“It’s often been said that the NBA is a player’s league. That’s not really true. It’s a Superstar player’s league. There are very few truly elite players in the league. The rest just fill in the holes. That was vividly proven true when the Warriors dumped six players who had mightily contributed to the team’s all-time winning record this past season but who then found themselves under the Brink’s truck loaded with Durant’s latest fortune. The super-rich get richer and the rest are very well-paid placeholders. The NBA is a cold business.

“The NBA isn’t about the fans. Heck, most fans can’t afford to take their family to a single game, but it’s important that they watch them (and the commercials) on TV and buy enough gear to support the star player structure. Kevin’s jerseys and shoes apparently weren’t selling all that well. Small markets like OKC evidently can’t stuff enough extra money in the pockets of star players to make up for a national slump in apparel sales. Stars have to go to places like Oakland/San Francisco for that, or so we’re told. A lot of us thought Kevin took his first long stride out of our hometown when he signed with Roc Nation. I imagine that Jay Z and his minions were humiliated at the idea of having a big name client located in such a small time place. They finally got that taken care of. It was nice to see Beyonce’ at a game. I guess we should be happy with that. We’ve learned that the NBA is a heartless business.

“It’s classy that you are taking the high road on all of this. We will continue to expect that from the owners, the general manger and the coaching staff. But we can no longer expect it from star players. With his actions, Kevin Durant just made a statement that you and the other members of the Thunder ownership group aren’t good enough to win him a championship. That Sam Presti, despite building an entire operation around Kevin and catering to his every whim I’m sure, wasn’t good enough to win him a championship. He essentially told Billy Donovan that he wasn’t a good enough coach to win him a championship. He strongly stated through his departure that his Thunder teammates clearly weren’t good enough to win him a championship. He told Oklahoma City thanks, but this is not the best place for him to win a championship. That’s being supremely selfish and unaccountable. But that’s a superstar’s life in the NBA and we have to deal with it. There may not be another Tim Duncan for a few generations, if ever.

“I still believe Kevin Durant is basically a good guy. The best person we could possibly imagine to carry Oklahoma’s flag into the professional sports arena and on a world stage. He appeared to care about the community and showed through his actions he wanted to make it a better place. We all benefited greatly from his time here. It just turns out the benefit in return wasn’t enough for him. It hurts, but just as we do after countless experiences with severe weather in this state, we will pick up the pieces best we can and rebuild. At least there weren’t any fatalities, just plenty of psychological damage.