15 days ago- June 19th, 2016- The Cleveland Cavaliers ended over 50 years of cursed sports teams.
Red Right 88. The Drive. The Fumble. The Shot. Jose Mesa. The SOB who double-crossed the Cavaliers. The greatest NFL coach and the one place he couldn't win. The football team who failed, left, and THEN became a powerhouse. There have been a lot of sports tragedies...
And yes, that includes The Decision. Seeing the hometown hero leave sucked. Today- with LeBron James leading the Cavaliers to a title- all is forgiven. But the fans remembered how much of a gut punch it felt.
So I have sympathy of Oklahoma City Thunder fans. Today they saw their franchise player leave them for Golden State, a team that won 73 games last year. OKC was close last year- they were up 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals- and to be that close and then lose your best player is agonizing.
There's going to be a lot of fallout from Durant's move:
* Golden State will be favored to win the NBA title next year. They most likely won't win 73 games again- to pay Durant, they had to lose Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut, so their bench won't be as deep. But in the playoffs, they will be ridiculously dangerous. They have 4 of the best 15 players in the NBA and 2 of the best 4- that's incredible in today's NBA.
* I'm not sure they'll be able to keep all four together after next year. Durant's contract has a player option next year and Steph Curry (after years of being underpaid by NBA standards) will also be a free agent. The salary cap will be going up, but I don't think Golden State will be able to afford both players.
* Like Miami in 2010-2011, everyone will be rooting against them. Individually, all of Golden State's players (except Draymond Green) are fan-friendly. But fans hate superteams (when it's not their team).
* What does OKC do now? Russell Westbrook is a free agent next year. They not only lost Durant, they lost him to the team that beat them. If Westbrook doesn't agree to an extension (and I don't think he will), they should trade him and start over. OKC has some nice pieces, but I don't see them beating Golden State.
* I'll pitch my idea for NBA salaries- have a completely hard cap... and every team is allowed to designate one franchise player who doesn't count against the cap. That would encourage the 30 best players to go to 30 different franchises, and discourage superteams.
Golden State and Cleveland are 1-1 in NBA finals over the past two years. I was looking forward to the rubber match in the 2017 NBA Finals. I'm still looking forward, but with a lot more trepidation.
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