About four hours ago, if this phone has an accurate clock, the eighth season of the NBA officially ended with the honking of the score-clock in Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. The OKC Thunder fell 96-88 to the Golden State Warriors and conceded the Western Conference Championship to last year's defending Champions of the NBA.
They move on to face Cleveland in the finals and the Thunder are going home.
In the insult-to-injury department, the Thunder had not one but TWO opportunities to end the series after going up 3-1 in the series with two huge wins in Oklahoma a week ago. It was a hard pill to swallow, to be sure but the harder pill is ahead as the darling of the Thunder and his sidekick are looking at free agency and may have played their final minutes in an OKC uniform.
But that isn't what this blog is about.
I really don't like professional basketball. Sure, you've read about happy times when I've covered the Thunder in their exhibition games here in Tulsa, as well as six years as a reporter covering the WNBA concern here, but if I were to rank pro hoops by my preference it is third, possibly even fourth on my list.
Sure, I'm bitter due to the loss but humor me.
The NBA smacks of corruption. It starts at the box office based purely on marketability: simply put, the league has two media darlings in Steph Curry of the Warriors and LeBron James of the Cavaliers. The MVP two years running against the MVP and 2012 NBA Champion. Never mind that Kevin Durant won the MVP title twice (His mom was the real MVP, he'd argue), and endeared himself to the entire state of Oklahoma with his charitable contributions after the 2013 tornadoes. He's old news.
There's the officiating. Having witnessed utter ineptitude in WNBA officials in six seasons of Shock basketball, it can truly be said that quadruple amputee deafmute could call an NBA game better than what I saw in the Thunders playoff run.
Okay, that's too harsh. Let's just say that when you let off a guy(Drayvon Green, Golden State) who deliberately tries to relocate his opponent's testicles (Stephen Adams, OKC) to his earlobes with a token wallet lightening instead of a suspension there's something wrong.
Sure, you can say "but Rich, it's the playoffs, the league doesn't want to affect the outcome!", which would be a noble and fair play dodge answer, but had the same two players not hooked up two games later and the same fellow pull a WWE move to disable the other with no foul...
My bitterness is showing again. I'll stop.
On social media tonight if was suggested that the smaller market NBA teams will not see a championship so long as the NBA doesn't have a salary cap, and with the Thunder being one if not THE smallest market in the league, it's a solid argument. The top two players on the OKC club, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, are free agents and there isn't a struggling larger market team in the NBA who wouldn't want them on their team right now and thus, the clock is now running on the stay/go on both of them.
In the end, this too will pass. I will be emailing the Thunder management for credentials for the annual exhibition game here in Tulsa in the fall and should they go deep in the playoffs next year I will take my seat on the bandwagon like everybody else.
I'm going to be pissed for a little longer this year though.
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