Durant, Westbrook and the Nature of Sports : The Best Ultimately Rise

by Ryan Cazalet

I would like to ask that you allow me a quick tangent before I get to my argument, just so you know where I'm coming from. It may end up not being quick at all but in order to state a case one must first establish the fundamental principles.

I feel uncomfortable so easily dismissing the amazing skill of professional athletes. It's easy to sit back and do what Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith do; to simply pick a side yes or no, winner or loser, can they play or can't they? What critics and fans usually don't understand is that you don't always need to ask the question "did a team win the game or did their opponent lose it?"


It is easy for us fans who watch not to appreciate how good professional athletes actually are. What we should do is enjoy and understand that professional athletes are incomprehensibly talented. As fans we should be more responsible than simply saying "this guy sucks" or "that guy is awful" or "he can't win". Just because we bought a ticket to a game or watched when they were terrible shouldn't give us fans the right to so easily dismiss ability.  It does give us the right to criticize but we should do so with more accountability and objectionable fact. When we become overly cavalier with criticism we run the risk of missing greatness.

In college I got to watch football domination. It was at a level that proved to be bigger, faster, stronger and ultimately better than me. Anyone who saw me play football knows I had ability, its just as high school becomes college and college becomes professional the biggest, fastest, strongest and ultimately best players rise. Its the nature of sports.

In 2007 I got to watch Tim Hightower make Division 1-AA football players look irrelevant. He was so good that it looked unfair. Everyone at Richmond, Division 1-AA and eventually professional football knew he had crazy good ability. But when he got to the NFL, Hightower was made to look just average. News came out today that the New York Giants have invited Hightower to visit and potentially sign as a free agent. As a Giants fan I hope they sign him. As an old college friend, I really hope they sign him.

It was truly humbling from my perspective to watch a guy dominate at a level that proved too good for me be reduced to just average. What most fans don't understand is that to have an average NFL career is an incredible achievement. It's just that there are a few others that are are legitimately great.

Thank you for allowing me that tangent. Now to my argument.

The best ultimately rise. Its the nature of sports.

As you know by now, Russell Westbrook will miss the remainder of the playoffs with a knee injury. What we don't know is how Kevin Durant will respond. We are going to learn a lot about Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the nature of sports.

What we learn implicitly about Westbrook we will learn explicitly about Durant. Will he rise or does he need to appreciate the fact that he is not yet the biggest, fastest, strongest and ultimately best player?

Without Westbrook in the lineup we will also learn about Durant and Westbrook as teammates. If Durant somehow carries this team single-handedly then I think it's fair to say he and Westbrook aren't meant to wear the same uniform. If they struggle and get knocked out in the second round then the questions begin to get more difficult. Perhaps Westbrook is more valuable than we all thought.

If the latter proves true and the Thunder are eliminated in the second round then things become intriguing from a management standpoint. Professional sports have evolved into a "win now" environment and the Thunder have two young superstars who haven't won yet. Do you ride them out and hope they rise or do you strategically pick one superstar to be the face of your franchise?

Durant is more of a superstar than Westbrook currently is but I guarantee you that the Thunder organization knows which of the two they value more. They know who has more value on their roster and who has more value on the trade market. I can't speak for the GM and front office of the Thunder but they should use metrics to establish a rating similar to video games. Anyone who plays sports video games understands that each team is a assigned a number value, 1-100, that grades out how good a team is. If I was running the Thunder, I would have a grade for how good we can be with both Durant and Westbrook, how good we can be with Durant and trading Westbrook and how good we can be with Westbrook and trading Durant. Whatever scenario churns out the greatest value is the scenario that should happen.

We've seen the Thunder trade away a major piece of the puzzle when they shipped out James Harden last year ( how badly do you think Harden wants to upset the Thunder by the way). If the Thunder don't win this season then I think they begin to explore a trade.

The question is who do they trade?

The Thunder are at a crossroads and its become amazingly evident now that Westbrook is out. Now that Durant is without the "other leader" as he put it. All of the credit and all of the blame, fairly or unfairly, now falls on Durant. We will see just how far Kevin Durant can carry a team on his own the way Lebron carried Cleveland.

The best ultimately rise. It's the nature of sports.

Last year we saw Lebron rise. However it's important to remember that Lebron never won until he played with Dwayne Wade. Lebron might have become the most dominant player ever but he didn't win until he took his talents to the right teammate. Having two all-stars doesn't guarantee you anything in the current NBA if they are not the right two all-stars (see Lakers, Los Angeles)*.  As the playoffs continue we are going to find out if Kevin Durant has the right teammate in Russell Westbrook or if its time for the Thunder to make a tough decision.

Like I said, the best ultimately rise. Its the nature of sports. My opinion, if I may adapt a phenomenal quote from a phenomenal movie, is this...

Kevin Durant will ultimately rise. But not yet.

* Sexton suggested this idea after disagreeing with my thought of trading Durant or Westbrook. He said "the NBA is an era of super-teams. One superstar isn't enough. You need a team.