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My Musings on Saturday’s Loss to Golden State

February 13th, 2017 · No Comments · Family Life

Saturday night the OKC Thunder played the Golden State Warriors.

For those of you who do not follow OKC Basketball, Kevin Durant got free agency last year.  He left the Thunder for Golden State for, I’m sure, a variety of reasons.  He did it in a way that probably could have been handled differently.  Saturday night was the first time Kevin Durant had been back in OKC since he made that move.  The Thunder had already played Golden State and been soundly beaten by them.  Twice.

I don’t have cable TV, so I don’t regularly watch the games.  Frankly, I’m only mildly interested though I’m proud that such a young team came to OKC and has done so well in the relatively short time they have been here.  I’m impressed with the way the City has embraced the team and the team has seemed to have embraced the City and been willing to give back.  I don’t really know what happened when the team left Seattle, but they are very well liked here.  Kevin Durant was well liked.  He came here when he was young.  He stayed a long time.  He left in a way that sort of left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.  I don’t know if he could have left in a way that didn’t feel like a betrayal but that is something we will never know.

Having said that, I think booing Kevin Durant when he came out on the court wasn’t nice and the audience shouldn’t have done it.   I think complete and total silence would have been much more effective.  He was a favorite son.  He’s not anymore.  Who is to say he won’t want to come back here to retire?  I understand that’s commonly done in football.  Do they do that in basketball?  I sort of assumed that is what LaBron James is doing back in Cleveland.

Kevin Durant did what is best for him.  It was based on his decision or a decision someone else made and talked him into.  I get that he wants a championship ring.  He thinks he is more likely to get that with the Golden State Warriors than with the OKC Thunder.  There are those that say he wants it but doesn’t want to work to get it.  I’m not quite willing to indict him in quite that way, but I see their point.

Another observation about the game last weekend.  When you are losing by 20 points, it isn’t Kevin Durant’s fault.  Getting in his face about anything at that point, just made us/you look bad.  When you are down by 20, put on your big boy pants, continue to play to the best of your ability, accept you got beaten by the better team, move on and strive to do better next time.

And finally, rumor has it that Kevin Durant tried to reserve a local restaurant after the game to take the Golden State Warriors team and staff and assorted people who travel with the team.  They apparently turned him down.  It is a restaurant I’ve never been to.  And frankly it’s one I’m not likely to eat at because I don’t generally eat in the same class of restaurant that multi-millionaire NBA basketball players eat.  I don’t know what went into the decision to turn Kevin Durant down.

That’s a hard one to formulate an opinion about.  Was it right? Was it wrong?  Was it simply a business decision?  If the restaurant had accommodated Kevin Durant, and not opened on Saturday night (at what I can only assume would have been an exorbitant, eye popping cost) would that have angered their normal clientele enough that they would have been willing to boycott the restaurant.  Was that a chance the restaurant was willing to take?  I saw one sign on TV that read, “I’m going to Mahogany’s for dinner after the game.” Was the restaurant owner one of those people who felt betrayed, in some personal way, by Kevin Durant’s defection to Golden State?

When Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were both on the Thunder, I, as an uninformed professional basketball player watcher, never understood why KD was the “star” and Russell was the “sidekick.”  The Thunder pretty consistently won when KD was out but Russell Westbrook was playing.  They didn’t consistently win when Russell Westbrook was out but KD was playing.  I still don’t really get it.  On a team full of stars, Kevin Durant doesn’t particularly stand out.  I didn’t think he particularly stood out on Saturday.

I still think Russell Westbrook is the star.

 

 

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