With all the talk about KD’s tattoos and what they mean and don’t mean, I’m sure this full back tattoo featuring his home state of Maryland will generate chatter. But all I can think about while I’m looking at it is: ouch.
It’s pretty cool though. The homage to his home state, the angel wings and the fingers holding up a “3″ and a “5″ which is obviously KD’s number but means so much more to him as he wears it to honor his deceased friend and mentor Charles Craig.
Hopefully you saw the first run at this. If not, you didn’t miss much except for some pretty lame jokes.
But I had a friend tell me I messed up the idea. He said, “No, no. You’ve got to Google their name and add ‘is’ at the end of it. That’ll tell you what you really need to know.” So here’s take two at letting Google explain the Thunder. (I didn’t like these results near as much anyway. People are mean and weird.)
Beckley Mason of HoopSpeak on KD’s big summer: “Still, the NBA is at its soul about entertainment. Serious competition and a focus on efficiency enhances the escapism of watching and commenting on professional hoops. This summer Kevin Durant, like a Baller Without Borders, has delivered entertainment by the truckload to hoops starved communities and audiences that often cannot afford to see him in an NBA uniform. An amazing fact: Durant’s cult of personality has expanded wildly without a single publication producing a revealing in depth profile on him. I’m not sure we really know anything new about what makes Kevin Durant tick. That’s OK. In a time when the threat of a losing a whole season hangs over the NBA and its fans, simply showing up and playing in earnest has made Kevin Durant the world’s coolest basketball player.”
John Townsend for TrueHoop on KD: “Durant’s transcendence of popular expectation is as fantastical as it is curious. It’s as much a universal acknowledgment of his basketball acumen and ability as it is a product of our hyperbolic imagination spurred on by his true charm (as the antithesis of the modern self-absorbed superstar). Durant is no longer just the face of a franchise, but rather the celebrated star of a growing global empire. He has been elevated as basketball’s champion for the foreseeable future — with or without the NBA.” Read more…
The last time the Blazers were hunting for a new general manager, they looked to Oklahoma City and hired Sam Presti’s assistant GM Rich Cho. That didn’t work out so well.
But that’s not stopping the Blazers from trying again.
Weaver met with Blazers officials about replacing Rich Cho, who worked with Weaver under Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti.
Weaver has progressed rapidly as an executive, rising from a personnel director with the Utah Jazz to the No. 2 spot in Oklahoma City. Weaver is considered an excellent evaluator of talent, and is well-connected on every level of the game. He pushed hard for the Thunder to draft point guard Russell Westbrook out of the UCLA with the fourth overall pick in the 2008 draft, higher than any NBA executive had projected Westbrook to go.
As Woj mentions, Weaver was kind of the guy to push for Westbrook and has been pretty integral with Presti in evaluating talent. I’ve been told by some that would know that Weaver was a big part of pushing to make the Jeff Green trade happen.
So it would obviously be a bummer to lose him but that’s the price of success. When you do well and build a sterling reputation like the Thunder front office has, your people are going to be hot commodities. I guess that’s good. Just means that Presti might have to do a little front office talent evaluating again to replace him.
Happy college football everyone. Thank you for your support of DT. Go teams.
The first episode of KD’s new web series is out and it features a lot of quality behind-the-scenes stuff from the Goodman-Drew game. It’s pretty much just a day in the life of your favorite basketball player, which is always fun. I liked how KD couldn’t stop checking the camera out of the corner of his eye. He’s not used to this reality TV stuff.
Russell Westbrook was on the Dan Patrick Show this morning (and you could tell it was the morning) talking about a variety of things, but naturally he was asked about his point guardness. Or point guardability. Whatever you want to call it, Patrick asked Westbrook, “If I was going to introduce you before a game, what position would I say?”
“You’d say at point guard,” Westbrook said. “That’s my natural position. I’ve been playing that all my life. And that’s position I’ve been playing.”
He says he’s been playing it all his life, but I think most would sort of disagree. He played more of a hybrid guard at UCLA next to and behind Darren Collison. I think the general consensus has been that Westbrook’s first real venture into exclusive point guardtivity was his rookie season in the NBA. But I’m not going to quibble with semantics, because he’s a point guard to me and a damn good one at that.
As for if he heard and read all the criticism directed at him: “Not that much at all man. I went out every night and tried to play my game and do what i can do to help my team win or get us to the next round. That’s what my job was.”
Asked as to what inspired all that chatter, Westbrook answered, “You know I really don’t know. That comes along with playing in this league. The good thing about it is was my teammate and my family have my back and we’re winning. That’s all that matters.” Read more…
Google pretty much runs the world. All the innovations, all the technology — we’re not far off from Google House where you can see satellite pictures from inside everyone’s home.
Anyway, as I often do, I was running a quick Google search looking for Bolt-able items and in one of the autofill searches struck me. As I typed in “Russell Westbrook Kevin Durant,” the two results were “russell westbrook kevin durant feud” and “russell westbrook kevin durant argue.”
Oh geez. You too Google?
So I went through checking what Google’s opinion of the Thunder is. What does Google’s algorithm have to say about other players? Coaches? Mascots? Have a look. Read more…
A feature on Serge Ibaka from Edge Magazine, featuring some very pretty pictures of Serge: “In Greek mythology, the phoenix stands as a symbol of immortality and renewal. Its ability to be consumed in fire and rise unscathed has been well documented in religions, stories and speeches alike but with Serge Ibaka it is brought to life. For he embodies the essence of a thing that cannot be destroyed, ever rising to new heights from circumstances that others succumb to. With the phoenix is not the rise that most inspires us, it’s the fire. Fire being one of the most beautifully dangerous elements known to man…the phoenix bathes in it, welcomes it even. Ibaka has experienced the power of great loss, tragedy and peril but like the phoenix, he has not been defeated. He has instead come out victorious, bold and fearless. He’s risen from the ashes of his past and his journey is just beginning.”
The second post in what still might be a small series. We’ll see how far this lockout crap goes. If you missed the first look-back, read up on the game that signaled a young team was finally turning the corner.
When I was filling in the pre-game post on Dec. 31, 2008 and got to the team record part for the Thunder, it was almost painful to write. I can’t be sure, but I bet I cringed when it did it. Which is probably why for some reason instead of just typing in the numbers with a dash between, I made to add a little umph to it. “THREE AND FREAKING 29,” I wrote.
Three wins, 29 losses for our new team. Three games where the Thunder had more points than their opponent, 29 games in which they didn’t. This was the team we were all so excited about. This is the team that was supposed to change our city. And yet, 3-and-freaking-29.
At this point, it was almost past desperation. I had crossed over from that unbridled optimism that came along with the Thunder’s new car smell. I had definitely begun to leave behind trying to conjure up positives from each and every deflating beating Oklahoma City took every night. It was all starting to feel kind of pointless. I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere, but the Thunder had me wearing sunglasses. That light was more of an idea, not something I could actually see. Read more…
It’s September 1 and there’s still no NBA season on the horizon. That terrifies the crap out of me. This time last year we were 27 days away from the start of training camp and all the season previews and predictions were starting to come together. Now, nothing. Sad faces.
Zach Lowe of SI on Melo’s lockout idea to just let the players play: “It makes so much sense, right? The NBA had a huge season last year, in terms of attendance, TV ratings and revenue, so why blow that momentum with a season-killing lockout when the league could proceed as normal with its on-court product while the big wigs negotiate? There is, of course, some precedent for what Anthony is suggesting. The NBA and the union agreed on a temporary no-strike/no-lockout clause after the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement in 1994 in order to make sure the following season remained intact. And the NFL bought itself an extra year to negotiate its new collective bargaining agreement by tacking a salary cap-less season (the 2010 season) onto the end of the prior CBA.” Read more…
