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Usually, when players of this caliber don't have their teams in immediate contention, they catch flack for it. Except that's not happening with these two. With Durant, it's understandable. His team is more a victim of circumstance and bad luck than anything he (or Westbrook, who is having a career year) have done wrong. In LeBron's case, something's just not quite right with the King or his new team. Given that he returned to Cleveland as a man on a mission, the current state of the Cavs would seem to be a direct indictment of James. Instead, like KD, James has emerged as unlikely underdog—a nearly ridiculous sentence to write about the two best player of their generation.

More so than even the Hawks or the Warriors, the Thunder—a juggernaut that usually rolls through the first 82 games—have emerged as the feel-good story of the NBA season. It helps that Durant is impossibly likeable and Westbrook, when he's playing well, is the most dynamic player in the game. Still, as the team fights for a chance to prove itself in the postseason, it's hard not to pull for them. They were expected to get yet another fair shot at a title, to prove they weren't just regular season phenoms. But the injures to KD and Westbrook put them at the bottom of the stands and now they're playing from behind, trying to dig themselves out of that hole. Instead of scrutinizing the Thunder, we're just hoping they get a chance to be themselves in April.

LeBron is a far more interesting case. With him poised to redeem the entire recent sports history of Ohio, there were good vibes around the Cavs as soon as he made his announcement. It possibly hurt his cause that Cleveland morphed into another ad hoc super-team but such is the new reality of the NBA. Talent attracts more talent, and the naysayers are powerless to prevent it.

The Cavaliers' struggles and LeBron's own up and down year have gotten in the way of these prophetic aspirations. But James's homecoming has made him into a far more sympathetic figure. And unlike the Heat, who practically begged us to hate them, this is a Cavs team many of us want to like. At first blush, the Heat were a mercenary killing machine gone horribly awry; the Cavs, on the other hand, could be a lot of fun if they ever got it together. That's where James finds himself now: Trying to rally himself and his fans not for reputation's sake, but to do right by everyone who invested so much in his 2014-15. He's not worrying about his legacy or his own past performance. LeBron James is just out to make everyone happy. And for once, it comes across as genuine.

Who knows how long this warm and fuzzy feeling will last. At some point, the Thunder will probably go white-hot, soar into the postseason, and scare the living shit out of whomever has to face them in the first round. This will happen and we'll forget all about OKC's adversity. The Cavs will eventually exhaust our patience and quite possibly take a mulligan on this season. At some point, "what's going on with LeBron?" could morph into "what's wrong with LeBron?" Lucky for them, they'll always be in the mix in the woeful East—a security blanket of sorts, but hardly reassurance.

Unfortunately, only one of these two players can end up with the title we expected them to compete for. For now, though, it's exciting to watch them both have to fight and claw like mere mortals.