The nouveau riche got richer officially Thursday.
I like to tweak their adoring fans at times, but I have no real disdain for the Golden State Warriors — nor love for the Oklahoma City Thunder. If I sound bitter about one of the two or three best players in the NBA leaving his team to join a squad that doesn’t really need him, it’s only because I know what the OKC fans are feeling.
Back when I cared way too much about the Boston Red Sox, ace pitcher Roger Clemens abandoned ship — still at the peak of his powers, still without having delivered a championship to the franchise that drafted him.
But at least Clemens did two years of job laundering with the Toronto Blue Jays before joining the hated and already star-studded New York Yankees.
Durant is going straight from the team that went up three-games-to-one against Golden State in the Western Conference finals — only to do what the Warriors did in the NBA Finals against Cleveland … drop three in a row, and the series, to a team it had gasping for breath.
Durant has the same right LeBron James and every other player does to go where he can get the best deal, where he is most comfortable. But this is just too soon for those in Sooner country, fans who thought they had a career lifer in Durant who would eventually bring them the title.
It’s one thing to go home in the twilight of your career if you’re not feeling loved, like what Dwyane Wade did by leaving Miami for Chicago. It’s another to leave home, like LeBron James infamously did with “The Decision” to join forces with Wade and Chris Bosh and form a Big Three with the Heat.
Yes, Durant wasn’t as noisy about it, and that makes it more acceptable in the public eye. James’ nationally televised boastful prediction of multiple championships in Miami made him a bigger target, despite his millions in donations from advertising on “The Decision” broadcast.
It took a year for the Heat to coalesce before winning back-to-back championships.
The Lakers tried to put together a super team in 2003. After three consecutive NBA championships, Los Angeles had lost to San Antonio in that year’s Western Conference finals. So it picked up Karl Malone and Gary Payton in the offseason to augment Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
L.A.’s’ Hall of Fame lineup was shocked in the 2004 Finals by the Detroit Pistons, a team heavily built on defense.
The Lakers then were significantly older than the Warriors are now. But along with the Heat of 2010-11 they’re a prime example that adding superstars does not guarantee a championship, at least right away.
That’s not to say it can’t and hasn’t been done.
“A long time ago, an NBA MVP left the Rockets and joined a perennial NBA Finals bridesmaid, the Sixers, to win a championship and no one batted an eye,” said Tim Lee, who has been a Golden State Warriors fans since he worked in their clubhouse as a kid 40 years ago.
Perhaps Moses Malone got a pass because he and Julius Erving gave the 76ers a Big Two, as opposed to three or four superstars, and fans nationwide wanted to see Dr. J win a title.
Or maybe the world was just a different place back in 1983.