Thanks to the magic of social media, fans can personally access athletes/Russell Westbrook like never before. Half of NBA marriages end in divorce, so why not make a mockery of it in the first place?
Oklahoma City Thunder fan Charlie Bright has two things he loves in his life above everything else; the Thunder, and his girlfriend, Rachel Haycraft.
So, why not combine them?
“I thought a really cool way to combine the two would be for Russell Westbrook, or somebody on the team, to ask her on Twitter or something to propose,” Bright said.
“So I messaged him on Facebook earlier in the week and just made in bold print the words ‘marriage proposal’ because — I’m sure he gets a lot of messages — I wanted it to jump out.
“The first words of the message were something like ‘I know this is a long shot and probably won’t work, but if you’re interested…’ Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to work,” he said.
A few days went by, then a message showed up in his inbox.
“I think his reply was literally like five words like ‘I’m down, what’s the plan?’ Bright said.
They exchanged some messages about the coordinated social media effort and how Bright could pull it off.
“I asked her to look at her Twitter, and she looked at it and saw it and looked like she was about to cry, so I got down on one knee and asked her if she’d marry me,” he said. “And she said yes.”
The combination of Russell Westbrook and Bright tweeting Haycraft confused her to the point of wondering if the Thunder star had actually just proposed to her.
“I was really confused because I’m a Twitterholic anyway and always on Twitter, but he randomly told me to check my Twitter, and I was like, ‘Okkkaayy,'” she said.
“And then I saw that and about had a heart attack because I love the Thunder and I love Russell, and so I’m like ‘Oh, my gosh! What!?!’ It’s the combination of Russell is tweeting me and Charlie asking me to marry him at the same time. So I was completely shocked.”
So why Russell Westbrook?
“[Westbrook’s] totally my favorite,” Bright said. “I love Russell. I think Russell kind of gets a bad rap sometimes, but I love him to death and think he’s great.”