OKLAHOMA CITY — There is an age-old truism pertaining to the NBA Finals that pertains to the question of old age. Young teams rarely, and we mean very rarely, win NBA championships. If the Oklahoma City Thunder somehow manage to emerge from the NBA Finals victorious, they’d be the first team with such a young nucleus to win the title since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977 — a topic that our Hall of Fame columnist, Mark Heisler, addressed in his column
Now to let the Young Guns shoot it out. … If you’re going to hear that a lot the next week or two, some of these guns are a lot younger than others. By 2007, when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had both been in NBA Finals, Kevin Durant had yet to be drafted; Russell Westbrook was an unheralded UCLA freshman who had played nine minutes a game; and James Harden was even less heralded as a high school sophomore. Durant, Westbrook and
At the beginning of the season, Chris Sheridan polled our writers and asked for their predictions on a number of things, including the NBA Finals matchup and eventual winner. Chris Perkins, Chris Silva, and I picked the Thunder and the Heat to represent their respective conferences, and all three of us picked the Heat to win the whole thing. See for yourself. In the interest of full disclosure, though, I’ll point out that along the way, I changed my East pick to
So be it. Heat advance, and begin immediate preparation for the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Celtics looked sluggish in the second half, and it was truly a disappointing loss, especially considering their cloudy future. The Heat are the better team, and it showed tonight, especially with Chris Bosh in the lineup. The storyline is this; LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant. Yes, both teams are great, and players like Russell Westbrook, Dwayne Wade, James Harden, and Chris Bosh are all
So much has been written about the Oklahoma City Thunder throughout these NBA playoffs that it’s difficult to find any new nuggets of information about the team and its city that aren’t already in cyberspace. But I’m going to give it a shot. I had the good fortune of working for the Thunder as its Web site writer from 2008 up until last season’s All-Star break, so I have my share of memories and experiences, both first-hand and from the reporting I
Ok, so the Oklahoma City Thunder are in the NBA Finals, and the knee-jerk reaction will be that they are doomed to lose because they’ve never before performed on the big stage like so many of the Celtics and Heat have. We’re here to tell you that knee-jerk reaction argument is fatally flawed. Unbeknownst to many Americans, the Thunder’s dynamic duo of Durant and Westbrook have not only performed, but won, at the highest level on earth. That happened at the 2010 World
Somewhere in San Antonio, be it in somebody’s basement or in some large warehouse, are thousands upon thousands of “I Want Some Nasty” t-shirts with bleak futures as dishrags. Turns out the signature phrase of the 2012 NBA Western Conference finals was uttered by Gregg Popovich once again, but this one doesn’t have much of a future as a fashion statement. “We’re in trouble” was what Pop told point guard Tony Parker at the beginning of the fourth quarter, imploring his playmaker
Game 5 of the Thunder-Spurs series is set for 9PM ET tonight. In the meantime, check out some of the news around the league on Monday from possible player movements, game evaluations, and off-season activity from players that are in full vacation mode. Is the criticism on Russell Westbrook being selfish warranted? Darnell Mayberry discusses why it is not warranted: The point guard who continues to be a lightening rod for criticism for everything from his shot selection to his body language
