Okay. I’ve intentionally not written about this for two days because I wanted to enjoy the Boston Bruins win over the Washington Capitals and of course it was Super Bowl week-end.
I have no deadlines on here. I write for my own pleasure since the sports writing in the Oklahoma City market is so predictably weak.
I went to the trouble of creating my own Thunder blog for this reason, plus of course, I’m using the blog to archive the outline to the book I want to write about this entire Oklahoma City Thunder experience. The problem with the book is that the outline seems to change every year from Durant’s free agency year to the present. I’m totally confident in my abilities to write this book if I can ever figure out how it should end. I so much want it to have a happy ending in my hometown.
Now before I start on here brutalizing Russell Westbrook, please go to the bottom and watch the video before you read this post.
I assume you’ve now watched the video. I’ll wait for you. I’m a Libra and we’re patient in that way.
This is why Kevin Durant did the absolute right thing in listening to Jerry West and joining the Warriors.
Replay the video and then tell me why Kevin Durant would come back to Oklahoma City to seriously pursue an NBA championship instead of leaving as he did.
Tell me why.
I think Nick Collison knows. He’s a smart basketball dude. But I also think Nick Collison invested his career into staying with one franchise from beginning to end. That’s just Nick Collison’s way. He’s not a superstar diva like Durant and Westbrook. If I could have one off the record source for my book I’d choose Collison.
I look at this video and it makes me want to vomit. This OKC team on the national game of the week leading into the Super Bowl had a chance to extend their win streak to eight games and make an endorsement as to why Paul George should be a viable MVP candidate.
But instead … Russell Westbrook opted to put his Wild Thing cape on and torch both of those options on ABC even drawing a ‘cataclysmic’ from Mike Breen and Hubie Brown in the process.
There’s the basketball part of me which wants to say…trade Russell Westbrook because you’re never getting back to the NBA Finals no matter how much payroll and tax the OKC ownership group pays.
But then there’s the human part of me which wants Russell Westbrook to stay here and win that one championship like Dirk did in Dallas or like Bill Walton did Portland.
Or maybe the adult take is the ending will be more like Reggie Miller’s career ended in Indiana.
I watched Kobe’s segment on ESPN last night and I agree with him. I don’t think in this era of basketball any team with either Harden or Westbrook’s high usage rates are going to win an NBA championship.
The Warriors move the ball. The Celtics move the ball. Sure—you need two go to guys, but you have to be smart about it.
I wonder if Sam Presti is ever tempted with the thought of what he could bring to his Oklahoma City team back in return for trading Russell Westbrook.
Think about this…what if you didn’t have Russell Westbrook and you did have Kevin Durant alongside Paul George, Steven Adams, Dennis Schroder, Terrance Ferguson, Jerami Grant, and Nerlens Noel. Talk about defense and length with two finishers.
I wonder if Sam Presti ever thinks like this.
Russell Westbrook, please don’t make Sam Presti think this way and smarten the f–k up.