Thunder prepares for Warriors
Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant face off Wednesday.
Russell Westbrook vs. Kevin Durant II arrives Wednesday night, again hard by the Bay. America will be all aquiver.
Not us Oklahomans, of course. We know what’s coming. Especially without Stone Cold Steven Adams, the Thunder has no hope of slowing the Golden Hate Warriors. In Oklahoma, Westbrook vs. Durant figures to be no more appetizing than Batman vs. Superman. And no more fair.
The psychological drama between the old pals — Once Brothers II — makes for can’t-miss television. Even Thunder fans who can’t bring themselves to watch the Warriors this season, because the sorrow or disgust or pain of Durant in enemy threads is too much to bear, will tune
in. Not out of excitement or expectation, but out of loyalty to Westbrook. If he fights the good fight, the least we can do is watch the good fight.
Golden Fate is wildly popular because the public is drawn to morality plays. You can’t blame Warrior fans for obsessing over a historicallygreat roster. The rest of the world is split between legions afflicted with bandwagon mentality and those who feel natural rancor with evil empires.
Like baseball’s Yankees and football’s Patriots, the Warriors now are a franchise you love or love to hate. They’ve replaced the Lakers.
Lakers, Patriots, Yankees, all were good for their sport.
So, too, will be these Warriors. For a time. For a season. Television ratings will rise. Jersey sales will soar. Money will flow into corporate coffers.
But long-term? Not so much. The showtime aspect of the NBA is strong. The entertainment side of the NBA is no small machine. But at the core of NBA business is the ballgame itself. And the vast majority of NBA fans enjoy a little competitiveness sprinkled into their ballgames.
The NBA has lost that with the Warriors.
Durant’s jump from Oklahoma City to Oakland tilted the delicate balance of the NBA. The league long has displayed a lack of parity. Fewer franchises winning titles. Fewer franchises capable of winning titles.
While you never know who might win a baseball game or series, and while the NFL has constant movement up and down the standings, the NBA is largely staid.
The NBA long has needed dilution of its rosters. A Durant/ Westbrook split was not bad for the NBA. But a Durant addition to a 73-win Warrior team was the last thing basketball needed. The NBA needs more teams that can win the title; instead, it got fewer.
That is not a model for long-term success.
We’re lucky in OKC, that Westbrook is still here with some interesting talent. It makes for interesting games and an interesting season and maybe even an interesting playoff series or two. Half the league is not so lucky.
In Milwaukee and New Orleans and Washington, long-despairing fan bases are much further from championship contention, not closer, despite some decent roster-building.
You can’t blame the Warriors on any level for going after Durant. You can blame NBA management — Commissioner Adam Silver and the board of governors — for not pushing for a harder line on the expanded payroll cap. The wrinkle in time that allowed Golden Rate to go after Durant in the precise summer in which television revenues exploded was disastrous timing for the Thunder, yes, but also unfortunate timing for most of the league.
And the last several collective bargaining agreements have been touted as documents that would keep superstars in their current environments. None did so.
So now league-wide intrigue centers not so much on playoff seeding, or what could happen when the postseason arrives, but on personality dramas. On Carmelo in New York or DeMarcus Cousins in Sacramento or Westbrook and James statistical marvels or Westbrook vs. Durant.
A third straight Warrior-Cavaliers NBA Finals seems not just possibility, but virtual certainty.
Good for the league short term. Not long term.