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.
KD is the truth. He is an example that David Stern may have gotten it right by forcing them to school or overseas for a year (Rose, Evans, and Jennings help Stern's argument a lot too). He should be MVP in 3-5 yrs.
ReplyDeleteI don't see him leaving though. First, he seems to really be enjoying the small city thing every time he's asked about it. Second, with the way the Collective Bargaining Agreement is set up OKC will have every oppotunity to resign him at full value. Third and final point, winning changes everything. If OKC looks up and finds themselves legitimately contending for a ring its gonna be that much easier to keep him in OKC. Endorsements will find their way to him out there in no-man's land. Howard in Orlando is the prime example.
Of course if NY, Chicago, or some top ten market team has 15-20 mil in cap space and a decent squad two years from now I'm gonna be eating my words...