Daily Thunder.com

Harvey Araton of the NY Times: “While Oklahoma City has no courtside celebrity conga line seats, Durant is not Tim Duncan and the Thunder are far from the second coming of the Spurs. Here there is enough star power to challenge the notion that supreme N.B.A. talent must invariably migrate to the vacationland hot spots like South Beach. Durant and Westbrook didn’t need to. They signed long-term deals, forgoing their first crack at free agency and establishing the Thunder as the anti-Heat for the foreseeable future.”

Bill Simmons looking back on the series: “Who could have guessed that Oklahoma City would morph into the ’91 Bulls, that Tony Parker would suddenly and inexplicably stop playing like one of the league’s best five players, that San Antonio’s role players would roll over, that every OKC player would make just about every big shot at every crucial point, that Ibaka and Perkins would make 18 of 20 shots in a remarkable Game 4, that Westbrook would find the right calibration (most of the time) between “reckless” and “breathtaking,” that TNT’s critical Game 2 commentary would motivate Perkins like it did, that Fisher would climb out of his NBA coffin and submit a couple of old-school monster Fish plays (Lakers fans are shaking their heads in disbelief right now), that Scott Brooks would swing the series with some killer adjustments and OUTCOACH Gregg Popovich, that Oklahoma City’s crowd would show Miami what it’s actually like to “fan up,” that everyone who grabbed OKC +500 after Game 2 would feel like a gambling savant, that the league would assign the Hebner Twins (a.k.a. Joey Crawford and Bill Kennedy) to Game 6, and most of all, that Durant would go Young MJ on us and simply refuse to allow the Spurs to advance, no matter how good they were?” Keep Reading…