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Royce Young
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ESPN Staff Writer- Covers Oklahoma City Thunder for ESPN.com
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Tim MacMahon
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ESPN Staff Writer- Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009
- Covers Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks
- Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM
It arrived in the space of about 70 seconds.
It was the third match of the first round of the Western Conference in 2010, and a group of 20-year-olds found themselves facing the future Los Angeles Lakers champion. It was the moment when the Thunder from Oklahoma City really arrived.
The iconic 8-0 win in the third quarter and a possible return win against the Lakers is now a piece of Thunder's tradition, featuring a little personality and skill from each player – a poster ferocious Russell Westbrook, a James Harden 3-pointer catch and now-famous dagger Kevin Durant pull-up – a moment placed in a time capsule to remember simpler times.
It was the first game of the playoffs in Oklahoma City, a chaotic energy in the arena resulting in tensions on the ground, the game becoming more of a civic awakening than a competition. It was an inexperienced team that was playing in a playoff institution, a small duckling who was sending a message to one of the most powerful big markets.
There was a purity and innocence to all this, with the three young stars unaware of what was going to happen.
Two years later, this moment has stuck in another lasting image, with the Thunder's three stars standing on the sidelines in Miami as the Heat eliminated them in a five-game NBA final. Harden was in the middle, one arm around Durant and Westbrook each, watching the seconds skewer while LeBron James celebrated his first title. The trio never played another game together.
Harden was traded before the start of the next season and Durant left the free agency in 2016 – and now they stand apart, their arms around their own franchises, Harden joining Durant and Westbrook in as MVPs winners.
The original three great OKCs only exist in the afterlife of the NBA, hidden in the high vault of whistles, all realizing their full individual potential while being disconnected from others.
It is normal, in some ways, that Harden be the last of the former OKC trio to win the MVP title. He was always the third option of the Thunder, the star who had to sacrifice to serve as the sixth man, the only direction was not willing to give a maximum of contract to keep.
Even though Harden accepts the league's first individual honor – a year after his second-place finish, when Westbrook won and Houston Rockets felt that Harden was stolen – The Beard is overshadowed by a former teammate. Durant is at the top of the NBA world weeks after claiming his second MVP final trophy and championship with the Golden State Warriors.
Grab these two trophies are the only moments missing from Harden's resume as an NBA legend now. And that makes his first MVP campaign somewhat bittersweet.
"It's our year," Harden told ESPN's Shelley Smith in the middle of the season, firmly believing that the Rockets would dethrone the Warriors' dynasty during the playoffs.
It happened so painfully close to happening. The Rockets had the Warriors on the ropes in the conference finals of the West – even after Chris Paul, co-star Harden recruited in Houston, suffered a hamstring strain in the final minute of a 5 victory the edge of the elimination.
James Harden won the MVP title after becoming the fourth player to average at least 30 points per game and lead his team to 65 wins.
More than 10 weeks have passed since the end of the regular season, and the material was finally distributed in 2017-2018.
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The Rockets still managed to take a half-time double-digit lead over the Warriors in the next two games. They ended up with the dubious distinction of becoming the first team to blow such opportunities in the playoffs twice in the same playoff series, according to research from Elias Sports Bureau.
"Two games, games 6 and 7, half basketball," Harden said after the game 7 home defeat, when the Rockets missed an NBA playoff game 27 consecutive 3-point attempts.
"We just did not have the same energy as during that first half or pace, so it's extremely frustrating."
Harden has spent twice as many seasons in Houston as at OKC, but he will never break his connection with the team that fished him. And there is a beautiful narrative poem that he hoisted the Maurice Podoloff trophy exactly nine years after the day the Thunder took him third overall.
The organization Thunder has moved quickly from the business, with a context that has been shouted by narration. The Thunder won 60 games in the season after trading Harden with the league's first win (eliminating even Harden and the Rockets in the first round), but his season ended when Patrick Beverley hit Westbrook's knee.
They went to the Western Conference Finals two more times – losing to the San Antonio Spurs in six games, then the Warriors in seven after taking a 3-1 lead – before Durant left in a free agency.
And with the future of Paul George suspended in the unstable equilibrium of the free agency, Thunder can be as far away as ever.
The Thunder have positioned themselves to have at least one chance at George, which would have been a chimera a year ago. The Thunder went from even on the meeting list to seated in pole position with a real opportunity to keep it, at least for another season.
The organization spent a year recruiting him, from the moment he got off the plane to a welcome party, to a few members of the team – including Donovan – invited by George's family to Southern California for a surprise birthday party. George last week.
There has not really been a team to experience three consecutive seismic summits like the Thunder, Durant's departure, to the uncertainty around Westbrook, to the decision in George's instance. And with Harden taking his own MVP, and Durant winning a second consecutive title and accompanying the MVP Finals, you would not blame the Thunder for being trapped in the receding void. But that has never been the Thunder 's approach.
As has always been the case, we move on to the next.
The hope in Houston is that last season was not the best shot of the Rockets to dethrone the Warriors' dynasty, just their first.
The price tag to keep the Rockets core will skyrocket this summer with Paul commanding a max deal and blossoming star big man Clint Capela and a few key players entering the restricted free agency, but new owner Tilman Fertitta has repeatedly stated that it's fine to pay a hefty luxury tax bill if Houston has a competitor.
General Manager Daryl Morey will return each stone to try to add another superstar. ("We have new maths," he joked halfway when asked how the Rockets could work with the salary cap.) However, it's much more likely that the Rockets team will season next looks a lot like the team that won an NBA. best 65 games in 2017-18.
Harden finally has his MVP, but he is still looking for satisfaction that can only come with a float at a championship parade. He is still looking for Golden State and his old friend Durant, while Thunder and Westbrook are trying to come back to the competition.
"I think we are very close, obviously," said Rockets coach Mike D & # 39; Antoni. "Some things we're going to tweak, and we're going to get back on the horse and we'll have these guys here very soon."
It can be said that the most talented trio ever to have played together in the NBA is separate, scattered across the Western Conference. Westbrook and Harden have joined Durant in the MVP club these past two seasons, while Durant has been celebrating championships, the ultimate goal that has so far eluded his former Oklahoma City teammates.
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