thunder Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Kevin Durant was everything, everywhere, all at once in his Phoenix Suns debut
Kevin Durant is a master of disguise who is already blending in seamlessly with the Phoenix Suns. Not many teams can do the DMX Challenge and present as many looks as the Suns can with their new wing roaming the floor. Most guys take a second to re-integrate into an offense or to heal from an MCL sp...
Exciting NBA action is the league’s version of a refund after that turd of an All-Star Game
The NBA complaint department has been hard at work this season. If someone prompted ChatGPT to write a report for the 2022-23 product it would be titled “The National Load Management Association: How street clothes became more noticeable than basketball uniforms.” Throw in an All-Star Game with the ...
Durant to Phoenix, Lake Show reboot: Recapping the NBA Trade Deadline’s biggest deals
The 2023 NBA Trade Deadline was one last chance for intrepid NBA contenders to separate themselves from the pack and for a select group of sluggish teams to stow a stimulant onto their rosters. Unless you’re John Collins still stuck on the runway in Atlanta, it didn’t disappoint. The relative parity...
Wild, Wild West: Kevin Durant is headed to Phoenix, another seemingly stacked deck
The blockbuster trade of the season Wednesday night while you were sleeping. By now, you’ve heard that Kevin Durant is no longer a Brooklyn Net and is heading west (again) to join the Phoenix Suns. That’s right, another stacked deck, officially proving he can’t do it with his “own” team. Durant to a...
Sami Zayn must win the Royal Rumble
WWE kicks its Wrestlemania season into fifth gear this week with Saturday night’s Royal Rumble. Even those who have soured on the product New York has been putting out come back in for the Rumble — for the most part — due to its uniqueness and penchant for surprises, and setting up what the build to...
The NBA’s poverty franchises
The competitive lifespan of an NBA franchise is delicate. A team’s championship relevance depends on many factors, including the front office’s competence, coaching staff, and the totality of star power on the court. “Poverty” in the NBA sense can be defined by the corrosion of the team’s ethics and...
Come home, Kevin Durant
The NBA’s greatest epics have been built around a meteoric star crash landing in a small market, galvanizing the city around their greatness in hopes of delivering glory. Think LeBron James in Cleveland, Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, Tim Duncan in San Antonio, Isiah Thomas in Detroit, Hakeem Olajuwon in ...
5 surprising NBA rookies you need to know about
As Paolo Banchero begins to run away with the Rookie of the Year award, there are still hidden gems and surprise showings by first-year players selected outside the top 10. We have highlighted which ones have been the biggest surprises thus far and project comps for their young career....
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the next big thing
Let’s get this out of the way. This is not a trend piece arguing why Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs to be playing in a bigger market. SGA is just fine where he is. Sure, he could “save” plenty of franchises like the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, or Los Angeles Lakers....
Coming off the bench has brought back some semblance of vintage Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook’s first season in L.A. was an unmitigated failure. He was plugged into a lineup of non-shooters including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a confusing mix of ill-fitting pieces. Of Rob Pelinka’s misfit toys, though, nobody took last season’s debacle harder on the chin than Westbroo...
Who will be stepping into the limelight this NBA season?
When a new wave of players becomes NBA relevant, it usually happens over time, never all at once. It’s a gradual increase in relevance, sometimes under the radar, because it’s guys who reach their potential in small markets and losing situations. When a lottery pick hits early and fast, like Paolo B...
A decade after the Thunder traded James Harden, regret should linger
A decade after Oklahoma City traded James Harden on the eve of the 2012-13 regular season, it still stands as an atrocity upon the art of dynasty-building. As the central players involved in that deal wind down their Hall of Fame careers in bleak situations, there is no more denying it, Oklahoma Cit...
Every NBA team’s Super Fan
With the NBA season about to kick off, let’s do a Super Fan roll-call!...
Attention NBA teams with no desire to win: Call the Lakers because Russell Westbrook already looks checked out
Calling all tankers. Calling all tankers. If you are desperate to improve your chances at drafting Victor Wembanyama, there is a disgruntled guard on the Los Angeles Lakers who is on an expiring contract, and not as athletic as he used to be....
Can WWE get Bray Wyatt right this time?
It has become obvious that Triple H is going to get as much mileage as he can by reclaiming all that Vince McMahon tossed overboard. There’s certainly a lot of goodwill from fans to win by bringing back their favorites, and the whole business is about the buzz you can create with pops from big or sh...
Saraya has a story to tell… so tell it
No…not that one. Though it’s a good one, if the movie was a touch of WWE propaganda. We’ll get back to this. ...
Sometimes predictable is the way to go
It finally happened and is one prime example of why I believe predictability isn’t always a negative in professional wrestling. There hasn’t been a bigger disappointment in WWE over the last year than Dominik Mysterio, the son of squared-circle visionary Rey Mysterio. In my “Clash at the Castle” pre...
How bloated are the preseason win totals for the NBA teams fans love to hate?
When oddsmakers release NBA win-total futures, most casual fans scan right to their teams’ over/under and say, “My team’s better than that.” After a prolonged and misguided rant about sharps who do this for a living doing their job, the next move is to find the franchises they hate and bitch about t...
Don’t blame the Brooklyn Nets
Faulting the Nets would be too easy. Worse, it would be unjust....