Awesome Foursome.

Kevin Durant made his decision today. It was not what we were expecting and he pretty much shocked the NBA world. I sure was surprised that he picked the Warriors over the Thunder. We have a new super-team now, this one in the Bay Area and the region is going understandably nuts. They are already in serious love with the Warriors the last 2 years and this might push them over the edge. Never before in free agency has one of the best players in the league joined the best team in the league that won 73 games. It's incredible! The Warriors lost the finals to the Cavs, but many people including yours truly and definitely all the dubs fans strongly believe the dubs are still the best team in the league. Only a series of strange events conspired to derail them earlier this month in the finals. Now they have added Durant to that championship core. As much as we focus on free agency, the reality is, most top talent stay put. Rarely does a Durant move around even in this day and age. Even with it's rich history of multiple teams and championships, the Bay Area is currently ranking Durant as the top free agent pickup ever beating Barry Bonds and Deion Sanders for that honor. Most of it's stars much like anywhere else were home grown draftees - Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Mark McGwire, Rick Barry, Stephen Curry etc.

NBA free agency is fun, especially when a big name like Durant is in the market. You could legitimately make an argument that more people follow the NBA off-season than the regular season, which tends to be real long and dreary at times. It was not boring in the Bay Area last year with the 24-0 start and the 73 win pursuit and hopefully, it won't be next year either given we will all be following this super-team. But in your average NBA market, the regular season can be a drag. Playoffs are fun, but more so if your team makes it. If not, it is neither here nor there until the conference finals. But the off-season is a time of hope and change for all teams. Every team is trying and pretending to improve and the faithful is all in. As a Suns fan, I am excited for the combination of Jared Dudley, a 18 year-old Croatian, and a 19 year-old dude who fouled out of 15 of his 34 games in college. Thats hope for god's sake and thats the power of the draft and free agency. NBA entertains us with both. NFL draft is huge, but their free agency is so-so at best. MLB has a strong hot-stove but their draft is not relevant in the short-term.

So the Durant free agency was the top sports news this weekend. The pursuit is always fun and Boston's Danny Ainge took the cake by bringing in Tom Brady for the pitch. The dubs showed up with their big 3 and Iggy alongside the management. And then a Jerry West call probably swayed him as well as West supposedly told him his scoring will be a lot easier with the dubs and he can also showcase other aspects of his game. I didn't know Durant led the Thunder in rebounds per game until West told me that, through the media reports of course :-) Durant finally whittled his suitors down to Thunder and the Warriors and then came the announcement this morning setting the sports world on fire. It's not often such top talent switch teams in their prime. The LeBron's "decision" was big and he made it bigger by stretching it out and doing the stupid TV show. Durant kept this short, but when he did announce he is joining the Warriors, the reaction was understandably enormous. Dubs fans and players were elated and of course quite a few critics came out of the woodworks as well. Durant's own tweets and critical comments from the time of LeBron's "decision" didn't help matters for him.

Some people like P.J. Carlesimo say it is none of our business and Durant is free to do whatever he wants. Two things that appear to be contradictory can both be true sometimes. Of course Durant is a free agent and as the name suggests, he is free to do whatever he wants. But it is also our business to deal with it. If we didn't care, he won't be signing a 54 million dollar contract. It truly is none of my business when my teller quits Bank of America and joins Wells Fargo. I don't really care and consequently, the tellers make 35 grand a year at the high end. Athletes are in a public profession and are almost civic entities. Thats why they are celebrities and make millions, but our love, hate, criticism, and judgement is the price they pay for it. People like PJ need to understand it's not Joe Lacob paying Durant, but it's the average fan. Are you telling me an OKC fan shouldn't be upset or disappointed or critical of Durant today? The same guy who paid 300 dollars for a nosebleed seat for game 6 of the Western Conference finals to cheer for Durant? It's absolutely his business to pass judgement on this, though Durant is of course free to pursue liberty and happiness and whatever else he wants. Both are simultaneously true and please don't tell the paying fans what to do or not to do as long as it doesn't cross the legal or personal line.

It's going to be interesting to see where the reactions settle for Durant when it's all said and done. Is he going to be more hated or less hated than LeBron was after his "decision"? Thats the obvious comparison. I vote for less and there are key differences between the two. Obviously, first and foremost, LeBron's mishandling of the "decision" is the biggest differentiator, though it was effectively the same decision that Durant made today. Unlike LeBron, Durant's apparoach deserves no backlash. LeBron was also a local kid which made the blow harder for Cleveland to absorb. On the flip side, Cleveland at least had 3 major professional teams and the Cavs were pretty much an afterthought before LeBron showed up. Durant on the other hand was the "founding father" of the Thunder, to quote their GM Sam Presti, the only professional sports team in OKC. Also, Cavs had trouble surrounding LeBron with top talent and he left to chase rings. Durant is arguably leaving the second best team in the league to join the best team, a team that just beat him in the Western Conference Finals. So he sure looks a lot more like a band-wagoner who believes in the adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." LeBron went and helped form a super team in Miami. Durant is joining a championship caliber team to upgrade it to a super team. Those are the differences and you are free to care or just say "same difference" to those.

LeBron's "decision" was bad in many ways, but one of the major problems was, it pioneered the idea of forming super-teams to win a championship. LeBron's move was the MJ of super-team formations. There are great athletes today who all grew up worshipping Jordan and mimicking him. Some of them are even better athletes than MJ, but he was the first and the inspirational force behind the modern day NBA athlete. Hence he is the most impressive and thats what makes him MJ! He created a trend that eventually gave us the Stromile Swift-Darius Miles era of amazing athleticism and unwatchable basketball where guys never learned to dribble, pass, and shoot, but could jump out of the gym with ease. Not to digress too much, but I might add that it took the league almost a decade to fix and cleanup that trend with some deft rule changes.

Coming back to the here and now, LeBron's "decision" is an original much like MJ and teams and stars are trying to replicate that approach. Thats why I don't think the backlash now will be anywhere near what LeBron endured in 2010. NBA tried to tighten the rules even more after the "decision" to help small market teams retain their own stars, but the sudden salary cap spike this summer did the Thunder in. To be fair to LeBron and Durant, they are not the first ones to leave their small towns at their athletic peak. Shaq left Orlando for LA right after a couple of deep playoff runs, but back then, he went for the bright lights and lifestyle. Not that it was a better reason for the league or for Orlando, but it was different. Kobe was barely a rookie who had not taken a single shot in the NBA yet when Shaq went. Shaq didn't go to form a super-team to chase a ring and thats a new trend, especially in free agency these days.

My first reaction to Durant's signing was a little bit of sadness on multiple fronts. It is great for the Warriors and even Durant, but I am always rooting for the underdogs. I also like the narrative of building through the draft and playing the entire career with the same team. So I was disappointed for both sides. It is of course a crushing blow for OKC. But even for the Warriors, one of the cool things about the current team was, it was basically home-grown via the draft and they won a championship building from scratch.  In fact, if Festus Ezeli had developed as planned and if Durant was not coming, they would have kept Ezeli and Barnes and become a home-grown starting 5 contending for a championship. Only Bogut and Iggy are outsiders among their key contributors. Championships thrill the fans in any shape or form with or without home grown talent. But I have to say, LeBron's ring in Cleveland is of course a lot sweeter than LeBron's ring in Miami. Some dubs fans would have loved for the team to stay as is and go back to the finals and defeat the same Cleveland team to avenge that shocking finals debacle. But they have now gotten a lot better by adding Durant in free agency. Dubs fans will be fine with that, especially if and when they win a ring. Nationally though, they have gone from a lovable team of young upstarts to the most hated super-team in a matter of 2 years.

But the real disappointment is in OKC. It should indeed be a dark day for NBA fans in Oklahoma. They have never had NBA without Durant. He came there with the team. They love their college football there, but Durant was the face of professional sports. Even from Durant's perspective, he walks away from a great civic relationship which could have been more special than Dan Marino in Miami or Tim Duncan in San Antonio or Tom Brady in Boston to name a few if he won a championship. Of course that was a big "if" and I have a feeling he probably didn't get an assurance from Westbrook that he would stay next year. It would have been a scary proposition for Durant if he was left alone holding the bag in OKC without Westbrook. That is not a recipe for a championship. But if he did win a championship there, it would have been special given he is the father and face of pro sports in that state. Imagine him retiring after 15 or 16 years at OKC with a ring or 2. Even without the ring, we are talking a statue in front of the arena, a street named after him, the most popular athlete ever ranking in the state, and probably offers to become the Lieutenant Governor. Thats legacy with a capital L and would have rivaled LeBron's in Cleveland. But instead, he took the easy way out and is chasing multiple rings with a super team. At the end of the day, we care only about winning and rings and the more he wins, the more we will forget the cute OKC narrative. Well, except for the OKC fans who will never forget.

OKC was really unlucky here more than anything. Teams like the Warriors and Spurs have no business being in contention here with that much cap room. The only reason that happened was the steep hike in this year's salary cap, just in time for Durant's free agency. OKC could have at least gotten some talent in return via a trade if Durant wanted to leave under the old cap regime and picked teams with no cap room. But the cap increase meant abut 21 teams could add a max salary and Durant was interested in 6 of them. The Warriors got in there despite their existing salaries and stole him with a sizable offer. Bad timing for OKC indeed. This is exactly why the league wanted a gradual increase in the cap, but the players union didn't agree and rightfully so as the league was getting a lot of money and the players wanted their fair share sooner than later. Thunder became the biggest collateral damage of the new cap regime. Hindsight is 20-20, but one has to wonder what would have happened if their ownership was willing to pay the luxury tax and keep James Harden on board. They had to pick Ibaka over Harden with that team, but if they had figured out a way to keep both, may be they retain Durant today. May be they are the best team in the league. May be they already have a championship and Durant doesn't have to leave. So many hypotheticals there. OKC sure wishes the cap had gone up when Harden was a free agent instead of now when Durant is. But this is how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Now onto the basketball side of things. I think these dubs will be an awesome team with amazing results. Durant's game and attitude fits this roster well and the unselfishness will rub off on him enabling them to put on a show on the court. I can't wait for November. It will also be interesting to see how the scoring between Curry and Durant shakes out. Supposedly, Curry told Durant he couldn't care less about stats, awards, face of the franchise etc. The dubs are still Curry's team, at least in the Bay, where he is beloved. He will start this season as the face of the Warriors and then the performance will decide things. But his image has taken a hit nationally with the finals loss and mediocre performances after 2+ years of total, global love. Now he is seen as bringing in bigger help to guide him to the next ring. Of course none of that matters if he wins a ring or 3. Look at Dwayne Wade. He won a ring on his own and won 2 more with LeBron's help. LeBron's rings were totally his as Wade had embraced a decreasingly lesser role over LeBron's 4 years in Miami. Still those rings only add to Wade's reputation and hall-of-fame legacy. It doesn't diminish or hurt him in any way. He married Gabrielle Union in 2014 for god's sake! Wade's life is good.

LeBron went into Miami as an inferior scorer and people were wondering if Wade would be the lead dog with LeBron helping him out with everything. Those Scottie Pippen chants in year one were fun! But LeBron stepped up right from the first year and took over that team completely by year 3. Wade was also getting a little older and increasingly bothered by injuries. The dubs situation is a bit different as Durant and Curry are exactly the same age. Both can score at will and have no offensive deficiencies. Curry and gang are unselfish, but who gets more shots and who gets the last shot are still two interesting questions. Curry will be fine either way when he gets more rings, but it will still not be the same as winning those rings as the unquestioned alpha dog. He was part of an awesome big 3, but was clearly the leader. Now he has a big 4 in their absolute prime, but Durant might supplant him as the leader. We shall see if that happens and if that bothers Curry or anybody else for that matter. Curry and Durant should both get paid the new mega max deal next year and they have a 3 year window to win big. In 3 years, Klay will be a free agent again and I am not sure how they pay him too. None of us really understand the NBA cap rules and we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Plus, this ownership is rich, winning, making a lot of money, and willing to spend. So who knows what happens in 2019 with Klay's bird rights, luxury tax, etc. Until then, this will be a fun show.

The guy who do need to be careful right now is Steve Kerr. Super teams either win a championship or get the coach fired.  Kerr already has a ring and that should protect him through season one and two. But if he doesn't win one championship in the next 2 years, he will be fired. Coach up Mr. Kerr.

Anything but free

There is nothing free for the teams or for that matter the fans with the free agency period kicking off as we speak in the NBA. This is a much anticipated anticipated off-season due to a variety of reasons. NBA fans have been waiting for this summer since the new TV deal was announced almost 2 years ago. It will finally kick in now and push the salary cap past 94 million from the current 70 million. Thats a good 35% jump and it's expected to jump even more next year. So it's going to be a wild ride and it's literally going to rain millions on these ballers. The other reason this is big is because of Kevin Durant. He is a free agent and is talking to teams. Enough said! Last but not the least, the NBA is coming off an awesome playoffs where the individual games may not have been interesting, but the larger story-lines were gripping to say the least. This was followed by a fascinating draft with some intrigue and trades. So the interest in the association is currently high and the NBA fans are jonesing for any and all NBA news at this point.

Durant is the catch this year, though LeBron is also a free agent. I guess the King's camp has not planted any stories or sent feelers to any team. So it's assumed he stays in Cleveland and all eyes are on Durant instead. Warriors are among 6 teams including the Thunder that are legitimately chasing him. The Bay Area is still recovering from the finals. Fans can't wait for the start of the next season because they are so confident they are the best team and they will win it all again and avenge this season's defeat. I am not sure about all that, but I do agree with them in that they were at least the better team against the Cavs and lost mostly because the MVP didn't show up for the last 3 games and Klay didn't either in game 7. Now the Bay is buzzing with Durant talk. But the latest reports suggest that he might stay back in OKC. That warms my small-market liking, underdog supporting, home-grown talent craving cockles.

It's indeed a tantalizing prospect for all parties involved (except OKC of course) to imagine Durant with the Splash brothers, Iggy, and Draymond. The Warrior fans might want this not so much for what Durant can do for them, but more so for depleting the Thunder who finished the season looking every bit as good as the dubs, if not better. OKC has since traded Ibaka for Oladipo - a trade most people score for the Thunder, though I am still skeptical. Now there are rumors of them chasing Al Horford. Add another year of maturity to Steven Adams and another year under Billy Donovan, the Thunder may very well enter next season as the sexy pick more so than the Warriors. Of course it all starts with Durant and he should sign with them soon unless one of these other teams totally wows him during his meetings in Hampton. It should be an interesting weekend in the NBA.

While Durant is the headline, the real shocker is going to be the money that will be thrown across the league with every team having cap room to go with a desire to improve. DeMar DeRozan and Bradley Beal are both already signed with max contracts pushing 130 mill over 5 years! Kent Bazemore is supposedly worth 18 million a year and thats all you need to know to feel the craziness of this off season. Just to give you a perspective on the sky rocketing salaries, the aforementioned numbers dwarf the league MVP Curry's contract. Granted, Curry is in a unique, team friendly contract situation due to his injuries at the time of his signing and even Klay and Draymond are making upwards of 50% more money than Curry per year. But now we are going to see glorified role players like Bazemore make 65% more per year than Curry. And mediocre all-stars like DeRozan and Beal are going to make 130% more than Curry! The MVP can't wait for next year when he will be a free agent.

Speaking of Bazemore, supposedly Suns are interested in him as well. Suns are coming off a good draft where they drafted Dragan Bender at 4 and traded up to get Marquese Chriss at 8. Both are big guys with a lot of promise, though their games and bodies are very different. I was tempted by Kris Dunn at 4 since that guy is an awesome 2-way guard, but the Suns decided to draft for position rather than get another PG. I don't have major issues with it, but I do have to say that Dunn will probably be better than Bledsoe and Knight longer term. Now the Suns are trying to trade and sign some talent in free agency. It's a competitive market and I don't expect them to sign big names, but hope they get some good players and more importantly, don't overpay for bad players. Gone are the days when mediocre teams can sign stars if they had the money. Now, you have to either build your own stars via draft (think Warriors today or the TWolves tomorrow) or have enough money to lure 2 or 3 stars to join you to form a super team. Stars want a readymade situation that will put them in contention right away. Of course, you need some talent in-house to even lure those multiple stars to join and it's easier said than done to have all of this align perfectly.

Suns are clearly not there as far as a free agent destination this year and they are in the build through draft mode. Of course with Devin Booker, Bender, and to a lesser extent Alex Len and Chriss, they have a decent starting point. It would be nice to dump a couple of salaries at redundant positions like Brandon Knight and Tyson Chandler. But honestly, by this time next year, those large salaries will look like a steal in the new cap regime. It may not be a bad idea for the Suns to just keep them. Either way, lets enjoy the league-wide craziness this July. NBA off-seasons lately have been more interesting and intriguing that the regular season. But this year, NBA has delivered on all fronts throughout the year and lets' hope the momentum carries in to the summer and the next season. And lets hope we don't have an ugly drama like the DeAndre Jordan nightmare that Mark Cuban is still living through from last year's free agency. Keep it clean ballers!

Not 1, not 2, not 3 ….

If you can't win game 6 at home after leading by 13 at one point, how are you going to win game 7 on the road? So the Thunder were not going to win game 7 at roaracle, but they do deserve a lot of credit for showing up and making it another fantastic game! Granted, game 6 will be remembered as the game that legitimized the "Klay gonna Klay" phrase. We are used to "Steph gonna Steph," but Klay deserves his own catch phrase and glad the entire NBA world saw how good a player he is after that game 6 explosion. But still, the Thunder did collapse at their offensive end in that game against some stout D and game 7 at Oakland was not going to be easy, with or without Klay going Klay. According to Michael Wilbon, Spurs guard Tony Parker apparently believes the Warriors get an extra lift from the Oracle crowd, more than the home court edge teams enjoy at other loud home gyms across the league.

With all that said, we knew Durant and Westbrook would bring it to game 7 and so would the tough kiwi Adams, but the entire team brought it as well until the late third quarter. Westbrook's shooting was off as always, but he was also relentless as always. This was a team that legitimately looked better than the 73-win Warriors team for large stretches of the series and that continued through the first half of game 7. They deserve a lot of credit for that. Not to digress, but thats one of the reasons I think Durant stays in OKC. He has a good team in his hands. But the dubs have something the Thunder, and quite frankly ever other team in the history of the league, do not have. That is, they don't have the best and the second best shooter in the history of the league - not right now, not in this era, but in the history of the game. Klay and Curry won this series and Curry's performance in game 7 was spectacularly MVP-like. Thunder couldn't handle these guys and no shame in that - most teams have tried and failed all season long.

Now we have the finals we all wanted. It's funny that after all this drama and a gazillion regular season and bazillion playoff games, we get the finals we all predicted last fall! This is one of the reasons some fans think NBA is boring and predictable, an opinion I violently disagree with. But the 7-game series does mostly push through the better team and that's only fair after a 6-month long regular season. Sure, it does make it a little more predictable, but it's better and more interesting in the long run. We get the Cavs and the dubs in the finals again and this should be a dandy given that both teams are better now than last year. We have a healthy big-3 on the Cavs, but unfortunately for them, the dubs are improved too and let me kill all the suspense right now. The dubs will win this one in 5 or 6 games tops. They will have an easier time against the Cavs than they did against the Thunder. Cavs are a better shooting team than the Thunder, but they don't have the length and defensive chops to disrupt the dubs. 

I do want to give props to LeBron James though. He is going to his sixth straight finals with 2 different teams and thats just insane! When LeBron "took his talents to South Beach," they threw an welcome party where LeBron was talking about multiple championships. He said "not 1, not 2, not 3.." and just kept on going. It became a butt of many jokes as he lost his first finals with the Miami Heat. He doesn't have six or seven championships and is probably not getting one this year either, but making it to 6 straight finals is pretty darn impressive! Reminds me of the Bills going to 4 straight Super Bowls and losing all of them. It's hard to make it to 4 straight SBs and there is no loser gene in that. Same here with LeBron. It's a tribute to his greatness, that he has consistently taken his teams to the NBA finals, albeit in a slightly inferior LEastern conference.  We all know the LeBron story. He was enemy number 1 when he bolted Cleveland to Miami. He won a lot of respect back when he won the two championships in Miami, but he was still not well-liked. 

LeBron didn't do anything wrong when he chose where he wanted to play in a free market, but like I have said many time before, neither did the fans. They have every right to like him in Cleveland and hate him in Miami. Fans are the paying customer and they reserve the right to root for or hate any player, jersey, team, story, and narrative of their choice. LeBron messed with the fan's preferred narrative when he announced his "decision" to move to "South Beach," but he won a significant number of fans back including yours truly when he came back to Cleveland last year with a carefully orchestrated "I am coming home" letter. Now, he is ironically becoming almost a sympathetic figure as he is staring at a 5th finals loss against only 2 rings. Even some talking heads are openly rooting for him and of course his advancing age and Cleveland's checkered sporting history littered with many heart-breaks adds to that sympathy. But sympathy does not make a champion. LeBron has to bring the best version of his basketball self to this finals if he wants to close the deal. Whether he wins this time around or not, he deserves mad props for making it to his 6th straight finals. He is an unique player and lets enjoy his talents while we still have him in the league.

Trey Thompson!

The best 2 guard in the NBA saved the Golden State Warriors' season tonight. After stinking up the joint in OKC twice to go down 3-1, the dubs season seemed doomed. We expected them to win game 5 at home, but sooner than later, they had to go back into OKC for this game 6. Nobody knew what to expect and the smart money was on the Thunder closing this one out and sending the dubs' 73 win season to an unceremonious and premature end. The concern for the dub-nation was not that they lost 2 road playoff games - that happens sometimes, but how they lost those. They were dominated and Thunder's length and athleticism seemed to bother and throttle the best team in the league. Draymond has been completely off the entire series and Curry has been mostly off. Draymond had a tough job going against players 3 to 6 inches taller who are also more athletic than him. He usually has some kind of an edge on one of these aspects against his opponents, but not in this one. Curry is usually impervious to any kind of defense and it's even hard to say what can ever slow that dude down. But he is definitely slowed down this series by the combination of Westbrook and their lanky, athletic defenders on switches. Given all this, they barely won game 5 even at home and it was not clear if they can get that one win they need on the road and force a game 7 at home.

But one man will not have any of these doubts and theories and decided to go down firing on all cylinders. It was the younger and understated splash brother. Klay Thompson single handedly kept the dubs in the game all night. The dubs problems from the previous games seemed to be all there in the first half and well into the fourth quarter - turnovers, thunder's offensive rebounding, sub-par shooting by Curry, strong outing by Durant and Russ, etc. etc. etc. Klay himself started with some rough shooting, but quickly turned it around. He then went on many runs of his own and looked every bit like the MVP when Curry is on one of his crazy rolls. Klay has been fighting and showing up every game this series and almost single-handedly brought them back in game 4 but the hole was too deep to dig out of. Today, the Warriors didn't let the Thunder run away. Thunder always led by 5 to 13 points and it seemed like the dubs can't close in and take the lead. Klay kept shooting and shooting for a playoff record 11 threes. Some of them where from Curry range and most of them were contested and almost all of them featured his ridiculously quick release. I was amazed more by his courage than his accuracy. He took some shots with this record-breaking season hanging in a balance and with the entire world watching. He just rose up and kept making treys.

Klay's shot from way out there at the top with less than 5 mins to go with the dubs trailing 96-89 and the other 3 from the wing to un-tie the game and give the dubs the lead with 1:35 to go after a Iguodala steal  were both season-saving treys. KD and Russ are getting killed tonight for playing "hero ball" as they had a tough shooting night and OKC also collapsed at the end. This finish was part Thunder's ineptitude and part dubs' brilliance. But Klay kept the dubs in the game all night and Curry joined him at the end to kick off the splash show. The rest of the team D'ed up with key contributions as always from Andre Iguodala on both ends of the floor. The thing that makes Klay the best shooting guard in the league is his defense in addition to his marksmanship. The guy is relentless and is never tired. He chases the best wing player on the other team at one end and constantly moves without the ball on offense with no sign of ever tiring. Sure, the attention Curry attracts on offense helps him, but on nights like these, the reverse is true too. Klay is one of the best shooters in the history of the game, but just the second best shooter in his own team. So it's easy to overlook him. I am glad he is finally getting the props he deserves as many talking heads like Marc Stein and the Chuckster are starting to call him the best 2-way 2 guard in the league. James Harden can score at will, but he also gives up half of those at the other end with no effort. Klay is way more of a complete player at that shooting guard spot. Tonight, he got the dubs that coveted game 7 at home. Now they have to finish the job. It's not going to be easy as Durant and Westbrook fear no one and slow down for nobody. But I expect the dub nation to close it out at home.

Ex-Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich gave us this memorable quote during their second championship run - "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!" Warriors seem to be adding to that legend. Game 6 was a question mark. Klay made it an exclamation point with a signature, breakout playoff performance to the tune of 41 points. Game 7 can't be this hard for the Warriors if they keep their calm. Can't wait!

Drub Nation

The dubs were punched in the mouth today. This has never happened to the Steve Kerr era Warriors in the playoffs and in this magical season, not even in the regular season. The closest game that comes to mind is the 32 point drubbing they suffered at Portland right after the all-star game. Of course this game today carried way more gravitas than that mid-season contest. Not only was this a playoff loss, it was game 3 of the Western conference finals with the Warriors having split the previous 2 home games. Dubs need a road split to restore home court and they got the exact opposite tonight. They weathered the storm in the early first quarter and handled the energy boost OKC enjoyed being in front of their crowd, which is typical for home teams in such situations. They played decent defense, though the Thunder kept making shots and on offense, they had their opportunities and converted a good portion of them. They admirably tied the game at 40-40 in the second quarter and the game looked set for a fantastic finish, even a victory for the defending champs.

And then the bottom underneath the Warriors caved in and the game got out of control in a hurry. Ron Burgundy's "that escalated quickly" is the best line to describe what happened. Thunder ambushed the dubs and the champs looked rattled and helpless for the first time all season. Thunder defended better, ran faster, shot better, dunked more ferociously, and you could see their confidence was growing with every possession. All you need to know is, Dion Waiters was unstoppable and he was probably the 5th best Thunder on the floor. To be fair to Dion, he has had a great playoff run and the Thunder seem to go as he and the other role players go. There is no stopping Durant and Westbrook most of the time and the Thunder are unstoppable if some combination of Waiters, Roberson, Ibaka, and Foye are hitting 3s. On the other side, Kerr said Draymond is the heart and soul of the Warriors sometime last season and is still very true. They do not do well when he has a bad game and when they don't play good defense. Those two things are usually related since he is also one of their best defenders. Tonight, Draymond had a horrible game and their defense was impotent to say the least. This combination resulted in a serious drubbing.

But Draymond stole the headline for one big, wrong reason. He was fouled on a drive to the hoop by Steven Adams and he ended up kicking Adams in the groin as he was flailing and throwing his leg around. The score was 48-40 when that happened and seemed to ignite the 32-7 run to end the half and basically the game. More importantly, the key question now is, is Green going to be suspended? That leg kicking is a common move by guys to attract the attention of the referee to call a foul. But in this case, I did feel like his leg went a little higher and looked slightly unnatural. But I have to agree with Draymond in that it looked to me like he didn't even knew what went down and seemed to just walk away without even looking at Adams. So I am not sure how intentional it was. But the impact was a painful blow to Adams' privates and a similar incident caused Cleveland's Dahntay Jones' suspension. A Green suspension will definitely put the Warriors behind the eight ball in a series where all of a sudden, they look like the inferior team even with him. It's amazing how quickly perception changes and a poll on ESPN tonight places the dubs in the third place to win the championship after the Cavs and the Thunder.

As a long-suffering Suns fan who lost a real shot at championship in 2007 when Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw got suspended when they left the bench, I would hate a playoff series to be decided by suspensions. Also, this is not a cut-and-dry situation that David Stern wanted the "leaving the bench" scenario to be. There is some wiggle room here for the league to not suspend Green for this. But they are in a tough spot too because they just suspended Dahntay Jones and this is the second time in 3 games Green has connected with Adams' privates. It's going to be very interesting and Green's suspension is the last thing the dubs need. They are already looking very vulnerable with the drubbing they received today which was very reminiscent of how they usually beat other teams. Steven Adams has been a key in this series for the Thunder, actually throughout these entire playoffs, and he changes a lot of the Warrior shots and passes in the interior. But they also outplayed the Warriors in small ball during that avalanche of a run in the second quarter. Experts are now saying the Thunder basically looked like the better team with their athleticism and speed even against the so-called death lineup.

When you see something you have not seen all season, you wonder if this is something different, special, and more indicative of a larger trend or problem. Game 1 was about the dubs having a sub-par fourth quarter and missing 9 out of 10 threes. They still were just down by 3 in the final minutes and you figured if they shoot better and fix a few things, they will be fine. Thats exactly what happened in game 2. But this loss was different from that game 1. The dubs were down by 41 at one point and looked completely outclassed at both ends of the floor. This game can only boost OKC's confidence ad drive them to greater heights even if the champs are strong enough to not let this plant doubts in them. They have been down 2-1 in the past, but it looks different this time because this Thunder team is better than any other team the dubs have played over the 2 playoff runs. Last year's Grizzlies and Cavs team lost the next 3 games to lose the series after owning the aforementioned 2-1 lead. It's highly unlikely this Thunder team is headed in that direction. Warriors need Green in game 4 to have a shot. If not, they may be playing to avoid a 3 game losing streak themselves soon. At the end of the day, it is just one blowout and the series is just 2-1, but it does feel more dire now. Can't wait for game 4 so we learn more about these two teams.

Up north, the Raptors will show us tomorrow if they are for real or if they are just setting us up for one of those typical 5-game sweeps with a token home win that we see all the time in the NBA playoffs.

Dame Dolla on Fire

Stephen Curry was not available for the Warriors this weekend for game 3 in Portland. But there was somebody who looked awfully similar to him on the court who was scoring at will. Unfortunately for the dubs, it was the Blazer's Damian Lillard. I am a big Dame Dolla fan. The kid from Oakland who wears 0 for the O always plays well against his home town team. He is not the shooter that Curry is - nobody is, but when his three is falling like it was in game 3, he is not that different. He has the handles, quickness, and even plays a more traditional point than Curry. And he showed us in this game that he can also take and make long-range, off-the-dribble threes like the MVP. Even Jeff Van Gundy on ESPN was very impressed by his off-the-dribble shooting and was loudly wondering if Lillard and Curry could be traded for each other without either team missing a beat. Thats high praise for Dame. Klay is a good defender and he tried his best to contain Dame, but he had no shot on this day. This is how folks must have felt defending Curry all season. 

Aside from the Oakland angle, Damian also has the "all-star snub" chip on his shoulder, especially against Curry and Klay who were both western all-stars ahead of him.  That explains the Blazers faithful yelling "over-rated" at Klay during the game. Dame and CJ are also in the running for the best back-court in the league crown that firmly belongs to Curry and Klay today. Mix in the narrative of Klay being a 2-way star and shutting Dame down in game 2, you had a potent cocktail that probably drove Dame sky high in game 3. He showed up, stepped up, and locked up a win. Now the Curry injury saga is back again on the front-burner. It's amazing how good the Warriors are that they can stage manage their best player's return even in the second round of the western conference playoffs. With each win, people assume Curry will be rested one more game and with each loss, people wonder if Curry will be inserted into the next game. Lets see if we finally see the MP3 in game 4. 

Curry-Klay versus Dame-CJ is going to be a fascinating rivalry for years to come. But then again, such projections about future greatness are always a hit or miss. Reminds me of a game in 2003 between the dubs and Suns featuring a young Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardon, and Antawn Jamison on one-side and a young Amare Stoudemire,  Stephon Marbury, and Shawn Marion on the other. Everybody was talking about how this might be the two young, fast, fun teams of the future. The dubs couldn't retain Arenas and that was the end of that short-lived era. The Suns let go for Marbury too, but they did improve with Nash. But a rivalry, it was not.  I was salivating about a LeBron-Wade rivalry before LeBron killed it and became Wade's Scottie Pippen for 4 prime years. Ironically, they might renew their rivalry in the senior citizen mode in the next round if Miami wins against Toronto - a big IF. The Cavs have looked really impressive after 2 straight sweeps. Their 3-point shooting has become more of a news in the playoffs than even the Warriors, who are without Curry's threes so far. 

It's going to be an interesting matchup if the Cavs and dubs meet in the finals again. The Cavs are a very different team from last year and both teams are going to be shooting threes all night. You would think nobody can beat the dubs in that game, though the Cavs are becoming a trendy pick for the championship. They have definitely looked good and the big-3 are finally playing with some confidence and chemistry. Ironically, LeBron is shooting bricks, but the rest of the team is shooting lights out. Plus LeBron does so many other things, he still is the king. The Spurs-Thunder series seems headed to 7 games with the Thunder winning tonight behind Durant's 41. I still don't trust the Thunder to win the series, but they have enough talent to stretch the Spurs. It pains me to say I don't trust Westbrook. How can an incredible athlete who plays that hard inspire so little confidence? Two words - decision making. Westbrook is hard-headed and a bad decision maker. Him and Durant have not really learned to play together after all these years, not to mention all the other talent on the roster. It's a weird style the Thunder play built around those 2 super-stars and I don't see it surviving past his round.

Cruisin' and Cookin'

Warriors are 52-5 and are 4-1 in this road trip, a trip that was supposed to be the toughest challenge remaining for them this regular season. The trip started ominously as they were blown out at Portland by Damian Lillard and his wrath at his all-star snub. But the dubs straightened the ship the very next day at the Clippers, a game that was expected by some to be the first loss of this road trip. They are back to cruising now and Curry is hot and steaming. He had a back-to-back 42 and 51 point games at Miami and Orlando with the Miami game also featuring a couple of clutch shots at the end. Media is running out of superlatives to describe Curry and this Warriors team. He won the MVP last year and it wouldn't be hyperbole to say he deserves to win both the MVP and the most improved player awards this season. The guy is 27 and is already widely recognized as the best shooter in the history of the game and rightfully so. There was a sequence in the game tonight when he pulled up in the middle of the shot clock to take a 3 pointer 3 feet behind the arc. A horrible shot for anybody else, but Warriors announcer on TV Bob Fitzgerald was actually shocked he missed an "open look!" Thats all you need to know about the shooting prowess of Curry. There are no bad shots, period.

All this leads to the prime time game this weekend to wrap up the roadie. Dubs are playing the Thunder this Saturday night. Since the dubs are 4-1 in this trip already, this game may or may not impact their historic chase of 72 wins, but this will be a fun game nonetheless. Thunder has been in a bit of a funk with home losses to the Pacers, Cavs, and a loss tonight at the Pelicans. But what better way to right the ship than to beat the the league leading defending champs?  Plus Durant always has monster games against the dubs. Speaking of Durant, the Bay Area sports radio and media doesn't have a lot of burning issues these days when it comes to Warrior talk. So the major topic of discussion is whether or not to sign Kevin Durant in the off-season when he becomes a free agent. Supposedly, Durant is interested in the Warriors and the question is, whether the Warriors should want him or not. Life should be real good if you are seriously considering saying "no" to a top-5 NBA player in his prime! Life is good if he even wants to come to your team because, these days, super-stars like Durant only go to good teams they hand-pick. But how many teams can even consider saying "no" to him? The Warriors are winning 70+ games without Durant, so there is a legitimate reason to wonder if they should stay away from him and focus on chemistry and continuity instead. Nice to have such "first world problems." 

My message to the Warrior fans is that they shouldn't even sweat this Durant thing. The dubs ownership and front office know exactly what they are doing and will make the right call. Whether it is firing coach Jackson, or hiring coach Kerr, or refusing to trade Klay for KLove, they are batting .1000 for a couple of years straight. My early gut feel on this, I think they are going to get Durant. This ownership group is super-aggressive and they won't stop short. Secondly, Harrison Barnes is demanding a lot of money anyways and you might as well invest just a little more and get a Durant if you can. Durant's game and personality is not a bad fit for this team or for any team for that matter. There is only one ball to share, but these guys can figure it out. It will be an amazing roster, though it's hard to even imagine how much better a 72-10 (or better) team can get! This reminds me of the Lakers team with Shaq, Kobe, Malone, and Payton at the end of Malone and Payton's careers, except Steph, Klay, Draymond, and Durant will be way better because all 4 will be barely entering their primes this summer. One strong reason to do this if you are dubs front office - we always talk about team's windows closing. Actually, more times than not, other teams pass you before your window closes. Not that the dubs are in danger of their window closing anytime soon, but signing Durant extends it indefinitely. More importantly, it keeps him away from their competition, whether it is OKC or the Clippers or some other team, and prevents those teams from passing the Warriors.

Predictable Four

Miami  versus Indiana in the East and San Antonio versus Oklahoma City in the West. Couldn't we all have guessed this at the beginning of the season? If there is one issue with the NBA, it's the predictability. Even with the ridiculously surprising first round of the playoffs this year, NBA is still the most predictable of all the leagues. NBA season is long and the playoffs are seven game series. This makes sure the best teams always bubble up. NFL seasons are shorter and the playoff games are obviously one game elimination contests. But thats not even the real reason for the parity, which has always been one of NFL's big charm. Very few Super Bowl champions even get back to the big game next year and the Super Bowl losers are typically lucky to even make it back to the playoffs. NFL's rigid salary cap and the large sizes of rosters are what makes it difficult for good teams to stay good and bad teams to stay bad. In the NBA, rosters are small and if you have a LeBron James, you are assured of playoffs every year. You add Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to that mix, life becomes real good and will continue to be good for years.

Major League Baseball does have a long season like the NBA that promotes consistency and predictability and does not have single-elimination playoff games - except for the new wild-card round. But it's still al lot less predictable than the NBA because it's just a different game. The starting pitcher means so much in that sport and one great pitcher on a roll can swing the series one way or the other all by himself. This happens a lot, especially in the wild card and five-game divisional series rounds. So NBA is clearly the most predictable. Thats not all bad. It's also the most "stable" playoffs, There is something to be said about the best teams always making it to the top. I have always thought MLB playoffs are the worst in this regard. After a grueling, 162-game season, a singular pitching performance can negate everything and foist a new champion on us.  Luck and random occurrences rarely impact NBA playoffs like it does other sports, though we do spend a lot of time talking about referees and calls.

We all knew these four teams will be where they are now. This doesn't mean the playoffs have not been fun so far or there is no reason to watch the regular season. After all, the sport does boast of the World's best athletes and the games - even the regular season games, can provide high quality entertainment. But the point is, we could be watching a Miami-San Antonio finals for the second year in a row. Miami most probably is going to make it to its fourth straight finals. At least thats what the league is hoping for as an Indiana finals will be a ratings disaster since the western conference finalists are already small market teams. The only surprise in terms of what we expected at the beginning of the season is that Indiana wanted and earned home court and Miami has to start the series on the road. Similarly in the west, OKC and San Antonio are the last two season's finalists and one of them is going to be there again. We could argue that OKC had the better prospects at the beginning of the season and it's a bit of a surprise they didn't end up with the best record in the west

Indiana took the circuitous route to get here with all kinds of inconsistency and drama since the all-star break, but they are here now with home court in their hands. They should have enough motivation and drive to get up and perform at a high level against Miami, the one team they hate and have been obsessed with for all the right reasons. Anything less than perfect basketball against LeBron and the Heat will send Indiana fishing with Kenny sooner than later. They better bring their A-game, which has been MIA for months now. Thats why I have to grudgingly pick Miami to win this series. I pick San Antonio to win the west. Serge Ibaka's injury is a bummer for OKC and us fans who wanted to watch a great series between these two great teams. It almost feels like the NBA could actually avoid injuries and put a better finals on the table if they stop playing all those regular season games and directly start the playoffs or the finals. Lets hope for a healthy and fun Miami - San Antonio finals this season. Of course, I won't complain if Indiana proves me wrong and eliminates Miami.  But Adam Silver and the TV channels will.

King's Court

NBA has finally become the king's court. King James is now a champion and has put an end to a burning, 2-year debate about his true worth as a basketball player. His physical tools and basketball skill-set were never in question, but fans and experts alike questioned his will to win and mental fortitude to take and make shots in the clutch. Honestly, a lot of it was wishful thinking on the part of the fans as LeBron lost their support with the "decision" and they were rooting for him to fail more than they were convinced he was a "failure". It has taken a herculean effort from LeBron to win the championship and change that perception. If you think about it, it din't take long for him to win in Miami. The heat made it to the finals in his very first year in Miami and won the championship in year 2 - pretty impressive if you ask me.

But 3 things made this a rough 2 years for LeBron. The moment the big 3 came together, anything less than a championship was not going to be enough. So a finals appearance last year did nothing for them. Secondly, when LeBron stupidly insinuated they will win "not 6, not 7", but 8 championships, he had to get started from year 1 to get anywhere close to it. So a finals loss to Dallas last year sent the league into a anti-LeBron frenzy unlike anything we have seen before. Last but not the least, LeBron was tentative and ineffective at crucial times last season raising all kinds of question about his toughness. But year 2 changed everything. The guy had a phenomenal regular season and backed it up with a legendary post-season. He put up some ridiculous numbers and carried the heat in these playoffs. It was not an easy playoffs by any means and LeBron stepped up several times to push them over.

Things started going LeBron's and Heat's way when he clearly established himself as the Heat's alpha-dog. DWade was the Scottie Pippen this season and that clarity unleashed LeBron in both tangible and intangible ways. The Heat coaching staff deserves some credit too since I am sure they rolled the ball LeBron's way this season during some situations where the ball would have probably gone to Wade last year. One of the funniest chants targeted at LeBron last year was when they shouted "Scottie Pippen" at his face. I was not even sure who should feel more insulted by it - LeBron or Scottie! Pippen is one of the all-time greats in this game and his name was routinely used as an insult. That tells you how talented LeBron is and how impactful Michael Jordan was as Pippen's teammate. A determined LeBron at the wheel this year was just unstoppable and the thunder and Durant had no answers for him in the finals.

LeBron is now a champion and winning shuts up a lot of people. The question now is, will the so-called haters disappear? I don't think so. They will be quiet and won't be able to trash-talk as much, but they are not going to wake up tomorrow and become LeBron fans. I am a LeBron-hater myself and I still don't want him to win any more titles with this heat team. Ironically, we became haters only because we loved his game more than LeBron himself. I wanted him to stay in Cleveland and I was convinced he could have won a championship there with any front-office with half a brain. In fact, it was LeBron who didn't think he could win in Cleveland. I had more faith in LeBron's game and his future in Cleveland than LeBron himself and I was upset at him only because he quit on the Cavs and ganged up with other stars in Miami. So how much of a hater am I? The haters are going nowhere. But the NBA should be a little concerned about some people not watching the NBA now since the biggest story in all of sports over the last 2 years is now history.

The other interesting question is, are we staring at a dynasty here?  My gut says no. I would have been more willing to bestow dynastic powers on the thunder if they had won the championship, but the heat don't look like a dynasty to me. I am not sure if this is just wishful thinking on my part, but I do feel like they had a few lucky breaks go their way in the east this season and their salary cap situation is obviously not great either. Given LeBron's immense talents and with Wade in his supporting cast, this can easily become the next dynasty, but I don't see a big gap between them and the other contenders. The thunder and even the bulls and the pacers will be chasing them with all they got, not to mention teams like the Lakers and the Spurs. Next year will be the key to see where LeBron takes them and how the thunder improve and take the next step. Also, dynasties have been hard to come by in the NBA since the days of the Spurs and the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. LeBron can change it all, but he has to show us he is a dynastic star.

Another NBA season is in the books now. It was indeed fun. The end result was what I expected and dreaded at the beginning of the season. The enduring image of this season will be LeBron's game 6 at Boston. Thats when he took the next step and eventually cemented his legacy with a finals MVP to go with his regular season MVP, first team all-NBA, and first team all-defensive awards. Great season by a great player. It took him a while to get here, but the information age and the twitter generation made it feel longer than it actually was. LeBron owns the NBA right now. He is no fluke and we may never see another LeBron in the future. It is must-see TV when an athletic freak with immense talent wins it all and claims his rightful place at the top of his sport. But MJ has set the bar so high, LeBron's chase of greatness has only started and will continue next year. Where he goes from here will be as fascinating a story as how he got here. And we will all be watching and following this journey.

For all the marbles

Sports is supposed to be unpredictable.  We love it because it's the ultimate reality show. You don't know whats coming next except that it will be something new. But an Oklahoma City Thunder V Miami Heat NBA finals does not score a lot of points for unpredictability, though it does work at every other level. NBA, more than any other league throws a predictable championship series at us more often than not. A 16 team tournament where every series is a 7-game marathon tends to promote consistency, excellence and is not very upset friendly. As much as every playoff game is fun and exciting, the better team always finds a way to win the series. Spurs surpassed the Thunder in the Western standings and became a legitimate contender during the regular season while the Celtics tried their best to derail the Heat in the playoffs, but we eventually got what we expected and wanted at the beginning of the season. This is the logical finals for this year. LeBron and Durant were 1 and 2 in the MVP voting and are going to be the stars of this generation. It's about time we got this matchup in the NBA finals.

We never got a Kobe-LeBron NBA finals - which would have killed at the box office, but it's just hard to create a cross conference rivalry. Celtics-Lakers with Bird-Magic were the exceptions, not the rule. It's far more easier to have intra-conference rivalries like Bulls-Pistons,  Pacers-Knicks or Kings-Lakers. One of my many problems with LeBron's "decision" was that he deprived us of potentially epic LeBron-Wade match-ups in the eastern playoffs. So it's great if a Durant-LeBron rivalry starts rolling right now.  Durant is in the mould of Tim Duncan a little bit and I am not sure if he is as big a draw as LeBron or Kobe, but he is definitely the second best player in this league. His team is young, athletic and well-rounded - much like himself. He is a humble superstar who has carried his team farther every year and anything less than a finals appearance would have disappointed a lot of the Thunder fans this year. Finals is where he belongs and as much as I would have loved to see the golden oldies of Spurs and Celtics go at it one last time, this is the series that has the potential to set the table for the next decade of the NBA.

The Heat were always expected to get here and even win. The Celtics gave them all they can handle but they couldn't handle LeBron. NBA needs the Heat in the finals. I don't think the league office cares who wins the finals, but the ratings will be good as long as LeBron plays the last game of the season. In fact, I would make an argument that if the NBA is just looking at future ratings, a Heat loss in the finals would be better than a Heat win. It keeps the stories and controversies going. Last year was the perfect recipe for the NBA. Heat makes it to the finals, but loses. Another 5 years of that, David Stern will be smiling his way to the bank every July. Of course LeBron will probably kill himself if that keeps happening. He will try his best to put an end to the finals losing streak tight now. He seems ready to roll and his game 6 against the Celtics shut a whole lot of people up and probably put some fear into the Thunder as well. If he recreates that even a couple of times this series, it will be over in a hurry.

LeBron will continue to be an enigma until he wins it all, but we knew that game 6 was very much in him. As a matter of fact, he showed us that side of himself way back in 2007 against Detroit as a 22 year-old when he scored his teams final 25 points. That was when we all loved the King. Along they way, he seemed to have lost more than he gained and now people question his capabilities in the clutch and call him a choker. To be fair to the critics, LeBron does disappear sometimes and one has to wonder how much of that last year was him not realizing his role in the team and wondering how he should work with Wade in the 4-Th quarter. But as this year winds down, it's becoming very clear that Wade is the second fiddle and this is LeBron's show. Coach spo will still roll the ball to Wade in the clutch once in a while, but LeBron can do whatever he wants with the ball in this finals because he has earned that status throughout these playoffs. He is an unique talent and the Heat are better if he is Batman instead of Robin.

All of this adds up to one thing - no more excuses for LeBron. The haters and doubters will always be there - may be I am one too, though I do realize and respect his immense basketball talents. But it's LeBron's job to shut us all up. He has the game, and now he has the authority and the credibility to dominate for his team and it's his job to carry Wade and Bosh to the finish line. If there is any doubt in his mind about this reality, history will repeat itself and it will be Durant lifting the trophy at his expense like Nowitzki did last year. Isn't it ironic that those 2 guys have very similar game? Nobody has LeBron's game and lets see if he maximizes it in this series. Of course, it is not all about LeBron since the Thunder are no chopped liver. They will have a big say in what happens in this series and they do have a legitimate shot at winning this. All I am saying is, LeBron can win it all and the only way he wins is if he realizes that only he can win it for the Heat. I personally don't want him to win - I would rather see Durant celebrate. But this is a golden opportunity for LeBron to seal the deal after 2 failed tries in the finals.

If LeBron lets this one slip away, his championship future is uncertain and unpredictable. It won't be as bad as losing to the Celtics but the Heat might still have to break-up the big 3. If the Thunder win, the Heat and the rest of the league are in big trouble because OKC is young and will only get better. At least the Mavs last year were old and all of us predicted accurately that they are on the way out. But this Thunder team is very different. If they win now and lock up my man James Harden and Serge Ibaka, this is a dynasty in the making. The Thunder have home court in this series and Vegas is picking them to win. They are a far more well-balanced team than the Heat, but they don't have LeBron. Plus, they are a jump shooting team. They have to minimize those 6 for 26 games that Westbrook and even Durant sometimes throw at us. The other concern with a team like this woud be that they are not ready and are just happy to be in the finals. I don't think thats the case here. Durant and his city are ready and hungry. So we should get a killer finals between a hungry Durant and a desperate LeBron. I can't wait

Oh, Thunder in 7. Thats what I want. Thats what I expect.