Good Saturday. Thanks for your support of DT. Enjoy and such and such.
The most interesting recent KD-at-a-pickup-game video is probably this one of him getting dunked on. But that’s not what I’m about ’round these parts. So instead, enjoy yet another batch of highlights featuring Durant as New York City’s Dyckman league. He dropped another 40 spot there and for the week, averaged 43.5 points per game in his run in the Big Apple. Not too bad.
Tyson Chandler’s lockout prediction: “I don’t know. I don’t know when it’s going to end. This may drag on for a long time. What I will say is that it’s unfortunate that the league has taken this stance that has taken the game away from our fans, as well as our players. It’s untimely, coming off some of the highest ratings that we’ve had in the NBA Finals. League revenue is up. Attendance is up. Excitement about the league is up, thanks to young players, trades, player movement. Even with us becoming a Cinderella team. There’s a lot of excitement around the league. It’s unfortunate the league would take this stance to take the game away from the fans and players at this point in time. Very unfortunate situation. We have to see how it’s going to go.”
A word from D.J. White on the trade: “I looked at it as ‘it’s part of the business’. No hard feelings at all,” White told HOOPSWORLD about the trade. “I’m still in contact with those guys. We had a special bond. I was pulling for them during the playoffs.” However difficult it was to leave the only NBA team he had known, White embraced the move. “It was an opportunity to get on the court and further my career,” he explained.” Keep Reading…
A night after ripping apart the fabled Rucker Park with 66 points including an epic stretch of four straight 3-pointers, Kevin Durant did what has to do in order to breathe: He played more basketball.
He finished with 41 in a game in New York City’s Nike Pro City, showing off a bunch of what he did at Rucker. Dunks, jumpers, deep 3s and all the like. One thing about this event that was a bit different: Some dude decided he wanted to heckle Durant all game long.
The guy starts with “Baby LeBron,” as if that’s supposed to be some major slight. Durant even looks back at the guy and says, “Baby LeBron? OK, Baby LeBron.” I don’t even understand the jab there.
The guy didn’t let up so then Durant even looks at him with a smile that clearly says, “Come on man, shut up,” and gives a little thumbs down. Then he yelled, “This ain’t Rucker, Kev.” Yep, some small gym in NYC definitely isn’t the legendary pickup court. Got that one right, heckler person.
Durant missed a free throw to tie the game and a couple more people joined in. They even started chanting “Russ-ell West-brook.” I get why, really, that’s kind of a pathetic attempt. Durant and Westbrook are really close friends and even though I’m sure Durant understood the reason, it was probably one of the dumbest chants ever lobbed at him.
Right after, in typical ice-cold Durantula fashion, KD dropped a game-tying 3 to send the game to overtime. After hitting it, he looked over at his hecker, cracked a grin and gave him a little “waddup” look. And to wrap it up, Durant drilled the game-winning 3 and gave his heckler a friendly goodbye wave. Durant, in the way he normally does, let his game do the talking. Durant 1, heckler 0.
Serge Ibaka returned to Brazzaville to help kids: “He faced many of the challenges that these kids are currently going through while he was growing up in Brazzaville. Serge’s story serves as a great example of how hard work and focus can allow you to follow your dreams and his visit was a great chance for these children to hear about it first-hand. Serge’s good work will be continued as he is planning to start a project for street children in Brazzaville through UNICEF.”
Beckley Mason of HoopSpeak on lockout wars: “A part of me just wants to players to cave so we can have a season next year. Another part, the part that hopes the fantastically skilled and entertaining laborers can get a reasonable deal, wants a world governed by transparency and rationality. That part can just barely stomach the NBA owners leveraging all they have to get a revolutionary new deal, but not the misrepresentations about why they want it, or how they’re going about getting it.” Keep Reading…
(Editor’s note: Last year we honored Shark Week, and the doldrums even of a lockout-less NBA August, by comparing sharks to the Thunder. So we’re revisiting that theme again in 2011 with the new roster. Perk deserves his own shark too, basically. Some of these are re-runs or slightly modified re-runs from last year, and some are brand new.)
It’s Shark Week again! And it’s still 142 degrees in Oklahoma. Let’s compare members of the Thunder family to sharks.
Kevin Durant: Porbeagle shark
I know, that was pretty predictable. When you saw where this column was going, you instantly thought, “Kevin Durant is JUST like a porbeagle shark.” Or maybe not.
While most sharks prefer more glamorous and warmer climates, the porbeagle shark is home in the quieter, cool waters further away from the coast. He can heat up all on his own. Porbeagles’ tendency to seemingly play, tossing around bits of debris in groups of up to 20, is like Durant’s propensity to play basketball all the time. They just enjoy being sharks, like he just enjoys playing basketball. Keep Reading…
It wasn’t quite the spectacle that Rucker Park ended up being, but Kevin Durant took the floor in New York City again last night playing at Nike Pro City. He finished with 49 as his team won 146-143 in a gritty defensive war.
But as TBJ notes, it’s obvious KD just can’t stop playing basketball. He always talks about how it’s what he lives to do, but if there’s a game for him to play in, he’s going to be there. I guess that’s how he ended up in this game against grade school kids dropping 284 points.
Kelly Dwyer of BDL on KD’s night at Rucker: “This is a game that people need to see. This is a game that needs to be watched, even if Reggie Miller is calling the action. This is a game that, sometime around early November, needs to come back into people’s lives. This is a game that counts for absolutely nothing, but means all the world to those who have given their lives to it. NBA? The NBA’s players? This isn’t a game.”
Nickname ideas for Chesapeake Energy Arena
Chesapeake Energy Arena. I don’t think anyone around here was really surprised, and I think a lot of us were relieved because it could have been worse. I’m not really a big fan of Energy Solutions Arena or Quicken Loans Arena or any of the other pretty lame NBA building names out there. At least we’re lucky in that the big corporations headquartered in Oklahoma City (Chesapeake, Devon, SandRidge, MidFirst Bank, Sonic, etc.) don’t have horrible names.
Still, the Ford Center was a solid name. In the era of sponsored building names, that’s about as traditional, institutional and majestic as it gets. And it didn’t really need a nickname. “It’s at the Ford Center” rolled off the tongue pretty easily. It still does, really, for people like me who have been calling it that even when it was officially known as Oklahoma City Arena.
But the new arena name isn’t nearly as compact. It’s not as natural to say, “I’m headed to Chesapeake Energy Arena for the game.” This arena needs a nickname. Let’s get the ball rolling so we can have a nickname picked out for the next NBA season (which hopefully starts sooner than October 2012). Here are my top choices so far. Please submit your own in the comment section. This is important. Keep Reading…