The last week has featured some high-profile moments in disrespecting respect-worthy basketball icons; I’d say it would be enough to inspire a comedy show to air a When Ignoring The Past Goes Wrong sketch.
In the history of the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise, nobody is more respect-worthy than Kevin Durant (possibly even if you include the Supersonics history). He’s a completely unique NBA superstar talent who gave the team everything he had for nine years before deciding — as a free agent, and without any malicious intent or a single unkind word — to come out here to the Bay Area and play for the Warriors.
On Saturday night, he played his first game in OKC as an opponent, and was greeted with waves of disrespect — boos, cupcake banners, you name it. As far as I’m concerned, the booing and sign-making is well within the rights of fans who, somewhat understandably, feel jilted and betrayed.
Now, one could suggest that people feeling jilted and betrayed by the life decisions of a 28-year-old adult man they have never once interacted with is childish and silly, but sports fan[atic]s are EXPECTED to be childish and silly, sometimes even encouraged to be childish and silly. Certainly anyone who spends what is now likely hundreds of dollars to take themselves and family or friends to a professional basketball game has effectively paid for the right to boo and chant “CUP-CAKE… CUP-CAKE” to their immature heart’s content!
Franchises must be held to a very different standard than fans, though, and the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise did a great disservice to Kevin Durant on Saturday. They let his return to the place he called home for the past eight years go by without doing anything to honor him — no pregame speech from a former teammate or executive, no video of some of the considerable wealth of highlights he provided for the fans, no mention of his leading the team to an NBA Finals or his multiple scoring titles or ANYTHING AT ALL POSITIVE about literally the best player in their organization’s history.
Not dissimilarly, a couple thousand miles away, the New York Knicks franchise — and James Dolan specifically — were wildly disrespecting arguably the most cherished figure in their history. Charles Oakley is far from the greatest Knick of all time, but he’s not so far from being the most beloved. They are an organization that would have a hard time defining themselves by championships (since they have only two and none in the last 43 years) so they have often defined themselves, or attempted to, by toughness and intensity. Nobody exemplified that New York intensity better than Oak. For a franchise that celebrates enforcers, Oak was the enforcer who all the other enforcers were afraid of.
Knowing that about Oakley, and being familiar with his reputation and some of his past behavior, there was certainly some comedic value in watching him toss around Madison Square Garden security guards until six of them teamed up to carry him out — but more than funny or entertaining, it was sad. Charles Oakley should have a valued place in that organization’s thoughts and feelings, if not within the organization itself, and to watch him treated with such disrespect was upsetting.
It became significantly more upsetting as details came out that seem to suggest he was removed essentially for expressing his opinion, and reached towards infuriating when the chronically irresponsible James Dolan decided to speculate that Oakley has anger issues and “may have a problem with alcohol.” Never mind that public speculation on ANYONE’S addictions is pretty inappropriate — if Dolan really thought Oakley needed help, the appropriate thing to do would be to say something privately or speak to people close to him, certainly not to offhandedly mention it on a major sports talk show.
After getting called down onto the carpet by the commissioner (with an assist from Hornets owner and longtime Oakley buddy Michael Jordan) Dolan has removed the absurd “lifetime ban” he placed on Oak, but apparently still has yet to apologize in a manner that Charles feels is appropriate. But even if he does ultimately satisfy the offended party, Dolan has done — even more — damage to his franchise’s future.
Ultimately the real product of these two incidents is the same. In ten years we may not remember these things ever happened, and certainly won’t care that they did. Hell, that could happen in ten weeks or even ten days. In the final analysis, nobody will be analyzing these specific incidents, but they DO impact how players around the league look at a franchise.
When Kevin Durant gets no love from OKC over a perceived free agency diss, next year’s free agent class is watching. When fans who likely would never have seen a playoff win without Kevin Durant scream COWARD at him at the top of their lungs, next year’s free agent class takes note. When a 53-year-old national (or at least New York) treasure is forcibly dragged out of an arena for having an opinion that differs from the owner, outspoken players the league over take offense (just ask Draymond Green if you want more on that).
The Warriors have done a lot of good things under the Joe Lacob ownership, but perhaps none are more important than the very public and well-reported change of approach from the top — after a Chris Cohan ownership that was consistently and wildly disrespectful to both fans and players, the Lacob group has taken great pains to show genuine feeling for the people in the building. Warriors players, to a man, will tell you how well they were treated here over the past few years, even those who have since been shown the door.
If you think that doesn’t have an awful lot to do with why a certain aforementioned superstar is wearing blue-and-gold instead of navy blue and also light blue and sometimes orange and whatever other stupid colors are on the Thunder jerseys, you’re very confused.
And if franchises think the next big free agent isn’t paying close attention to how they are treating their current talent, they’re in for a rude awakening in the next free agent signing period.
