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You will recall that Blake Griffin dunked on Kendrick Perkins not so long ago. One rarely dunks on a player of Perkins's height and reputed toughness, so it was a big thing. Kevin Durant said Griffin's dunk was not a dunk—making him the clubhouse leader in petulance—but here comes Perk himself! More »
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The Thunder took 33 trips to the line, and the Mavericks didn't think that was particularly fair. "We attack the basket strong and didn't get anything," said Shawn Marion. "They call ticky-tack down on the other end." More »
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We thought we settled this Tuesday morning, but KD's back today to rag on Blake's bonkers dunk over Kendrick Perkins: More »
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Yes. More »
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This might be a bit tough to watch after seeing Blake Griffin consume and excrete Kendrick Perkins, but every yang needs a yin and if there's anything other than that dunk to serve as synecdoche for last night's 112-100 Clippers win over Oklahoma City, it's Russell Westbrook being stuffed by the rim. [NBA TV] More »
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It's only halfway through the abbreviated NBA season, so I'm hesitant to dub anything dunk of the year. But here it is, dunk of the year—and of course it's from Blake Griffin. Kendrick Perkins's family requests no flowers be sent. [NBA TV] More »
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What is ESPN prattling on about right now? We condense your morning SportsCenter to its essence. More »
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Scare quotes on "altercation" in the headline, because no one's really sure how to sum this one up succinctly. An argument? A feud? A whole lot of nothing? A nascent Thunder dynasty being torn apart before it could even begin? Two 23-year-olds acting like 23-year-olds? More »
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These are the shoes Kevin Durant is wearing right now against the Orlando Magic (see a side pic via CNBC's Darren Rovell) and while I don't think they're as terrible as the Internet reaction suggests they are (sample comment: 'The color is called "horribibad"') they aren't the most attractive shoes on the planet. Your thoughts? More »
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So what if Perk was miserable about getting traded to OKC? So what if his team got bounced from the playoffs while he played a minor role? So what if he got arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in August? More »
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News broke last week that Kevin Durant, the humble 22-year-old who also happens to be a professional basketball player, is extremely tatted up. The Thunder blog over at The Oklahoman has some specifics on Durant's ink, which — if you could not already tell from the careful placement — he covers up in the interest of his public image. He is, after all, playing in a state that only legalized tattoos in 2006: More »
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The Basketball Jones posted this Getty photo yesterday, of Kevin Durant on his Nike China Tour. So many questions. More »
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"What's there to do in Oklahoma for fun?" More »
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Kevin Durant was playing in L.A.'s Drew League this past weekend, the renowned pro-am summer league that features professional, collegiate, and amateur players from around the country. For us, there's twofold joy to this self-assisted alley-oop Durant threw down on a breakaway for team Go HAM: One component is simply in seeing an NBA player do something remarkable again, since it's been all of two weeks since we last had that privilege. The other is seeing him do it in a tiny, no-name gym where there's no JumboTron for instant replay, and no commercial break for a timeout, and where the fans can slap a player on his back as he turns to get back on defense. More »
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Dallas and Oklahoma City resume their NBA Western Conference Championship amid cover-ups relating to Russell Westbrook-gate and worries about the Mavericks's "suddenly shaky defense." More »
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Remember this dunk? Of course you do. It was awesome. Brendan Haywood, whose greatest skill has traditionally been being marginally better than Erick Dampier or Etan Thomas, remembers it too. More »
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Here's the play, courtesy of Sebastian Pruiti over at the NBA Playbook, that allegedly motivated Scott Brooks to bench his starting point guard for the entire fourth quarter last night. It was, initially, a nerve-racking move to take in: you expect a young team to fold in on itself without its young, bullish boy wonder at the helm, and you expect the coach to make the swap back in before that can happen. Remarkably, though (and probably to Brooks' surprise), the Thunder's bench players — boy wonders all — scored 23 of the team's final 29 points against the veteran Mavericks as Westbrook watched from the sideline. More »
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With apologies to Taj Gibson, who replaced Bruce Lee just four days ago, this posterized Kevin Durant dunk over Brendan Haywood (click here to see the full view) should now be required to hang above every American mantlepiece in felt-tip form. More »
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In advance of Game Two of the NBA Western Conference Championship series, DFW.com was kind enough to post 136 "fan photos" from Game One between the Dallas Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're something to behold. More »
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Someone's dreams will be crushed tonight. Either they will be David Kahn's, when he and the Wolves lose the lottery, or they will be Kyrie Irving's, when he realizes there's a 60.5 percent chance that Minnesota (the Land of 10,000 Point Guards), Cleveland, or Toronto winds up with the first pick. Or, I suppose, they will be every attendee's—the lottery is in Secaucus, N.J. More »
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Shawn Kemp has been retired from professional basketball for about eight years now, but after eight seasons with the SuperSonics, he still lives in the Seattle area and makes time for a weekly appearance on local sports radio with the "Ian Furness Show" on KJR. In yesterday's show, Kemp shared that the Oklahoma City Thunder had offered him courtside tickets to see his technically-former franchise take on the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round. He turned them down, and joked about the idea of going in his old Sonics jersey. More »
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The Memphis Grizzlies have been typecast, ever since we decided they were relevant enough to be typecast at all, as the unlikely success story with an unlikely GM and an advertised bad streak. They have "blue collar players" for a "blue collar town." The Oklahoma City Thunder, meanwhile, have slid into the category of young guns with fresh legs and a proclivity for streaky shooting. They're also quite humble, we're told, given how stuck in Oklahoma City they are. More »
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You'd think it would come later, and, yes, he did fail to shoot for most of the fourth quarter, and, yes, the wild triple overtime battle could have gone either way, but that's beside the point — because it was in the third that a squinty-eyed reptilian aspect came over Kevin Durant and he brought the ball up court, snaked around this high screen from Kendrick Perkins, wrongfooted Marc Gasol, and lashed past Zack Randolph for a dunk that capped a Thunder comeback and got his team back into the game. More »
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Two second-round NBA Game Twos to watch this evening: Celtics-Heat at 7, and Grizz-Thunder at 9:30, both on TNT. More »
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Kevin Durant, regular-Joe wunderkind, came down the court and drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key with about 3:30 remaining in last night's Game 5 between Oklahoma City and Denver. Then, on his own, the third-year forward personally outscored Denver 14-6, including his team's final nine points. In that same time, James Harden contributed a three-pointer and Russell Westbrook added a free throw — but really, what we saw last night is the clumsy sentiment people try to convey when they call an athletic performance "Jordanesque." That is, when an athlete decides he or she wants their team to win, and then wills them to win, because, well, because it has been decided as such. More »
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One fundamental tenet of basketball is that the best way to break a press is to not let the ball hit the floor. Another fundamental tenet is that, when you have a point guard like Russell Westbrook, you get the hell out of the way. More »
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If you watched the Thunder-Nuggets game on Sunday night, you probably remember this play, which came with just over a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. Kendrick Perkins, the Oklahoma City big man who has struggled a bit — with injury and with scoring — since he arrived from Boston in February, scored on a crucial put-back off of a Russell Westbrook miss. More »
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Thanks to Royce from DailyThunder.com for sharing what he deemed "Potentially insane female Thunder fan gets massive tattoo on her thigh." When the team moves back to Seattle, Royce will have used one word too many and Priscilla, well, Priscilla seems like she'll be just fine with it anyway. More »
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It gets worse for Sacramento. David Stern has appointed Clay Bennett, second-most hated man of Seattle and 2008 Oklahoman of the Year, to lead its Relocation Committee. The deadline for the Kings decision has also been extended to May 2. More »
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A chin-strapped, goateed Vince Carter took off against the Thunder last night and, with a quick spin-move into the block and a graceful reverse dunk, returned us all to a time when he was Half Amazing. Carter has been in the league for 12 years and he's still averaging close to 15 points per game for the Suns and still throwing down dunks like this when he wants to. He had 28 points in Phoenix's 116-98 loss. More »
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God, that's heartbreaking, isn't it? Going from a title favorite, where you actually like all the guys on your team, to a talented-but-unready Thunder squad. Perk couldn't even fake a smile for the welcome-to-the-team photoshoot. More »
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Midway through last night's Thunder-Rockets game, Kevin Durant swung the ball out to Russell Westbrook who drove straight to the hoop and elevated for a dunk that straight embarrassed alleged defensive maestro Shane Battier. More »
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Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »
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Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and the blogosphere to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »
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To conclude one of the boobsiest days in Deadspin history, here's this picture of some strategically placed fans/cameramen at last night's Thunder-Jazz and Penguins-Capitals trackmeets. Mutton wins again. H/t Eric and Patrick. More »
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Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and the blogosphere to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »
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Clay Bennett will pay Sonics season ticket holders $1.6 million (the equivalent of Kevin Ollie), because he raised the price of tickets after the team moved to Oklahoma City. I'm not sure how that works, either. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] More »
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The Knicks were crushed by Oklahoma City last night, but an opponent far more deadly than Kevin Durant was to blame. It seems the team had trouble resting up because their hotel was haunted. More »
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You'll never guess who John Hollinger's PER says is the best player in the NBA. Normally I'd be giving it away by running his picture, but I'll still bet you have no idea who this is. [Daily Thunder] More »
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You're young, rich, one of the most talented players on the planet. If you're Kevin Durant, how do you spend your days off? Getting into slapfights, and filming them. More »
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