Wednesday Bolts – 7.27.16
Dion Waiters on Instagram: “I didn’t do it for the money… I did it for the opportunity to
go out & ball & have fun. Everything else will take care of its self!!! I just felt like it was the best situation for me…& my family. I could have waited & got wat I wanted. But I rather be happy then miserable at the end of the day!!! Meaning Yu can have everything & still not be happy… #heatnation let’s get it!!! #provethemwrong #stamped #Philly”
Sam Amick of USA Today: “After Durant finished the first-half action, hitting a three from the right wing for a 52-24 lead, the camaraderie that was such a pivotal part of the Warriors’ free agency proposal was on full display during the break. As Durant came out to take shots, he noticed the late-arriving Curry standing on the sideline. They hugged. They laughed. They whispered silly stuff into each other’s ears. And when famed NBA photographer Andy Bernstein came by to capture the moment, they were more than willing to pose for a picture that, in a way, captured the very spirit of this superstar union. Curry, who played through an ailing right knee in the playoffs and chose against playing for Team USA in order to recover, seemed more than happy to share that spotlight on his home floor.”
Draymond Green sent KD a lot of texts: “Once July 1 hit, I did. I had sent so many texts to him over those last three days, I’m not sure the exact amount of number. I can’t even give you a ballpark, I just know it was too many. But it worked, so I’m all right with that.”
Dieter Kurtenbach of Fox Sports: “Training camps open at the end of September. Whether the Thunder make it public or not, they need to have a plan of action in place for either signing Westbrook in July or moving him before the trade deadline. Westbrook can maintain control of the situation for the next few weeks, but the Thunder will have a tough decision to make: They don’t get to choose whether they rebuild or not, but they do get to choose how they’ll be held hostage.”
Dan Devine of Yahoo: “It would be hard to blame Westbrook for feeling upset and blindsided by finding out that Durant would be moving on, and especially by finding it out just like the rest of us. The two played together for eight years, spending the bulk of their 20s elevating the Thunder to the ranks of the NBA elite, and propelling one another to international superstardom. They’d had their share of on-court friction, but whenever outside voices framed those blow-ups as evidence that their games and styles couldn’t mesh, they insisted that the incidents represented the unfactored remainder of the explosiveness, creativity and fire that made them so great individually, and Oklahoma City so great as a collective — that they showed just how much passion both felt, and how tight their bond really was.”
