Brandon Rahbar: We started a sports show and it was more Christian themed, like we would have Christian athletes on.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: So, we would like, we interviewed like Shaun Alexander and like some of these well known NFL and NBA and college athletes, like Tommy Harris at the time with OU.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: Things like that. So, that kind of gave me a taste. I was like, “Yeah, okay. So, I want to combine my writing, radio, all those things with sports or entertainment.” I ended up getting a job with the Bethany Tribune newspaper and some other small newspapers. Anyways, I started my own blog about the Thunder. So, the Thunder Round.

David Raubach: So what and what year was this or what?

Brandon Rahbar: This would have been probably like 2012ish.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: No, no, no. I’m sorry. That was the first championship season. It probably would have been 2010ish.

David Raubach: Okay. So this is like early KD Westbrook, that you think that maybe there’s something there, but they’re going through some growing pains.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. 100%. So I kind of took my two loves. My thing was, I was really into pop culture. I was really into sports. I did this kind of like mashup, and so I did like a story where I was like cast the Thunder players as like Walking Dead characters or something like that. Then I did one like a Game of Thrones theme and things like that. Anyways, Roy Young, who runs Daily Thunder, he started Daily Thunder. He’s now with the team. He ended up working with ESPN. Great person. Great writer. He saw my stuff and asked if I’d like to write for his site.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: So, of course, I jumped at the opportunity. Daily Thunder was like the Thunder site.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: And so I started writing for them. He ended up working for ESPN, so he couldn’t also run the blog. He sold, he sold the site and the guys that took over asked me if I’d like to take over as the beat writer.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: So that’s what kind of eventually happened for me, and it kind of went from there. So it was great for me. But as far as advice goes, that’s a long winded way to say start your own blog, maybe you’ll get noticed. That’s what happened for me. But, you know, going to school for it, and I would say like any opportunity you get, I took a bunch of little opportunities for writing with other little blogs, little sites, and I would like to think that it was a culmination of all those things that kind of led me to where I was. So, don’t be afraid to intern with a radio station or a newspaper. Start your own site, write for anybody who’ll give you the time.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. And eventually these things kind of like start stacking up and you get noticed maybe by the right person or the right site.

David Raubach: Well, that’s a, that’s the great thing about doing what you’re talking about doing today versus let’s say 25 or 30 years ago where really if you wanted to be a writer, you had to go get a job at the newspaper, right? Or the TV station. And that, you know, the barrier to entry maybe was a little bit higher in terms of just getting out there and getting going and getting started. And anybody can start a blog now. Anybody can start a website. Anybody can be on social media. Anybody can start a podcast, I guess. And but I think part of what you talked about that probably worked for you is you put some creativity to it and kind of branded it your own way versus just saying, “Well, I’m just going to comment on the games. Anybody can just comment on the games.” But how are you going to be clever? How are you going to be creative? And it sounds like that’s something that you’ve done.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, because there’s a lot of voices out, you know, because you said like everybody can kind of do their own thing. So, make it your own voice, make it unique and that will make you stand out. Like, you know, like when I talk about games, like I don’t, I try to like do more than just here’s the stats, here’s what’s going on the game, I try to put my own like voice on it, like my own thoughts on it. And for me, like, you know, it’s usually trying to be witty or clever, you know, whatever. So that was kind of like my style. So whatever voice you have, use that voice, it’ll make you stand out.

David Raubach: So, on social media, so you post a lot on X, formerly Twitter, and what, so what’s kind of the biggest, or the most viral post that you’ve had, or maybe the biggest, like the thing that you remember, that this was like a controversial interaction and I didn’t intend it to be, or do you remember the Josh Giddy thing?

Brandon Rahbar: Yes.

David Raubach: Yeah. All right.

Brandon Rahbar: So, this was an accidental thing, but it’s the one that comes to mind first. So, it was Josh Giddy. It was before the Thunder drafted him.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: They were doing interviews with all the incoming NBA rookies and the Thunder, it was during COVID, so there was all these Zoom calls, right? Well, every time there was a Thunder interview on Zoom we were all automuted, like, okay, just automatically. So I get on this rookie Zoom call and it’s with NBA writers from all over the country, like everywhere, they’re all interviewing these NBA rookies. Well, I’m used to being automuted, so I don’t think anything about it. My one-year-old son walks into the room and I smell something and I said, “Did you poop?” This is just the truth.

David Raubach: Oh my gosh. On a national interview.

Brandon Rahbar: And so Josh Giddy like stops in his tracks and he kind of like looks at the camera for a second, takes a pause, and that like clued me off. I was like, “Wait, why did he stop talking?”

David Raubach: Oh my gosh.

Brandon Rahbar: And so I instantly recognize like, “Oh, did he hear me?” And so, yeah. So, I go on afterwards and I tweet like, you know, I was just on a national call with the NBA rookies and I think Josh Giddy just thinks I asked him if he pooped. That got picked up and people released a video of it of me asking and things like that. That kind of went viral. That’s the first thing I, yeah, that’s the first thing I think of.

Brandon Rahbar: And that was unintentional obviously. But it was pretty funny. It, a lot of times the viral posts are the ones that are either accidental or you don’t, you’re not planning for it to go viral, but just something happens out of your control like that. And then ironically the Thunder end up drafting. I’d like to think I had something to do with that. Like Sam Presti saw like how professionally he handled that situation. It’s like there’s something with this kid, and ended up drafting him. I like Josh Giddy. I, you know, I and I still enjoy watching him play for the Bulls. I mean, he’s a fun player to watch and he was always just a fun personality to have on the team, too.

Brandon Rahbar: So, yeah, I think obviously, you know, the Thunder, I don’t know if they’re better or worse off. I think it, they got the player that they needed for last year. But I think Josh Giddy’s obviously going to have a great career as well.

David Raubach: Yeah, that was a win win trade, I think.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. No, I agree with that.

David Raubach: So, what is the, so this is the last thunder question. What’s kind of the biggest rumor that you thought for sure was going to be true in terms of like a free agent signing or a trade related to the Thunder that didn’t end up playing out, but it just seemed like this is going to happen?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, that’s a tough one. So, I would say this, and this was actually, I wasn’t a beat reporter yet, but I was writing for the Bethany Tribune newspaper, so I was covering the Thunder, but not in the capacity full time that I am now. It was when it was the summer that KD ended up going to the Warriors.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: And the rumor was, had KD stayed, then Al Horford was going to sign with the Thunder. And obviously KD ends up leaving and I was kind of, I was again, I was reporting on the team at the time, not the full capacity, but I was a little bit plugged in. And that was true, he would have signed with the Thunder had KD stayed. So at that point you would have had Russell Westbrook, Victor Oladipo, Al Horford, Kevin Durant, would have been a Serge Ibaka. Well, they end up trading Serge Ibaka for, but the other thing that I don’t know that people remember from that is that the trade that they made for Paul George.

David Raubach: Mhm.

Brandon Rahbar: Involved player, like they could have still made the trade for Paul George after signing KD.

David Raubach: Yes.

Brandon Rahbar: And so that’s another element that, like, butterfly effect, that they could have signed Al Horford and still had the players to trade for Paul George.

David Raubach: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. So it could have been a really really stacked team. It could have been an incredible team. I think everything worked out for the best. Like, you know, hindsight, you know, if that would have happened, like with this team as currently constructed, this, you know, potential dynasty that they have now, been set up cuz I believe in the butterfly effect too, like that would have changed things down the road and who knows how that team would have ended up. As far as like any other rumors, or the Thunder very tight lipped when it comes to that stuff, and so whenever I actually do hear a rumor, like, yeah, that’s not going to be true, if, right, if you hear it then it’s probably not.

David Raubach: Well, I mean the Paul George trade was such a great example. I mean that came completely out of left field, right? And so, yeah, that was a big, I mean I think a lot of people knew last year they were going to go after Hartenstein. He was like an obvious, but he was a free agent, right? There were lots of teams going after him. So, yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next year with the cap and having to make some tough decisions once they start having to think about paying some pretty onerous tax penalties. Yeah, it’ll, they’re set up well to deal with it with the draft picks and the young players, but it’s going to be challenging. And things are going to look different going forward.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, absolutely. Just the way that the salary cap is set up, you’ve got to make decisions. The Thunder obviously love all these guys and, you know, they’re this team, all these guys love being here, but you just got to make decisions like just based on the salary cap, but like you said, they’re set up better than any team could be because of all these draft picks and all these young players.

Brandon Rahbar: My claim to fame is I took a picture related to this, kind of the team dynamics changing, is that that Orlando game was the last game that Ousmane Dieng played. And, probably, you know, of course he played the last couple minutes of the game and he had an inbound pass that was right where I was sitting, like I was right there in front of him, and I snapped a picture and put it on social media and said, before he got traded, and said this is, this may be the last inbounds pass Ousmane ever throws for the Thunder, and it was actually so nice.

Brandon Rahbar: That’s my, you know, if this was five, three years ago and NFTs were still a thing, you know, that picture may have been worth

David Raubach: That’s true.

Brandon Rahbar: 50 or $75.

David Raubach: So, that’s true. Maybe it’ll come back.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. Who knows? It’ll come back.

David Raubach: So I want to shift gears, and get a little bit more personal. You’ve been gracious enough to talk a little bit about the experience that you went through with your stepdad and him going through cancer. And so if you don’t mind just kind of starting at the beginning and talking about, I mean, one, just the relationship, because obviously you and your stepdad were really close, but then what that process was like, going through his cancer diagnosis.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. So I was very close to him. My biological dad, he moved away when I was five, and so my stepdad raised me, so I consider him my dad. And so yeah, we were very very close. We even like later on we played soccer together and like, you know, just, yeah, he was awesome. Hilarious. Loving, great. And his name is, his name is Gary.

David Raubach: Gary. Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. So very very close to him. And we found out about the cancer. He ended up having lung cancer. He went in for a stomach surgery and during that surgery is when they, you know, revealed the cancer diagnosis, and he was given a certain amount of time to live, and because it was already, you know, pretty progressed, and, you know, he beat that expectation.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: And by quite a bit actually, by about a year.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: Which was incredible. So initially they were saying maybe he just had months.

David Raubach: Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: They were saying months to a year and he ended up living like two years past that.

David Raubach: Okay.

Brandon Rahbar: And so just throughout the process, like after the diagnosis, of course we’re all heartbroken, but we also want to spend the time that we have left with him. You know, obviously we’re believing, you know, he’s gonna, he’s going to beat these, this timeline. So spending that time with him, thing was he was just so like tough and strong and like he never let it affect him. He was still, I was selling a house like in his last few months and he came over and was helping me, like, paint the house and work, like work on woodwork, like he was a great, like, great, like around the house, like, do it all, fix it all.

Brandon Rahbar: And so me and my pregnant fiancee at the time, I’m sorry, she was pregnant. Me and my fiancee at the time, she was pregnant, we got married. I’ll get to that in a minute. We were working on this house and he’s helping us and he wanted to see our wedding and he did. He lived, the doctors didn’t think he would make it to our wedding.

David Raubach: Wow.

Brandon Rahbar: He made it to our wedding which was incredible. And then my wife got pregnant after that, after, before, I misspoke. We can edit the earlier part because we were working on the house after we got married. Before and after we got married. And yes, it was like me, my pregnant wife, and my dad who had cancer working on my house together. And he probably did more work than both of us. So that’s just the kind of guy he was.

David Raubach: Yeah. Wow. So when he got diagnosed, what was that conversation like? Or how did he tell you what was going on, or how did you, how did you initially find out?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, he called me and told me and, like I said, he was very tough and he just told me, you know, he was going to be all right. Like, don’t worry about it. Of course, of course I’m worried about it. But he says, don’t worry about it. He’s just, he’s very blunt. He’s just like, “Hey, I went to, you know, have the surgery and I found out I have lung cancer, but you know, I’m going to do anything I can to, you know, live as long as I can and, you know, don’t worry about this.” So he, yeah, that’s how I found out.

David Raubach: What did you feel like you needed to do at that point?

Brandon Rahbar: Just spend as much time with him as I could. And it just so happened at that time that I was going to get married. I was trying to sell a house. And so we ended up spending a lot of time together, especially the last like six months. We spent a lot of time together. But that was my main thing, was like just make sure I make as many memories these last however months. I thought it was months at the time.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, obviously I was so blessed to get a couple years after that, much more than I thought. But just spending time.

David Raubach: I do want to say that I really appreciate the fact that you’re willing to talk about this, because I think one of the points of having this podcast and talking through these stories is that there’s other people now that are going through what you went through. Maybe there’s a son out there right now that may hear this and their dad just got diagnosed with cancer and they’re trying to navigate how to approach this, how to think about it, all those emotions that come with it. What, you know, as guys, we want to try to fix things, like, what am I going to do to kind of help my dad get through this? So, again, I really appreciate you being willing to talk about it.

Brandon Rahbar: No, I appreciate you having me on to talk about it. It’s great to be able to talk about my dad in this sort of way, and he was such a great man. And to have this platform to be able to discuss him is honestly really really cool for me.

David Raubach: So, when your dad did tell you about the diagnosis, and of course he was, you know, typical guy, hey, I’m going to just keep on living my life and get through this and don’t worry about me. What were you thinking that you needed to do at that point? I mean, you said spend as much time with him as possible, but did you start asking questions about what treatments he was going to do, or did you get involved in that process at all?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, I did. I talked to my mom about that part of it. Like, what is dad, like, what is, what’s happening now? Like, what happens now? Like, is there any way for him to beat the timeline, like, you know, and like, what’s his quality of life going to be like, how is that going to look? So, and then of course, like anybody else who doesn’t know anything medically, I start googling everything, like, and so I’m googling everything and like, okay, well if we do this and this and this, and so yeah, I’m just like trying to kind of scramble, like, how can I help, like, maybe I can give my dad some ideas, like, look, I found this out, or maybe you can go to this place, or you can try this.

Brandon Rahbar: And of course I didn’t know what I was talking about, but I was just trying my best to either prolong the timeline, fine, or to improve the quality of life or anything it could.

David Raubach: Did you ever find out, or did the doctors ever talk about why they thought he got lung cancer?

Brandon Rahbar: So he was a smoker when he was younger. He stopped, he hadn’t been smoking at that point by the time he got it, for I would say at least a dozen years.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: But he used to be a smoker. He was also a painter for a long time and like being around fumes and things, so, you know, we weren’t sure, the doctors weren’t sure, but you know, the smoking so much in his former years probably.

David Raubach: Yeah, there’s always, I mean sometimes it is a mystery. I mean, some, there’s people, there’s healthy people that have never smoked that get cancer, and then there’s people that’ll smoke every day their entire lives and not get cancer. So, it’s always, it’s sometimes a, I mean, which part of it is like, that’s, it sounds like he got caught off guard a little bit. It was unexpected and certainly for you guys it was unexpected. What do you recall what types of treatments that he did end up going through?

Brandon Rahbar: Well, he went to the Oklahoma Proton Center. I know that for sure. And I just got to say, he always talked about how the staff was so nice.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: And made the treatment a lot easier, a lot less stressful.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: That’s something that my mom talked to me about. And I do think that going there did improve his quality of life and help to beat those timelines that he was giving. But yeah, but the Oklahoma Proton Center is the treatment that stood out to me.

David Raubach: Well, and I really appreciate you talking about that quality of life and the experience, because we, we talk at the Proton Center about treatment being more than a cure, and there also being a quality of life focus. And we know that patients do better going through treatment and after treatment. And a lot of times we see better outcomes, whether it’s living longer than expected, or having a higher cure rate than expected, or whatever the outcome may be. Patients do better if they have a better experience during and after treatment. And so that element is really really important. So I appreciate you saying that. Yeah. What do you, talk a little bit about just the legacy that your dad left?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah. So the legacy that my dad left is there were five kids. Three of the kids weren’t his biologically, but you ask any five of us, that was our dad. Like he took care of us. And he instilled in us discipline. But like a loving discipline. And then when he became a grandpa, he became like the most loving, doting grandpa there was. To many many grandkids. He was hilarious. Like, I’d like to, yeah, I think some of like my sense of humor kind of stems from him. He was goofy and silly. He was this cool combination of like kind of this old school tough dad.

David Raubach: Yeah.

Brandon Rahbar: Combined with like this silly goofy guy. But also very very loving, like tough but loving. And I think that instilled in five kids and then double-digit grandkids, like kind of like his legacy lives on in that hard work. Very very hard work and that, like that hard work and that toughness, like through the treatment, I think, showed out, like beating the timeline. You know, like there’s things like, you know, the doctors gave him a feeding tube and said that he was going to have to go through, like, use the feeding tube. He never had to use it. Like I think some of that’s probably Oklahoma Proton Center, some of that’s like his toughness. I don’t know, I don’t know, but I think definitely, like a legacy of love, I would say, more than anything.

David Raubach: Well, going through, I mean, you talked about just kind of his hard work and diligence. I mean, it takes so much effort and energy and perseverance and diligence to get through something like cancer. I mean, we’ll have patients finish up treatment at the Proton Center and from time to time they’ll recall or think about the number of doctor’s visits that they had, and it’ll be something crazy like, I had 180 doctor’s visits, or 200 doctor’s visits this last year, and you just think about that, like that just becomes your life for a period of time. And so, yeah, it does, it does take, and that’s where that support system is so important.

David Raubach: And finding out that, why, and for him, you talked about, he really wanted to see you get married. He wanted to spend time with his grandkids, and that probably drove him to get up and go to that next doctor’s visit, even when you’re not feeling well, or you’re having to, it’s hard to eat, you’re having to force food down, that you’re still doing that. And so I appreciate you saying that. Is there a story that you remember about your dad that kind of just personifies who he was?

Brandon Rahbar: Oh man. Well, I’ll relate this back to the cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment. This absolutely personifies who he was. So, he got this radiation mask, and he was really really excited, not to wear the mask, but to wear it at Halloween to scare all the grandkids. And so, he showed up to Halloween and some of his grandkids are like toddlers. And he showed up with, you know, he was very very sick at this time, but he showed up with that radiation mask to scare the grandkids, and sure enough it scared the grandkids.

David Raubach: That is such a good story and such a good example of finding humor in even the worst situation. And those masks are scary. I’ve seen those masks. Those are scary masks. Well, Brandon, I really appreciate you taking the time today to talk to us, obviously about the Thunder, a topic near and dear to both of our hearts, but then also talking about your dad. I guess to wrap up, is there any advice that you would give to somebody that’s maybe facing what you went through a few years back, finding out that someone so close to you was going through cancer?

Brandon Rahbar: Yeah, absolutely. I would go back to just spending the time with them, like, because you can’t get that back. And I’m so glad that those last couple years, I made a point to spend the time that I did, because we made a lot of, me, like, all throughout my life I have memories of my dad. But those last couple years we made a lot of memories together. And I’m just so glad that I spent that time. So, that’s what I’d say. Just the time. You know, there’s work, I know, and there’s a hundred things to distract you, but you can’t get that time back.

David Raubach: Yeah. Well, that’s great. I really appreciate that, and I appreciate you being so transparent and coming on here today. So, thank you, Brandon.

Brandon Rahbar: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

David Raubach: Yep.