Tag: Kevin Durant

Lu Dort a fan favorite, but no room for him in roster of retired Thunder jerseys

Lu Dort went from undrafted two-way player to a fan favorite as an Oklahoma City Thunder. (Photo credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images)

My wife, Paula, and I were sitting in our living room, commiserating a few days after the stunning trade of Lu Dort to the Atlanta Hawks by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The trade hit us hard. Dort had endeared himself to us because of his hard-nosed, aggressive defensive play and timely 3-point shooting for the Thunder. He played a key role in the team’s 2025 NBA championship.

“I think Dort’s number should be hung in the rafters at Paycom Center,” she said.

I thought about her statement for a few seconds. I know it came from the heart.

However…

“I think there are several other player numbers that might go up before Dort’s,” I replied.

“Well, Nick Collison’s number is already hanging up there,” she finally said, implying, perhaps, that Collison didn’t have the impact that Dort had.

We went back and forth on the topic for a couple of minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Lu Dort, but …

There’s no right answer to this debate, but it got me to thinking whose number(s) really belong in the rafters above the Thunder’s home court.

I’m pretty sure Collison’s number 4 was retired because his career spanned both the team’s Seattle era and well into its OKC tenure. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, Collison was known as “Mr. Thunder” and also played a key role as the team gained its footing here and became a force in the NBA Western Conference and playoffs.

Here’s who I see as most deserving of seeing their number hanging above the Thunder playing floor. In addition to Collison, you can count them on three fingers.

Russell Westbrook. Why not? Russ played a critical role in the team’s rise to prominence in the early 2010s, then committed to OKC after Kevin Durant bolted in 2015.

Kevin Durant: Yes, KD broke our hearts when he ditched the Thunder to join Golden State, but there’s no question about the impact he had on the team’s rise to prominence.

Shai Gilgeous Alexander: SGA is a long ways from retirement, but he brought us a championship, two MVPs and continues to play like a champion.

Who might be long shots for consideration?

OK, Stephen Adams, for one. A big fan favorite and a big impact player during his time here. Serge Ibaka, my favorite player ever out of the Congo. Lu Dort, of course.  It’s a shame he was traded for draft picks in a salary dump.

I can’t go much deeper on my list. Of current players, it appears that Alex Caruso, Ajay Mitchell and Cason Wallace all show jersey-retirement potential if they can bring us a few more titles.

Now, let’s consider rafter-worthy Thunder players from my friends Ed Godfrey and Steve Buck. They are also co-hosts with me of the 3 Old Geezers podcast.

Ed Godfrey
“Westbrook as soon as he retires. SGA when he retires. No one else. Durant at some point but not immediately. He has to pay a penance for leaving. SGA is a two-time MVP and led the team to a title. He could not score another point and deserve it.”

Steve Buck
“Collison, Russ, KD, SGA. Criteria: 10 years with team or league MVP. Sam Presti and Mark Daigneault get banners, too. All players from 24-25 team go up on a shared banner. Only four retired numbers.”

Steve sets a pretty high bar. I guess we all do. But it’s fun to speculate and debate in the off-season.

Thank you, Paula, for inspiring this post.

BONUS CONTENT: OKC Mayor David Holt may be the Thunder’s biggest fan. He can go deep on the team’s history, too (read his book Big League City). Anyway, Mayor Holt posted a stirring tribute to Dort on Facebook in the wake of his recent trade to Atlanta. Here’s the money quote from Holt’s post:

“Lu Dort was not just one of the 18 young men who brought Oklahoma City its first title in 2025, he was a key leader and contributor, and always a fan favorite for his suffocating defense on opponents. The Dorture Chamber will long live in Thunder mythology. Lu Dort will long live in Oklahoma City history.”

Read his entire post on Facebook.

MORE BONUS CONTENT:  I heard from a couple friends of mine after they read this post, and decided to share their perspectives.  Thank for letting me publish these worthy comments, guys.

Kent Taylor is retired from the oil and gas industry and lives in Owasso:

“Love the post…have to agree with Steve…Collison, Russ, SGA…and yes, but still need time to heal…KD.  I still remember (son) Clint running out to the backyard where I was sitting on my lawnmower mowing to tell me KD was gone. The sting’s gone…especially when rubbing the salve of our ‘25 championship and watching how that Texan can’t win one without GS’s dynasty players. Yes, there’s also probably some bias as an OU alum mixed in.”

David Ramsey is a retired, long-time sportswriter who lives in Colorado:

“The Lugster not so beloved here on Front Range. But … wish we had him on Nuggets roster. Fun to see how Presti is/was messing with the Nuggets by going after Spencer Jones, a solid player with weirdest shot on our planet, or any other. The salary cap is wonderful, except when it causes havoc with Your Favorite Team.”

 

 

 

 

Clickbait always reels me in

Screenshot

I stumbled across an online headline last week that was so shocking that I couldn’t click on the story fast enough.

“The Phoenix Suns Will Trade Kevin Durant to the Oklahoma City Thunder,” the headline shouted.

What? Click.

Turns out it was only someone’s outlandish conjecturing with nothing to back it up. It wasn’t even a rumor.

In fact, the story led with an editor’s note that said “This article is a PREDICTION and not a REPORT.”

What it was, was “clickbait,” designed to pull in as many readers as possible because clicks equal eyeballs which equal advertising revenue.

I felt foolish for even clicking on the headline.

Still, I always click.

Clickbait seems to dominate the sports headlines you are likely to run across in a Google search or as a link found on your favorite social media platform.

For instance, I shared a headline I saw last week in a group text with my friends Steve Buck and Ed Godfrey that said “The Giannis to OKC discourse has started.”

Screenshot

Steve immediately responded, “Clickbait.”

Yeah, but I still clicked on it. Just call me gullible. I can’t NOT click when I see an intriguing-yet-preposterous headline.

Just a couple days ago I ran cross a headline that said Russell Westbrook sent the OKC Thunder a “message” after the Denver Nuggets sent the Thunder to their first defeat of the seas week.

I clicked on it, of course. Turns out, Russ didn’t exactly drop the Big One on the Thunder. Here’s the “message” Westbrook delivered during the course of a postgame interview:

“Right now they’ve got the best record but I feel like we’ve got a better team and tonight we showed that.”

Not exactly bulletin board material and not a pointed comment, really. But it captured my eyeballs with a click.

So we come to tonight. As I am writing this blog post, I came across yet another intriguing headline.

“A Bucks-Thunder trade sending Brook Lopez to OKC would benefit both sides” 

What? Click. I AM gullible.

Screenshot

My first NBA crush

CP3 Hornets
Chris Paul as an OKC Hornet handles the ball vs. the Dallas Mavericks. (Oklahoman photo)

I came across an interesting feature over the weekend in The Oklahoman that ranked the top 15 players in Oklahoma City Thunder history.

We’re roughly five weeks or so from the launch of the 2023-24 NBA season, so the timing of such a list was right to generate clicks from Thunder fans like me.

And of course, it was bound to stir up some passion and some controversy. First of all, the rankings by The Oklahoman beat writer Joe Mussatto had Russell Westbrook at No. 1 and Kevin Durant No. 2.

I posted a link to the story to my Facebook page, and right off the bat a couple of friends took exception.

“Sorry but Durant was the greatest player by far even with his bad exit…,” said Scott Rollins, a local business leader and biotechnology researcher.

“SGA behind Serge?!? Westbrook ahead of Durant, even though he stipulates that Durant is the best player to ever put on a Thunder uniform,” was the response from Tony Thornton, a former colleague at The Oklahoman.

There was one ranking I was happy to see, no matter where the player was ranked.

Chris Paul came in at No. 10, even though he had only one season as an Oklahoma City Thunder. Remember, CP3 willed our team to the playoffs in the 2020 pandemic bubble with outstanding play and leadership.

For me, Paul’s return to OKC was something of a welcome homecoming. He was a member of the New Orleans Hornets when they were forced to play two seasons in OKC in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Along the way, CP3 became my first NBA crush. And I got to meet him for an assignment as a Business News reporter for The Oklahoman.

CP3 was the focus of a special marketing video made by AT&T that featured NBA players and their ‘cribs.’ Most were guys who lived in ostentatious mansions.

CP3 lived with his brother in a modest home just north of 33rd in Edmond.

So, when a film crew flew into town to shoot the video at Paul’s “crib,” my editor sent me out to cover the filming and interview the star. CP3 could not have been more accommodating, patiently answering my questions from the driveway of his home before the filming began.

As a bonus, the video included Prime Time himself, Deion Sanders, who showed up just before the filming started.  I did not get to meet the future Coach Prime.

I had a second face-to-face with CP3 a couple weeks later at a Thunder game. My son, Ryan, was the lucky recipient of a drawing that allowed him to go down on the court after the game and have his photo made with Paul.

I accompanied Ryan, and CP3 recognized me from our previous encounter.

(An aside: A series of youth basketball camps were held in the OKC metro using Chris Paul’s name, and my son attended one. He said that CP3 actually showed up at the camp and did one-on-one drills with the campers).

So that’s the story behind why I consider CP3 to be my first NBA crush. And why I was happy to see him included as a top 15 player across Thunder history.

Now, let the critics roar over the rankings.

cp3 3
CP3 (right) with Deion Sanders (center) and the video director

Oklahoma, we have all been here before

Jenni

It seems like deja vu all over again for Oklahoma.

I’m talking about the similarities between Lincoln Riley’s unexpected departure from OU this week and that of Kevin Durant from the OKC Thunder in 2016. The feeling of being blindsided. The widespread anger.  The loyal hero who steps up.

As I read Jenni Carlson’s column in The Oklahoman this morning on how Bob Stoops has further endeared himself to OU fans by stepping up in the wake of Lincoln Riley’s departure, another name instantly came to mind. 

Russell Westbrook.

Russ pageRuss stepped up big time in 2016 after Kevin Durant unexpectedly abandoned the OKC Thunder ship. He said “why not” and signed a 3-year contract extension before the season even began.

Here’s how he was quoted by espn.com:

“There’s nowhere else I would rather be than Oklahoma City,” Westbrook said at a news conference to announce the deal. “You guys have basically raised me. I’ve been here since I was 18, 19 years old. You guys did nothing but great things for me. Through the good and the bad, you guys supported me through it all, and I appreciate it. Definitely when I had the opportunity to be able to be loyal to you guys, that’s the No. 1 option. Loyalty is something that I stand by.” 

It was an incredibly feel good moment after the anger generated across the state when KD announced on the Players Tribune on July 4 that he was taking his talents to the Left Coast. His announcement prompted me to write a blog post with some lyrics from The Beatles that were appropriate for the occasion.

Now we have Coach Stoops stepping up as interim coach at a critical time for Sooners. On Twitter, fans heaped praise on Stoops not only for stepping in but for the calming comments he made at the news conference announcing his temporary return.

And why not, to borrow Russ’s famous phrase.

Unwelcome Ch-ch-changes

The Thunder tipoff in an early November 2015 game at Chesapeake Arena.

The 2020-21 Oklahoma City roster proves a point that I’ve heard many times over the years.

We’re only cheering for laundry.

Like many Oklahomans, I’ve been a Thunder fan since the team relocated here in 2008. I’ve been to many games over the years.

Along the way, I adopted many Thunder players as my own. Russell Westbrook. Nick Collison. Serge Ibaka. Steven Adams. Andre Roberson. Jerami Grant. Enes Kanter. James Harden. Even Kevin Durant. Especially KD.

The list goes on.

For several years, we had a core of players that we knew and could count on leading the Thunder lineup every season. We got to the NBA Finals with that lineup one year and should have made it to another if Patrick Beverly had not assaulted Westbrook.

But that’s another story. My point is that I became comfortable with our players and our team, although the roster was slowly turning over as we lost Harden, Ibaka, Kanter, et al over time.

Then KD left abruptly. But Russell stayed, and while we added and subtracted new players, our core stayed relatively stable.

Then 2019-2020 happened and the Thunder as I’ve known them disappeared. Westbrook long gone. Grant gone. Adams gone. Dennis Schroder gone. Chris Paul came and went from OKC a second time.

By the time the 2020-21 season started, we had four — four! — players from our previous roster, none of them long-time beloved stars.

So, I’m still watching the Thunder nightly, but with much less passion. I know Sam Presti’s plan is to lose now to chase potential later. But I don’t have to like it.

A friend I’ll call “Steve” accused me of being a fan of mediocrity.

“Winning by losing,” he said. “What a great concept.”

But we weren’t mediocre. The Thunder that I knew were great and went where small market teams almost never go, to the NBA Finals. And with players we knew and loved.

Now, we’ve turned the roster over and acquired dozens of first round draft choices, because the grass is always greener in the future.

I’m not sure if mass roster changes will ever end as Presti chases the elusive future player who will bring us championship glory.

It’s a bittersweet relationship, but now I know. We’re only cheering for laundry.

Paul McCartney knows just how OKC feels

When Kevin Durant told OKC two weeks ago “It’s not you, it’s me” and moved in with the Golden State Warriors, there was something familiar about the scenario. It was the type of relationship-gone-bad about which movies are made and songs are written. One person left stunned and hurt as their lover announces out of the blue that he or she is moving on to a new partner.

kd pixThen I was driving down the road Saturday when the Beatles’ “I’m Looking Through You” came on the radio. It hit me. Paul McCartney’s bitter lyrics about the partner who jilted him was a perfect description of how thousands of OKC fans felt watching @KDTrey35 being introduced as a Warrior. Well, it hit me that way, anyway.

Here is a sampling of the lyrics written 50 years ago. They perfectly describe the KD-OKC breakup:

I’m looking through you,
Where did you go?
I thought I knew you,
What did I know?
You don’t look different, but you have changed.
I’m looking through you, you’re not the same.

Your lips are moving,
I cannot hear.
Your voice is soothing,
But the words aren’t clear.
You don’t sound different,
I’ve learned the game.
I’m looking through you,
You’re not the same.

Why, tell me why, did you not treat me right?
Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight.

You’re thinking of me,
The same old way.
You were above me,
But not today.
The only difference is you’re down there.
I’m looking through you,
And you’re nowhere.

Why, tell me why did you not treat me right?
Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight.

I’m looking through you, 
Where did you go?
I thought I knew you,
What did I know?
You don’t look different,
But you have changed.
I’m looking through you,
You’re not the same!

Yep, KD. You don’t look different. But you have changed.