Not just ‘another game’
Kevin Durant returns to Chesapeake Arena on Wednesday night.
Ice the cupcakes. Stoke the venom. Rest the vocal chords in advance of a night of hearty booing.
But just know this. Durant returns sporting not just the Golden State jersey that ignites more negative energy than wormholes and warp drives, but an olive branch.
What else to make of Durant’s Bleacher Report interview, published last week? Sure, Durant talks in circles and has mostly since leaving Oklahoma City 16 months ago. Sometimes, you don’t know if Durant is trying to convince us or himself that he made the right decision to leave the Thunder. Durant is nothing if not conflicted.
But the interview produced some insight from Durant that shows the fractious nature of his relationship with the Thunder isn’t permanent. At least not in his mind, and hopefully not in the Thunder’s, either.
“That stuff right there is going to last forever,” Durant said. “That stuff is way, way more important than a championship. Me and my family didn’t just erase those eight years in OKC. D.C. and OKC is where we grew up — my mom, my brother, me. I am OKC. I’m still OKC. That blue is going to be in my blood forever. That place raised me. I have people there who would take a bullet for me and vice versa.”
If you read the whole Bleacher Report story, you know that Durant wasn’t just being reflective and conciliatory. He had some crass things to say about fandom in general. They were totally true, but still crass.
Still, it’s a little disarming when an Oklahoma villain says, “I am OKC. I’m still OKC. That blue is going to be in my blood forever.”
Durant didn’t say that in hopes the little girl in the cupcake suit will leave her costume at home. Didn’t say that to stem the booing from Loud City; he knows it’s too soon for that.
Didn’t say that to hedge the verdict Wednesday night. Right now, this rivalry remains as onesided as OU-Kansas football, and even more bitter.
Durant said it because it’s true. He is Oklahoma City. Nobody in Loud City wants to admit it, but it’s true. Some day, Durant’s No. 35 jersey will hang from the rafters in downtown OKC. Might take awhile. Might not be at the ‘Peake. Might be at a new coliseum in the decades to come. But that day will
come.
Durant himself knows that.
Durant addressed the Thunder giving his No. 35 to rookie P.J. Dozier, who is on a two-way contract with the Oklahoma City Blue and might never wear a Thunder uniform. Durant said he was angered when he first heard the news.
“Then I had to get out of my head, tell myself, ‘It’s not that serious, it is what it is,’” Durant said. “I understand it’s not my number anymore, they can do whatever they want with it, but you hand that number to a two-way player, you’ve got to be, like, ‘Nah, we’ve got too many good memories with this
number, man.’ But at some point, that thing’s going to be in the rafters anyway; it’s all good. I did something they didn’t like. They did something I didn’t like.”
We interrupt this discussion to point out that bolting to the Warriors and giving No. 35 to P.J. Dozier are not exactly congruent acts. But let’s move on.
Durant’s jersey indeed will hang from the rafters one day. The angry don’t want to entertain the notion and the heartbroken don’t want to think about it. But it will happen. Durant seems to understand that beyond the ramifications of scores and championships, there are lives and
people.
Hence the olive branch. “If I was on my deathbed,” Durant told Bleacher Report, “I guarantee you Sam Presti and Russell Westbrook would come check on me. So I’m going to look at it that way rather than the other way.”
Presti absolutely would visit Durant. Westbrook, probably depends on if the season was in progress. But the point is well made. The rancor shall pass.
The opposite of love is not hate. It’s apathy. The gulf between love and hate is not mighty. Sometimes it’s narrow. Durant seems to realize that fans are fans and not to be taken too seriously
in good times or bad. And the schism between Durant and those people who helped raise him is not permanent.
“Those people really mean a lot to me to this day,” Durant said. “No matter if they talk to me or they’re mad at me. Whether it’s Sam Presti or Troy Weaver or Russell Westbrook or Nick Collison. Whether it’s Wilson Taylor or Clay Bennett and his family, I love them from the bottom of my heart. We’re not talking, but eventually we will.”
Good country song in there somewhere. Tammy Wynette and George Jones could have made hay with lyrics like that.
Durant’s olive branch was not absolute. He zinged Thunder fans. He talked of no loyalty in the league. He claimed his twitter criticism of Billy Donovan was a one-time thing, which seems quite unlikely, and offered no apologies, which seems quite classless.
But small steps. Durant will come to town, then he will go, and we all will be a tad closer to reconciliation.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.