2016-17 NBA Season

[habsfan1]

Allright, I wasn't expecting them to go that far, with them shouting "Cupcake" at him all game long with fans dressed up as cupcakes and even a cupcake mascot. A bit too far, perhaps.

 

Whe Lebron James first returned to Cleveland after the Miami trade, he was booed and that's it. He understood their frustration, took the boos, and returned to Cleveland a few years later. Fans began to love him again, bought his jersey again, and we know how the fairytale story goes from there.

 

Durant on the other hand was heckled like crazy by fans who wanted to embarrass him with this whole "cupcake" thing. There's no coming back from this. If he wins a ring with Golden State, no chance he ever returns to OKC.

[ninersdd]

Fab Melo, former Syracuse and Celtic playing, died. http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/18668751/former-syracuse-boston-celtics-center-fab-melo-dies-brazil

[Lee Noire]

That last 3 by Durant was so savage. Pause just long enough then drilled it deep in Russell's grill. He waited all night for that. I felt that sitting on my couch. That was a big ol middle finger, and I can't blame him.

[Wings]

Cupcakes 130, Thunder 114. 

[Lights Out]

3 hours ago, habsfan1 said:

Allright, I wasn't expecting them to go that far, with them shouting "Cupcake" at him all game long with fans dressed up as cupcakes and even a cupcake mascot. A bit too far, perhaps.

 

Whe Lebron James first returned to Cleveland after the Miami trade, he was booed and that's it. He understood their frustration, took the boos, and returned to Cleveland a few years later. Fans began to love him again, bought his jersey again, and we know how the fairytale story goes from there.

 

Durant on the other hand was heckled like crazy by fans who wanted to embarrass him with this whole "cupcake" thing. There's no coming back from this. If he wins a ring with Golden State, no chance he ever returns to OKC.

What Durant did was far worse than LeBron's decision, so it makes sense that he'd get a worse reception from his old team's fans. The only comparable moment is probably Vince coming back to Toronto after he blatantly quit on the Raptors and forced his way out of town midseason. Much like OKC fans went wild with the whole cupcake thing, Raptors fans wore baby bibs and "Wince Carter" T-shirts to that game.

[FiddySicks]

Was Durant leaving the Thunder to join a Super Team in the Bay Area and writing a letter about it (mostly thanking OKC) really worse than Lebron's one-hour "Im taking my talents to Miami" to form a Super Team tv special? Everyone absolutely HATED that TV special, along with the "Not five, not six, NOT seven..." thing. Durant was quite a bit more humble the way he did it. And how is it more comparable to Vince Carter "Quitting" on the Raptors (which I don't even remember)? How did Durant "quit" on the Thunder? 

 

 

I mean, I don't have a problem with either "decision" and respect both players for making the choices they did (I actually respect Lebron a bit LESS for returning just four years later, but that's another story). But there's some weird rhetoric flying around here about how Durant's decision was so much more egregiously bad than Lebron's, and I don't see that, like, AT ALL. 

 

 

But I don't think it really matters much. It's pretty clear when you look at how much efficiency numbers for his scoring have raised and the lessened amount of minutes the Warriors demand of Durant that he made the right decision. He's on a team that's damn DEADLY good and are head and shoulders above the rest of the league (to the point where it's literally scaring Lebron into public tantrums), he contributes even more than he ever did in OKC, and the load he has to carry is marginal in comparison to what he used to have. The only people that's really worse for are OKC fans. 

 

 

Also...

 

Also also, THIS FREAKING SHOT. 

https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LR4GACqRt5uNCSpM02gEtYBiIVo=/0x0:548x300/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:548x300):gifv():no_upscale()/cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7971529/kd3.0.gif

 

[habsfan1]

50 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

Also...

 

 

[HedleyLamarr]

6 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:

Was Durant leaving the Thunder to join a Super Team in the Bay Area and writing a letter about it (mostly thanking OKC) really worse than Lebron's one-hour "Im taking my talents to Miami" to form a Super Team tv special? Everyone absolutely HATED that TV special, along with the "Not five, not six, NOT seven..." thing. Durant was quite a bit more humble the way he did it. And how is it more comparable to Vince Carter "Quitting" on the Raptors (which I don't even remember)? How did Durant "quit" on the Thunder? 

 

 

I mean, I don't have a problem with either "decision" and respect both players for making the choices they did (I actually respect Lebron a bit LESS for returning just four years later, but that's another story). But there's some weird rhetoric flying around here about how Durant's decision was so much more egregiously bad than Lebron's, and I don't see that, like, AT ALL. 

 

 

But I don't think it really matters much. It's pretty clear when you look at how much efficiency numbers for his scoring have raised and the lessened amount of minutes the Warriors demand of Durant that he made the right decision. He's on a team that's damn DEADLY good and are head and shoulders above the rest of the league (to the point where it's literally scaring Lebron into public tantrums), he contributes even more than he ever did in OKC, and the load he has to carry is marginal in comparison to what he used to have. The only people that's really worse for are OKC fans.

Durant was worse than LeBron because LeBron is Lights Out's favorite player.  Dude's been riding LeBron's jock for years.

 

LeBron's was way worse.  TV special to announce a free agency decision (Yes, ESPN came to him, but LeBron could have said "No" but didn't, so LeBron deserves the blame, too) when no one had ever done so...that's pretty classless, really.  I didn't care for the summertime pep rally to welcome the free agency signings, but mainly because it wasn't my team involved.  Then, four years later, LeBron announces his next free agency decision via a Sports Illustrated article.  Just announce your signing like everyone else does, you attention whore!

 

Where did the whole "Cupcake" thing come from, anyway?

[BlackBolt3]

1 hour ago, HedleyLamarr said:

Where did the whole "Cupcake" thing come from, anyway?

A running joke between Durant and Westbrook: http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2017/2/11/14589144/thunder-fans-are-chanting-cupcake-at-kevin-durant-heres-why

[DEAD!]

KD "quitting" on OKC is nothing compared to the Thunder quitting on Seattle.

[Lights Out]

8 hours ago, Bucfan56 said:

Was Durant leaving the Thunder to join a Super Team in the Bay Area and writing a letter about it (mostly thanking OKC) really worse than Lebron's one-hour "Im taking my talents to Miami" to form a Super Team tv special? Everyone absolutely HATED that TV special, along with the "Not five, not six, NOT seven..." thing. Durant was quite a bit more humble the way he did it. And how is it more comparable to Vince Carter "Quitting" on the Raptors (which I don't even remember)? How did Durant "quit" on the Thunder? 

Yes, Durant's actions were far worse.

 

LeBron made bad PR moves, but his free agency decision was still made in the spirit of competition. He didn't go running to the Celtics, Lakers, Magic or Spurs. He wanted to BEAT those teams. And if the Cavs had ever gotten their :censored: together long enough to build a team that could do that, he wouldn't have left at all. But they couldn't, so he built a new team elsewhere that was capable of doing it.

 

Durant, on the other hand, made the most anti-competitive move imaginable. It's not even that he left OKC. There would have been a lot less backlash from fans if he had gone to the Spurs, Clippers or Celtics. But he didn't do that. He went to the 73-win Warriors after he had just finished choking against them in the playoffs. He sent the message that he's not a competitor or a leader, he just wants to be carried to easy rings. 

 

To sum it up: LeBron made the league more interesting and more competitive. Durant made the league less interesting and less competitive. Of course Durant's decision was worse. It's not even close!

 

As for Vince: I wasn't comparing the way he left Toronto to the way Durant left OKC. I was only comparing the crowd reactions during both players' first games back in their old cities with their new teams. Vince's return to Toronto made LeBron's return to Cleveland look like a walk in the park by comparison. It was brutal.

[TheRicSlick]

Lol, Lights Out.

 

The reason Lebron didn't join those teams was because he was busy creating his own superteam down in Miami. 

[DEAD!]

KD's "actions" weren't any better or worse than LeBron's. Had Clay Bennett spent more money and maybe go over the salary cap and find a way to get another piece to join KD and Westbrook, maybe KD would have stayed in OKC. The onus is upon the owner and management to convince the free agents to join them, not on the player to be loyal to the fans.

[Lights Out]

15 minutes ago, DEAD! said:

KD's "actions" weren't any better or worse than LeBron's. Had Clay Bennett spent more money and maybe go over the salary cap and find a way to get another piece to join KD and Westbrook, maybe KD would have stayed in OKC. The onus is upon the owner and management to convince the free agents to join them, not on the player to be loyal to the fans.

The Thunder were up 3-1 in the WCF last year and the only thing stopping them from going to the Finals was Durant's own chokejob. Let's not pretend that the OKC front office didn't build a damn good team. It's not like Durant was being asked to carry a glorified D-League roster by himself like LeBron was during his first stint in Cleveland.

 

But let's be real - even if they found a way to add another star, it still wouldn't compare to what the Warriors were offering. Durant wanted to be carried to easy rings by the NBA's closest equivalent to the Dream Team. There's nothing OKC could have done to change his mind.

 

Also, I never said that the onus was on Durant to be loyal to the fans. In fact, I even said he could have left OKC and gone to another non-Warriors team without anywhere near as much backlash. The issue isn't that he left, it's the specific team he signed with.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

You all should listen to the Durant interview on the Bill Simmons podcast this week. They talked in depth about Durant's leaving OKC compared to LeBron leaving Cleveland, and how the reaction to those two moves was different. Simmons mentioned that he hated how LeBron left Cleveland, and Durant said 1. he needed to get over it and 2. it's not about what Simmons thinks.

 

Durant said his key reason for leaving was that he really wanted to play with Draymond and Steph. They didn't say too much about Westbrook (by design), other than they expect to get over their hurt feelings in the future (this was before last night's game of course).

 

Anyway, I've been pretty consistent in that James can do what he wants and Durant can do what he wants, but neither get to be immune from criticism. James joined a "big three" when that concept was developing. Durant joined a big four that was a quirk of the salary cap and the Warriors being able to underpay Steph. It shouldn't have been able to happen but did.

[Lights Out]

41 minutes ago, Kaz said:

How could you possibly spin LeBron leaving both Cleveland and Miami as making the league more competitive?  The East has not had a non-LeBron team represent it in the finals ever since he left Cleveland.  I can see why some see his departures as justified, but saying it made the league more interesting and competitive is asinine.

LeBron added a new title contender to the league by going to Miami without taking any of them away. (No matter how many games Cleveland won in the regular season, the "LeBron and scrubs" approach was never going to get it done in the playoffs, so they were more of a pretender than a contender.) It's not like the Celtics, Spurs and Lakers just disappeared overnight as soon as LeBron signed his contract with the Heat. And we even saw new contenders emerge in the Mavs, Bulls and Pacers. LeBron has still kept making the Finals every year and winning many of them regardless because he's the best player on the planet.

 

In contrast, Durant destroyed the Thunder and replaced them with nothing. He joined a team that was already championship-caliber without him. And now there isn't a single team in the West that can even make the Warriors sweat a bit like the Pacers did to LeBron's Heat, let alone beat them. We're now back to the '80s where everybody knew which two teams would be playing in the Finals pretty much every year. And outside of the actual series in June, it's boring as hell for everyone who isn't a fan of one of those teams. 

[FiddySicks]

1.) You sound CRAZY bitter. 

 

2.) I think you seriously underestimate just how hard winning a title is no matter where you play

 

3.) There's one thing that I feel like CONSTANTLY gets overlooked in both the Lebron and KD situations. They were both right. They left situations where they shouldered the majority of the workload and still struggled and went to places where they could conserve some of their effort and have more success. Any idiot working any job would take the same opportunity to work less for more pay (in this case more pay = better shot at a title). Why do we constantly fault these guys for making good personal career choices? 

 

You're irrationally upset about this, LO. 

[The Six]

32 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

Any idiot working any job would take the same opportunity to work less for more pay (in this case more pay = better shot at a title). Why do we constantly fault these guys for making good personal career choices? 

 

It's not faulting him personally. He has the right to go get a better job, and we as paying customers have to right to complain that it makes the NBA as a whole into a worse product. There's no suspense this season at all.

[BBTV]

this is 3 PPVs in a row that the Network has gone down for me either during or right before it starts.

 

It's fine all day long until PPV time.  WTF is the point of the damn thing if they can't keep it running during PPVs?

 

I"ve learned that they serve different devices from different server / network banks, so it could be down on Rokus but up on Apples or Samsungs or WWE.com.  During RR they had an outage that impacted only Rokus.  It's certainly not my connection because I just tested at 148Mb/s down, and have had the Network on most of the day without issue.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

22 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

this is 3 PPVs in a row that the Network has gone down for me either during or right before it starts.

 

It's fine all day long until PPV time.  WTF is the point of the damn thing if they can't keep it running during PPVs?

 

I"ve learned that they serve different devices from different server / network banks, so it could be down on Rokus but up on Apples or Samsungs or WWE.com.  During RR they had an outage that impacted only Rokus.  It's certainly not my connection because I just tested at 148Mb/s down, and have had the Network on most of the day without issue.

 

Maybe a mod will move this to the right thread.

 

I've had no issues in a very long time using my Xbox One. You might need a new box; are you at least on the most recent Roku?