In a distant, almost surreal sort of way…it was a Battle of the Sams. One in the flesh with Presti and one in ghost form with Hinkie. There was this absurd streak of the Thunder with Westbrook somehow coming into this game with nineteen straight wins over the same franchise which gave us one of Wilt’s championships in the 60’s– and another one with Moses and Dr. J in the 80’s. Somehow, someway, this franchise with so much history and lore attached to it arrived at the Peake with the ghost of Hinkie still clinging to it… yet ended the dubious streak with a rather easy 108-104 win over the fading Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night inside the Peake.
These Sixers were without this generation’s version of Wilt in Joe Embiid and were without their second center as well in Boban M. But it didn’t matter because the Thunder were without serious MVP candidate Paul George…and to be frank… these Thunder for the most of the night looked lost without Kevin Durant’s successor to being Russell Westbrook’s enabler.
You could look at this in two different ways. You could look at this game as a serious endorsement of Paul George’s MVP resume or you could view it as validation for Kevin Durant leaving on July 4th, 2016.
It’s your choice.
It was a prime example of why Russell Westbrook is probably never going to win a ring unless someone eventually gets inside his head and explains to him this is basketball .. not a one-hundred yard dash. It’s a game which requires nuance and a change of pace here and there. It’s not a game of always leading with your face like Rocky Balboa.
In 2012, Scott Brooks still hadn’t gotten this across to Russel Westbrook, but he slid James Harden over to the point in a somewhat masked version of co-pilot point guards. It worked enough to get the Thunder to their only Finals before losing to the Heat in five games.
We’re now in the year 2019 and Durant is in Oakland with two rings, two Finals MVP trophies and at the least the self awareness he made the right choice even if some hate him for the decision he made.
If I were Durant, I wouldn’t worry about it. I’d keep working hard and the legacy will take care of itself eight years from now. I would however try to mend my fence with Westbrook and not be a dickhead moving down the road.
As far as Westbrook…not winning anything from a team standpoint doesn’t apparently bother him. He’ll go down in history as the triple double king of all-time with one regular season MVP, two All-Star MVPs, a regular season scoring title, and one appearance in an NBA Finals back in 2012 when the basketball world thought a dynasty was on the horizon for the Boom Town Thunder.
As Sam Anderson all so well knows…this is a saga which is Oklahoma oil field to the core. Boom or bust. Yet with Presti—you can’t say even with Durant gone it’s bust in Oklahoma City… you can just cling to the comfort of the Doctrine of Sustainability and the feeling in your gut the Thunder aren’t ever winning anything until Russell Westbrook can nuance his game and seamlessly shift the pace gear shift when needed.
Scott Brooks and Kevin Durant never crossed this bridge with Westbrook . We have twenty-one regular season games left to see if Billy Donovan and Paul George can cross this bridge with Westbrook in the 2019 regular season.
I’m not holding my breath. Change is a hard thing. The Thunder in San Antonio tomorrow night.