Thunderous Superstar in the Making

If you aren't paying attention, you better start. If you don't watch his team, you should. His name is Kevin Durant and his Oklahoma City Thunder have won NINE games in a row. How good is Kevin Durant? How does 28 consecutive games of scoring at least 25+ points sound? That's already second in NBA history to some guy named Jordan.

He's listed at 230 pounds. Rrrrright, and I was offered the back page column from Sports Illustrated when Rick Reilly left. Durant is wirery and crafty. He's long and smooth. To watch him play, you can't help but be amazed at his effortless ability to drill the three and drive the lane. He's averaging almost 30 points per game and 7.5 rebounds. You can't have MVP conversations this year without his name coming up.

If you are David Stern, here is your problem. This budding superstar is playing in the smallest market in the NBA. It was no surprise at the start of this season, the Oklahoma City Thunder exercised the 4th year option on his contract. The Thunder can offer him a max contract of $80 million. Before you think Durant's camp of marketers and advisers tell him to get outta town as soon as his contract allows him to, keep this in mind: his supporting cast is young and talented. With guys like Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and James Harden, the Thunder and Durant have reason to believe the future is here and now.

Sure Durant has a $60 million endorsement deal with Nike, but aside from that, Madison Avenue isn't exactly clamoring to sign a player who resides in Oklahoma City. So does he roll the dice and leave the Thunder's solid foundation for a bigger, sexier city where marketers may come calling? Durant will probably pay attention to this summer's free agency class. LeBron James might just be the blueprint he is looking for. Will LeBron leave small market Cleveland for the bright lights of a major market like New York City? If so, what will his supporting cast look like? What will the expectations be?

For now, Durant is quietly dominating and winning in Oklahoma City. If this trend continues, the thunder will be so loud, the rest of America will have to pay attention.

Hidden Tiger Makes an Appearance

Tiger Woods is the most visible athlete in the world, yet for the past few months, we've probably seen more footage of where Osama Bin Laden is hiding out. Tiger Woods has decided now is the time to make an appearance. Tiger Woods has decided now is the time to clear the air. Tiger Woods has decided The Masters is less than 2 months away, and he needs to get somethings off his chest.

However, the way he is going about this much anticipated 'press conference' (I used that term loosely, since it's not really open to the press) is quite the head scratcher. Tiger is going to speak in front of a "small group of friends, colleagues and close associates", according to his agent Mark Steinberg. That sounds more like lunch than a press conference.

As for the few media members allowed to cover this event, well they get to be sequesters a mile away in the Sawgrass Marriott, where they will watch on closed circuit television. Huh? This reminds of going to an overly crowded temple for Yom Kippur services and being sent to the all-purpose room downstairs to watch the rabbi on television. If you are a media member, are you really flying down to Orlando to sit in a Marriott to watch something that will be readily available on ESPNews and U-Stream.

All this begs the question, who are Tiger Wood's advisers and why do they still have jobs? From day one, this entire story has been mishandled. It started out with a lie by Tiger as to what really happened that night. When you are Tiger Woods and you get chased out of your house with a 9-iron and crash your car into a tree, wouldn't your first call be to one of your advisers to say, "I think I just screwed up. How should I handle this?" Apparently the advice he received was to post statements on his own website. Not good enough.

He went "underground" for the next three months. Aside from an alleged photo at a sex rehab clinic in Mississippi, we didn't hear or see Tiger Woods. There is an old saying in my line of work (commercial real estate), "time kills deals." Well, in this case, time breeds questions. For three months Tiger has allowed too many questions be asked and too many cocktail waitresses to speak up. He had the chance to get in front of this story from day one (see David Letterman). He could have called a press conference within a week of the incident and asked for forgiveness and layout his plan to restore his image.

So here we are, three months later. What's left to say? "The sex clinic food was awful. Did 'Lefty' even win a tourny while I was gone?"

I understand this is all a personal matter and he really doesn't have to say anything. However, when you are in the public spotlight and you have created a brand for yourself, its pretty much your obligation to come forward to announce changes are coming (see Toyota).

Tiger will want to focus on the future. He will tell us what's next. Sure, there will be questions that need to be asked about his past escapades, his relationship with his wife, but those questions will only be asked amongst a small group of reporters tucked away, a mile down the road, hidden at the Marriott. I guess that seems appropriate, since those reporters will be covering a man who spent much of his private life tucked away, hidden at a hotel, where not many questions were asked.

'On Side' With Destiny

It will go down as one of the biggest, boldest calls in Super Bowl history. It will be a play talked about down on the bayou for generations. Sean Payton came out of halftime of SuperBowl XLIV and called an on-side kick. Think about that. This wasn't Week 3 at Buffalo...this was a game with legacies and history on the line.

Down 10-6 at halftime, Sean Payton had to be thinking, 'we don't want to start the 2nd half giving the ball to Peyton Manning and the Colts.' The thought had to be in the back of his mind, 'we can't get down by two possessions.' If the Saints kicked off to start the second half and Manning drove the Colts down for a touchdown, suddenly its 17-6 and you're down two possessions. That means you now have to come up with two scores while not allowing the Colts to put up points on their possessions. That can seem like a pretty tall order.

Can you imagine that conversation at halftime? Picture Sean Payton and special teams coach Greg McMahon huddled quietly off to the side playing rock, paper, scissors to decide if they come out of the locker room with an onside kick. Once it was decided amongst the coaching staff, imagine the scene when they announced the game plan to the entire team, as they sat there in their locker stalls catching their breath. You get the sense with this group of guys, there was a collective cheer. A rallying cry if you will. While everyone got jacked up and was ready to explode out of the locker room, what do you think kicker, Thomas Morestead was thinking? When he heard the 2nd half was going to start with him attempting an on-side kick, I envision a Gatorade spit-take. "Come again coach?" Well, gameplan executed. Saints took the lead. Swagger back and their offense never looked back.

The people of New Orleans are no strangers to courage and overcoming adversity. It's rather fitting that their football team won it's first Super Bowl title by taking on the personality of it's city. A courageous call that will never be forgotten.