Everybody loves drama. We are all drawn to the doomsday
scenario. Every summer blockbuster movie
needs to up the stakes until the destruction of the world is not only
constantly threatened but often partially initiated. The Durant signing seems to have fed into the
tragic horror of most sports fans. Let’s
skip the season! The system is broken
and we need a hard cap and we need to eliminate max salaries! How can the league survive with just a few
super teams! What’s the point of
watching basketball or even bothering to play out the season! Now there absolutely will have to be a
lockout! I probably should have written
all those statements in capitals as well as with exclamation points.
It would probably be wise for everyone to
wake up today, the day after 4th of July, and take some long, slow,
deep breaths and chill the fuck out. I’ll
admit that my initial reaction bordered a bit on sadness. Golden State will be a lot of fun next year
but I had kind of enjoyed briefly wondering who might win the NBA championship
next year. Strangely, if I were a
betting man, I would have put my money on Oklahoma City. I thought they were the best team in the
playoffs. Their regular season wasn’t
great but I thought Steven Adams made a huge leap and the whole team found an
identity and there was really no excuse for losing 3 in a row to what appeared
to be an inferior Golden State team. Two
historic level collapses, first by the Thunder and then by Golden State
themselves had to occur in order to get where we are today on July 5th. Had The Thunder closed out their series
against Golden State, had Klay Thompson not had one of the greatest shooting nights
in NBA history in game 6, the Thunder would have made it to the NBA finals and
would probably have been favorites to win.
Had they won last year would Durant be on The Warriors today? Similarly, had Draymond not lost his mind and
punched LeBron in the nuts and had Curry not forgotten that it’s possible to
drive past Kevin Love the Warriors would probably not have lost to the Cavs in
one of the historically shocking finals collapses ever and Durant would
probably not have considered joining the reining 2 time NBA champs. The unprecedented rise in cap money also had
to happen just as one of the very best players in the game became a free agent
in a year when the other free agents were frankly not top echelon players. I’m trying to make the point here that a lot
of variables had to unfold in very specific ways for Durant to end up on Golden
State.
I’m going to try and avoid doing too much
arm chair psychology concerning Durant’s state of mind, but I think clearly,
had he really enjoyed playing with Russell Westbrook, he would not have left
Oklahoma City. I’m not saying they do
not like each other and all that kind of stuff.
I’m simply saying that if he wanted his career to stay linked with
Westbrook why would he leave. OKC would
probably have had just as good odds of winning it all next year as Golden State
had he stayed. On some level, style of
basketball must have meant something to Durant.
It doesn’t hurt that Durant leaving both makes Golden State better but
also greatly diminishes their biggest rival (I just don’t think they fear San
Antonio the same way they did OKC). Having said all that perhaps Durant simply
didn’t like the schools in his school district or he just wanted to be on the
west coast. There are a million factors
going into where each one of us considers living.
For me what is so fascinating is how insane
it is that Cleveland won the NBA championship.
LeBron seemed to will the Cavs to the finish line. I did not think it was possible for any team
in the NBA to beat Golden State three times in a row. Yes, Draymond had to get suspended and Bogut
hurt and Iguodala hurt (and possibly Curry was hurt as well) but still, I
didn’t see the Cavs shutting down Golden State’s offense. LeBron proved he is far and away the best
player on the planet in just about every facet of the game (except
shooting. He better get a shooting coach
before his body deteriorates if he wants his career to last beyond the point at
which he is the most physically dominant basketball player in the world). If Lebron weren’t so good Durant would
probably still be on OKC, or maybe not.
The important thing to remember here is these are very young men playing
a game and we should all relax a bit. It
seems like Golden State is going to win it all next year but then again it
seemed that way last year as well. You
never know. Sports are unpredictable and
life can still be entertaining even if the existence of the world isn’t at
stake.
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