The 2011-12 Oklahoma City Thunder: The Dynasty That Almost Was

KD. Russ. The Beard. The Oklahoma City Thunder of this century’s second decade looked like they would be the dominant team in the NBA for years, but failed to win it all despite the massive talent of their big three. In this episode of ‘Special Teams,’ we look back at the year the Thunder came the closest to winning it all as they ascended to a legendary battle with the “other” big 3 of the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. So what happened? How did it nearly go so right, and then how did it all start to come apart? Here’s a hint: HOW DO YOU TRADE JAMES HARDEN?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of My Heart Radio.
Hello and Welcome inside. Special Teams with Jason Smith and

(00:23):
Mike Harmon are weekly podcast where we take a look
back at a big team in their big season in
sports history. Sometimes it's football, sometimes it's baseball, sometimes it's basketball.
Sometimes it's mumblety peg. Although big seasons and mumblety Peg
just end with people losing fingers, so we don't want
to focus on that too much. Wow, I don't know,
there's some exciting ends. We're gonna have to get rights

(00:44):
to the video we just lost his ring finger like
John Wick play by play that you and I can
do for some of those classic matchups mumblety Peg three.
So we are looking back today at the magical year
of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team that lost the

(01:05):
NBA Finals to the Miami Heat. It was Lebron james
first championship, but this was the year where it was
all supposed to come together for a star studded team
led by Kevin Durant, led by Russell Westbrook and six
Men of the Year James Harden. You know, it's been
a long time and everybody forgets just what kind of
talent was on this team, and especially since earlier in

(01:28):
this NBA season the big who's the greatest Thunder player
of all time? Topic came up? And of course Kevin
Durant is all chapped if you say it's not him,
and Russell Westbrook is still the most beloved former member
of the Thunder. But you know, for me, this season
and and how this played out, you know, the hardened
aspect of it is just tremendously interesting because you see
the super duper star of the guys become and Oklahoma

(01:51):
City had all three of these guys and now they
have none of them. Well, it's just amazing how the
the power of observation and your your ability to draft
well and not rise up a building of an organization.
We normally talking about this with college football or basketball programs,

(02:11):
where it takes a few years to implement what you
want to do. The NBA, it's normally all right, we
got our one guy and there's enough veterans around this
should fix it. Here, it was a stable of guy's
home grown. It was Kevin Durant his third straight scoring title,
and clearly this was the next team that was becoming.
It was the Miami Heat had everybody joined up. But

(02:33):
here's the Thunder that we didn't spend as much attention
on because let's face it, Lebron James and the Traveling
Circus gained all of our attention. Sure, and they cried
about being portrayed his villa, Yes, of course. So I
mean that was a beautiful second part to it. It
wasn't just hey, the circuses in town. It's they're crying
while they're performing, because you're you're not embracing what they did.

(02:55):
It was their fourth season Oklahoma City. Scott Brooks was
the head coach and Sam Press he will get into
later on, who really was the architect of the dismantling
of the Oklahoma City Thunder as we knew them this year? Uh,
they were in charge of a team that really had
three great players and uh, not a lot else. He
Kende Kendrick Perkins. He's gonna be so upset. I'll tell

(03:19):
you who the best Thunder players were, and I'll fight you.
I mean, Sergebaka was really the only other player that
really dent and anything. He was a first team All
NBA defensive player. But nine and eight guys, you know,
even players like Reggie Jackson who later on turned into
a player who wasn't bad. He was just a rookie.
He didn't score that much. You know, they relied on
Nazi Mohammed and they got Derek Fisher late in the

(03:41):
season for some veteran leadership. But it's not like they
relied on any of these other guys besides their big three.
It was, hey, Kadi and Westbrook are gonna carry us,
and when it's time, we bring James Harden off the bench.
And just think about that that James Harden spent the
first few years of his career coming off the bench
for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He started two games in
regular season that year, appeared in sixty two games, averaging

(04:04):
nearly seventeen points per game uh and thirty one minute.
So you know, he wasn't on the bench long for
long strategies. But just kind of funny, right, I mean,
it's the formula that's been trending true for so many
NBA teams is we have one or two guys we like,
and let's see if they can drag the rest of
a roster with them. And these three, I mean, think

(04:27):
about it. There were twenty three, twenty two years old,
still figuring out and navigating through stardom as people paid
more and more attention to what they could be because
let's face it, they're rolling up big point totals along
the way. And this team didn't really get a lot
in the draft, and he looked like they said they
got Reggie Jackson, but he really didn't contribute all that much,

(04:49):
didn't really do a lot in free agency. This was
we have a young core and we are going to
see how they continue to progress. And that's exactly what
they did. And this was this when when when as
the season rolled on, it kind of became the well,
who's gonna be anointed first Lebron James or Katie and
Russell Westbrook who became synonymous players with each other, you know,

(05:10):
because what what what people forget when you look we
look back at teams like this, it's, you know, Katie
and Westbrook have always been linked together, you know, whatever
it is, even when Katie left and and went to
the Golden State Warriors. But you know, to remember back
the beginning, it was these two guys are gonna do
it together for a long time. It's like Shack and Kobe,
They're gonna come in and look at look at these
two guys, look at the way their games and and

(05:31):
do they play off one another? And Russell Westbrook didn't
play as nearly as much hero ball as he did
later on, But this was the beginning of what a
great one to do. All they had where in Miami
was becoming Lebron James and Dwyane Wade was clearly the
number two on that team, and then it was Chris
Bosh and then it was everybody else where. Lebron rose
up to make it it's him, even though Kadi was

(05:53):
the better player, it was boy Westbrook does a lot,
and the debate began, who's better for the team was
more important Westbrook and Ranton, you know, was a conversation
that that fueled discussions in the NBA for years. That's
the beauty of it because it still has legs to
this day. And you mentioned the Who's the greatest thunder
player debate that took up a good chunk of air

(06:14):
around Christmas time of the season. But when you look
at the heat, those guys were entering phase two of
their careers right where they've had success. Wade already had
a title, Lebron had gotten to the finals, and and
he knew what it was like to drag guys along

(06:37):
with you, kicking and screaming. Well, and that's exactly what ola.
They dragged their entire roster three and everybody else exactly,
but at least had three guys pulling the same way
Lebron the first time go around in Cleveland was a
one man band with a lot on his back. But
in Miami, it was the conscious decision of all right,
here's what we're gonna do, and we're gonna go at

(06:58):
this together with The Thunder had two guys. Their identity
was not secure yet, right, both budding stars, but that
battle for one A and one B who's got the
bigger name on the marquee. So as the Oklahoma City
Thunder got ready for what was going to be their
best year ever in the NBA, what else was going

(07:19):
on in the magical year of two thousand and twelve?
NBA wise, it was the year of Mike Harmon or
really the the couple of months of insanity. Jeremy Lynn
took New York by surprise, Gamalo Anthony got hurt suddenly,

(07:40):
Jeremy Lenna scoring a game, and you're thinking, at least
I'm thinking Oh my god, the Knicks found a superstar.
I mean, it didn't work out that way, but oh
my god, for coming was about as short as the
NBA season, right. People forget is that this was you know,
this was a sixty six game season, which about is
what you need for an NBA year kind of It

(08:00):
starts on Christmas Night, which is what we say every year.
That's when it should began. You could play sixty six
games and have it and have it go, and that
that's really what you needed to start. A couple of
months later. The NBA season is way too long. But
not shortly after the season began, Linsanity was a very
big deal as everybody wanted to see how good the
Knicks were with Jeremy Lynn, and I remember the conversation

(08:23):
with Carmelo Anthony was can you coexist with Jeremy Lynn
when you come back from injury? And he's like, whoa,
this dude plays good for like two weeks and suddenly
now like I gotta I gotta fit back in with him.
But this is what happened when you know, Melo had
a chance to carry the Knicks and he couldn't do it.
The big movies of the year the Avengers graced the
screen for the first time. Comic book Come to Life.

(08:45):
Also Fifty Shades of Gray, Anastasia Steve gekety gegty gayety
a man, you have the Dark Night, Dark Night, Different
different movie. Uh. Two of the big songs of the year,
Carly ray Jepson would make it big with Call Me Maybe,
which was I remember that being one of my daughter's
favorite songs. It was one Zoey's was she was four

(09:06):
years old and it was one of the songs she
liked listening and it was very peppe and she's like, oh,
Dad wanted can I hear Call Me Maybe? I'm like,
surell we call me. This's really glad. I was feeding
Queen and Jethro toll over the speakers of the car
snots running down his nose? Dad, Why did a song
about snot running down as just listen, he tells about
our experience. It's I and Anderson. Just listen. He's a genius.

(09:29):
That is right. But even more popular then Call Me Maybe? Style,
Oh oh, Gangham style was everywhere. And then whenever you
went to a wedding and they popped that out, oh
yeah yeah. And he had to watch it's a Gangam
style hair. I'm going to blue Hair Society, come out
there and try to go along with it. And you

(09:51):
just were hoping nobody got hurt. Anybody get hurt in
this Gangham style? A right? Good? All right, we can
move on. That's great, next song, go back to his
on one. So here on the Oklahoma City Thunder getting
set for the twelve season, and look, just just to
focus on this just for another couple of seconds. Here
is it became not a regular occurrence, but we were

(10:13):
in a shocked when the NBA had labor difficulty, and
maybe because of this it got two fans that are right.
Eighty two games is a lot of games. I mean sixties,
I really we We've talked about this on our show
many times. You can play fifty five or sixty games
in the NBA season and nothing is going to change.

(10:34):
Your teams at game fifty five will be the same
teams at the top and bottom of the conference. In
game eight two, maybe you get a little bit of
difference in the lower seeds, like maybe the team that
finishes in the eight seed would finish ninth, and the
team that finishes ninth would get into the playoffs, or
the team that seeded seventh would be a sixth seed.
But once you get to game fifty five sixty, you

(10:54):
know how everybody's gonna be and and really, how great
is the race for the bottom a couple of spots
in the conference because those teams always go home. The
top of the teams now are too good. So if
you get it at seven or eight, while you're just
going home in the first round, so it's really not
that compelling. You can start the season later or spread
it out a little bit more. So I have back
to backs place sixty games, and that would be it. It

(11:16):
It would be perfect. NBA C Yeah, if you could
figure out the revenue side of it, I'm sure the
NBA and the Players Association would be happy to talk
to you. But that's where it gets difficult. Is that
you do have guys, the the players, with more power
than they've ever had and certainly flexing their muscle. Given
the way contracts have gone, you go back to the

(11:37):
ousting of Donald Sterling, which we've talked about, that you
suddenly look at lengths of contracts became a bigger deal. Right,
I might only want a two year, one year option,
why because the cat keeps going up, which means I
can get another raise instead of locking in for five
seven years or whatever was customary before. So you have

(11:59):
that change. So and players deciding, you know what, I'd
rather win slash have fun then try to be a
one man gang in in a bad situation nicks. So
you have guys that I was thinking, you're gonna go
one man gang w w E. Well I wasn't. Yeah,
I was gonna all right. I didn't feel like doing
the screen because sometimes then you start coughing and it's

(12:19):
just bad for business. Go back and look at one
man gang highlights at your leisure. But the the idea
of teaming up was also starting to really become in vogue,
and all of these flow through and as conversations you
and I have had on our show multiple times, load
management is going to be prevalent regardless of the number

(12:40):
of games that are played. That that's not going to
solve any any issues or any handwringing that people do
over that part of the process. It's really just a
the more you tell fans and reinforce the idea that
a two games are unnecessary and we're playing a bunch
of exhibitions. You've given them reason to two now, which

(13:03):
is why you have a lot of issues with your
local and national ratings. Even when you try to promote
a big time on paper, a big time game on
on the schedule. It's say, there's still another three months
of the regular season. We'll see you in April. So
as the Thunder got ready for the season coming up,

(13:25):
we'll tell you about the moment that could have turned
them into NBA champions that didn't go their way, and
the drama following the season that really turned them into
a team that you knew that was their last run
getting to the NBA Finals. All that more as we
continue Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike harm in
Oklahoma City Thunder, the team that almost did it all,

(14:03):
rolling on with Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon.
Or look back at the Oklahoma City Thunder who nearly
became legendary as they fell just short of winning the
NBA title with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and a young
James Harden coming off the bench at twenty two years
of age. And you mentioned this a few minutes ago,
but they go forty seven and nineteen this year and

(14:26):
they finished one in the West and it's a very
big year for them, or or first in their division.
And yeah, they're best players were all twenty two and
twenty three years old. You know, Durant and Westbrook were
both twenty three, Harden was twenty two, Serge Ibaka was
twenty two, and even the rest of their you know,
quote core guys, Kendrick Perkins, you know who was serviceable,
he was only twenty seven. You know, Cefalosha was twenty seven.

(14:49):
Fisher was old. They picked him up at the trade deadline,
but everybody else was young. And it was we have
a we have a great future ahead of us. We
just have to keep this group together. The Heat new
we have to keep our three guys together as long
as possible. And you would think it would happen for
the Oklahoma City Thunder, but they lose James Harden following

(15:09):
the season. But that's what I keep coming back to
after this is that, yes, I get they lost to
the Heat and then the Heat with Lebron and Wade
and Bosch with something, but man, with Durant and Westbrook
and Harden, you couldn't make it work. You couldn't find
a way to make this work, and you couldn't find
a way to get a little bit more out of Harden.
I mean, this was two guys who were starting and hardened,

(15:30):
playing thirty minutes a game, scoring seventeen games, six Man
of the Year off the bench. This was teams would
kill for these three guys right now in Oklahoma City
had him and then it lost all of them. Well,
and that's the problem, right, bright lights other opportunities living
in a fish bowl. I mean, remember the Mr. Unreliable
headline that became such a big deal. Mom starts getting

(15:51):
in the editorials. And as soon as that happens, as
we know, as soon as family gets involved, it's off
the rails. Right. Whatever the business you're in is, so
does the family members, you know, chiming in with what
you're doing. Uh publicly in this and certainly in our
our field, occasionally family members decided they wanted to chime
in on what we're doing. Uh that that's usually not

(16:13):
good for you, Oh dad, Yeah, when we invite Walton,
invite him in. But yes, well Frostburg Wits, our executive
producer of the show, likes to torment you with that.
But it becomes hard right, everybody wants to decide. You know,
I want to be the leader. I want to do
this on my own and to approve I'm the A

(16:34):
list guy because if you're hardened, you're coming in and
you're scoring a ton of points, saving their bake in
a number of times. But you're the third guy. Six
Man of the Year is great. I mean, Lou Williams,
I'm sure loves that. He'd rather be talking about all right.
I'm considered one of the best ever and m VP
is not one of the best guys off the bench

(16:54):
of all time, right, and for James Harden, that was
his future. They're right, instant offense off the inch because
there's not enough basketball's to go around with all three
of those guys on the court necessarily for long stretches
of time, right, So you have to keep those rotations
in tact. And so ego and dollars and cents also

(17:15):
comes into play because I mean, thinking about maxing out
those three guys, you still got to feel the team. Well,
here's the thing. Think about this, because the reason they
let James Harden go at the end, it comes down
to it for me, is that they didn't they didn't
think they could really resign him, want to resign him
and pay them all that money, so they let him go.
But this is still pretty recent history in the NBA,

(17:36):
and it's not the thirty eight million dollar a year
salaries the top players are getting now. But between Durant
and Westbrook and Harden, you were paying these guys in
that year a total of twenty five million dollars. That's
all you're paying. That's that's that's one year for JJ
Reddick right now. I mean, that's one year for JJ Reddick.

(17:57):
Is that twenty five million? And you were paying dur
Rant fifteen and a half million, Westbrook was making five million,
and Harden was making four million. I always love that
JJ Reddick is your go to. I mean, you know
just about JJ Reddick makes more money than J. J.
Watt all of these things. He's the guy I go
to for that. JJ Reddick is not hosting Saturday Night Like, no,
that's true, you're right about that. But this is I mean,

(18:19):
this is not too long ago. And the thunder they
were poised to have everything and look, the the end
as it comes is really was really about hardened. But
you know, for this season, this was gonna be it.
You know, they roll through the regular season and like
I said, they win the Northwest Division and they have
no trouble with anybody in the playoffs. They cruised. That

(18:41):
was really well. While we didn't really pay as much
attention then because well, everybody, all our focus was on
the Heat. How are the Heat going to do that?
Because really there were there were two stories in the
NBA when Lebron was with the Heat. It was what
the Heat are doing and it's everybody else. Uh. So,
Durant wins his third scoring title, they sweep the Dallas
Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs, and then

(19:03):
they beat the Lakers in five. And I don't know
if this was the wake up call the NBA needed,
but this was, well, they just got rid of Kobe
Bryant the Lakers like they were nothing. Even though Kobe
had a big series the last couple of games, I
think he had like thirty five and forty and forty
and it didn't matter because Oklahoma City was just too
good for them. But I think beating the Lakers the

(19:25):
way the Dave the Lakers were the three seed, that
was okay. Now they've arrived. These young kids have arrived
because here go the Lakers. They won a couple of
of titles under Kobe Bryant as he was the one.
All right, maybe the Lakers, no, this is Oklahoma City
saying yeah, thanks for coming, We're we're going home. Well,
because you look at that roster, right, they were still
a forty one and five team. Where the Lakers that

(19:46):
year Kobe Bryant, uh the leader and Paul Gasol still
playing at the peak of his game, and some of
the other luminaries. Just because I like going through that
roster when you can use Jason Compona, Matt Barnes, keep going, uh,
Troy Murphy, Luke Walton. I mean you've still got Kobe

(20:11):
and Paul Gasol at the top. Andrew Bynum averaged over
eighteen and a half points, but eighteen point seven at
eleven point eight that year. That was his. That was
that was when he finally finally got its, being able
to go in and dispatch and dispose of them so easily.
It's one of the raised eyebrows of all right, you're

(20:34):
on the run, can you finish the job? Waiting for
the thunder in the Western Conference Final, number one seed
San Antonio Spurs and if they were going to go home,
this was going to be the time, because this is
when the Spurs are in the midst of their big
dominant run in the West. Is the Spurs of the Lakers,
the Spurs of the Lakers, and the Spurs come out
in the first two games and they win the first

(20:56):
two at home, and so the Thunder go home down
to zip and you know, this was the this was
the point in their season where it could have gone
either way. Well, it's a great run, but they're still young.
They're all three years old. The Spurs know how to win.
Even though the Thunder are going home, the Spurs are
gonna get one of the next couple of games. They

(21:16):
might win this and even though the Thunder if arrived
as far as hey, we're gonna take them. Seriously, do
they really have enough to beat the Spurs. But the
Thunder win the next two games. K D scores thirty
six points in Game four is the Thunder win at
one oh nine, one oh three. Then they go on
the road and withstand thirty four for Mono Genobli and
they beat the Spurs one, one oh three. They win

(21:38):
Game six, one oh seven. Kevin Durant scores thirty four
and the Thunder move on to the NBA Finals. I
thought they're here, this is the arrival. I don't care
who they're playing. They wound up. Hey, look they're gonna
play the Heat. I thought this was gonna be just
like it's been for Lebron up in his career up
until now. It's gonna be close, But no cigar, because

(22:01):
these players are playing with no conscience. You know, Kadi
and Westbrook they were comfortable in the situation. You know
that with hardening support. Who didn't have a great playoff,
but still it was Kadie was Westbrook, and I don't
think anybody could stop them. It was it was that
here the this is a young guard is here and
Lebron's missed his chance. He went to go team up

(22:22):
and he's now gonna be doomed to making it far
and losing and making it far and losing. This was
the Thunder. Okay, they got everybody's attention with the Lakers,
and now they beat the Spurs. This is their time.
We're gonna anoint them the champions. And they're playing loose
because the pressure is not out of them. The pressure
is all on the other side. Right, it's all on
the heat. The media ready to either throw rose pedals

(22:46):
at Lebron's feet or tomatoes, depending which way this series went.
So for the Young Thunder, while there might have been
some issues internally about roles and who's getting credit for
what what would become a constant theme in Kevin Durant's life,
by the way, across his NBA career. But while that

(23:08):
was behind the scenes, I mean externally, they didn't have
any any pressure on them. The expectations were, all right,
we're gonna see this a while. Somehow, some way, they'll
common heads will prevail, These guys will realize how good
this is, and they'll not want to leave again. You
pointed out the salaries before, and it's not the funny
money it is today a decade later. But still two

(23:32):
of those guys, we're making a quarter of what Kevin
Durant was. I mean, Durant resigned with the Thunder for
like ninety million, and it was a lot of money.
I never thought he would resign because you look at
This is something we'll get into later on the podcast,
is that I never thought basketball could sustain itself in
Oklahoma City. A really good team could sustain itself because

(23:54):
it's too small a market, and eventually the stars are
gonna want to go someplace else. And I thought Kevin Durant,
well that's clearly gonna be him. But no, he resigned.
I'm staying. Whoa you're staying. He was a different kind
of dude. And that was the first time you saw
that was he decided to stay. Okay, could have gone
to the bright lights of anywhere. He decided to stay.
He was a little bit different. But as you see

(24:14):
what happened with Oklahoma City, you know, they everybody wound
up leaving. It's like the the parents that raised the
three kids, and you know, they get along, but they fight,
and eventually they slowly leave the house and they don't
come back and visit anymore. And the parents are going,
what happened? How do we drive our kids so far away?
But I remember going there, how are they gonna be
able to sustain this? Because who's gonna stay? And here

(24:35):
they had it. They they had guys that got lucky
in the draft three times. They got lucky three times.
They could have been sitting there with Greg Odin and
trying to make it work with him and Russell Westbrook,
but no, they were, well, we need We'll take Kevin Durant.
All right, we have the second pick. We'll take Kevin Durant.
Swim Reaper. Come on, Russell. Westbrook's there at number four. Okay,
James Harden who hit it, who hit it large in

(24:58):
his last year at Arizona. Stay. Uh A loss to
Syracuse in the tournament here you you know, hey, we
got hard Syracuse. How good he is? I tried to
get Syracuse and just I mean it's Jermaine to James
Harden's story. It kind of is a little bit. And
you got Jermaine in, but not Joe, not the former
Ohio state Jermaine to them. Uh. So the Thunder are

(25:20):
set to square off against the Miami Heat. I would
say this NBA final star power. I mean, look, I
don't know that you had anything bigger than this when
you talk about Lebron and Wade and Katie and Westbrook
and Harden, because we've had finals with star power before.
But let's say, let's take Lakers Celtics. All right, Is

(25:41):
Kobe and Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce the same as
these No, you're talking about these are the best players
you're going to a decade the old Lakers Celtics Y
you know, Okay, yeah, you're going because because those starting
fives plus two or three guys off the bench, I mean,
that's just ridiculous for us. I don't know, even counting Bosh.

(26:04):
I'm just you know, Lebron and Wade, you're talking about
all these are all Hall of famers that are not
just great players, but the best of the best players
of their generation squaring off in the finals. And I
really I thought, Lebron, it's he's just doomed to this.
It's gonna wind up. They're gonna wind up playing and
the Thunder are gonna win. It's gonna be Look at Lebron,
he joined up and he's gonna lose again. Lebron. I thought,

(26:27):
That's how I was thinking about Sports Talk radio. Had
that happened, My god, So the Thunder and the Heat
set to square off for the NBA title. What was
the moment that could have turned the Thunder into champions
and instead tilted the momentum to the Miami Heat. Plus,
we get into the insanity, not the insanity, but the
insanity of what happened with James Harden following the season,

(26:50):
keep it right here, special teams. We look back at
the legendary, if not champion, Oklahoma City Thunder. So here

(27:15):
it was the Thunder and the heat for the NBA title.
Lebron looking for his first championship. So we're Kevin Durant,
the Oklahoma City Thunder and Game one. I said, hey,
I'm a prophet. The second youngest team in the NBA Finals,
Oklahoma City Thunder. They win Game one. They hold Lebron
James to no points for the first eight minutes of

(27:36):
the fourth quarter, and I thought, again, this is just
how it's gonna go. This is how it's going for
Lebron in the NBA Finals. He plays great, but he
disappears and goes scoreless and his team loses eight minutes
no points for him in the first uh in in
the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter Game one,
the Oklahoma City Thunder wind, and I thought, maybe this
is gonna be a sweep. Look at that. You were

(27:56):
calling for a ship. I thought it was going to be.
In other words, you were looking for that hot take
going that's it. Lebron's done. He built this palace. He said,
not too not three, not four, and he's gonna get hammered,
and you were ready to stick the dagger in him
and up all night. Look, Katie scored thirty six. It
was this is just what Oklahoma City had done. And

(28:20):
uh there, I mean again, it's okay, We're just gonna
have this storyline forever. Lebron is great. Then he gets
to the finals, something happens. He doesn't play well, he
goes passive, he doesn't shoot. What is going on with
Lebron James? I mean really, we asked those questions for
so long during Lebron's career. What happened to What happens
to him in the NBA Finals? Same thing happened against

(28:42):
the Dallas Mavericks the year before when he went hot
Potato didn't shoot the basketball in the four. That's what's
gonna And now this is even better team because you
have a three big a big three and two of
the biggest superstars in the game. You had five guys
in double figures for the heating this one. You got
thirty for James, nineteen for Wade ten not a Bosch,

(29:05):
four of eleven from the field, so not a huge
impact there, only five rebounds, and then you got seventeen
from Shane Battier. Right, you got yourself some quality, quality minutes,
quality time. He goes seventeen and four in his forty
one minutes played, so you certainly got production. But when
it mattered, they clamped down and they were able to

(29:27):
get the ball out of James hands to give them
the decided advantage and a Game one victory. Game two
was where everything changed for the series and for Lebron
James legacy and career, and for k D, Westbrook and Harden.
Coming off this win, Miami plays extremely well coming back
in Game two. They get a big seventeen point lead

(29:49):
at one point, the Thunder come back in the fourth quarter.
Kevin Durant hits a three late to make it a
two point game, and then in the closing seconds the
Thunder had the ball and Durant misses a game tying
jumper that would have tied the game. That Heat hit
a couple of free throws and they win game to

(30:09):
this play has gone through so much scrutiny in the NBA.
As Durant gets the ball just off the baseline off
an inbounds pass with a few seconds left, and it
looks like he's gonna try to drive to the hoop,
and Lebron James completely sticks his arm and his hip
in to impede his path to the hoop. Had Kevin

(30:33):
Durant kept driving, he probably gets the foul call. But
Durant like the look he had because it was only
about a seven or eight footer, and he decides to
pull up for the jumper. Lebron still has his arm
completely across Kevin Durant's stomach. Durant jumper does not go,
he'd get the rebound again, they hit the free throws,

(30:55):
they win Game two. I don't know how Lebron is
not called for a foul in this situation, be because
clearly he committed one. He impeded the path of Kevin Durant,
and you can't say, well, Lebron gets a superstar call
because Kevin Durant's superstar. He didn't get that call. Had
this shot gone, it would have only have tied the game,
but it would have been Lebron's sixth foul and the

(31:16):
Heat would have had to navigate over time without Lebron
James and Lebron led the the Heat with thirty two
points in this game. He had a huge night there's
no way they would have gotten through overtime on the road.
After Kevin Durant hits this shot and won this game.
This non call changed everything in the series. Well, one
of the things I know you uh coaching your daughter's

(31:37):
soccer teams and certainly uh a little bit of softball too,
is right. Sometimes the ball comes inside might not have
really gotten you. But to take your base as opposed
to I want to keep the bat in my hand
or soccer. I mean, I know you're teaching some good
acting skills and there's no question about it. Same thing
here for Kevin Durant, though, either go with it and

(31:58):
sell and try to figure out out, you know, whether
they'll have the intestinal fortitude to follow Lebron James out,
because that's the other part when you get about superstars, right,
Lebron Kevin Durant is now you know, we we talked
about who's the greatest in the game when healthy and everything,
Kawhi Leonard, Lebron James still at this point and then

(32:19):
you've got Kevin Durant. It still wasn't inequity at that point, right,
So Lebron James is probably still getting the benefit of
the doubt if nothing else, you might have a buzzer
like the astros to the referees if they try to
follow him out. Nope, nope, no, we need to keep
to the audience. Well, it was a gamble by Lebron,

(32:40):
who I'm sure he thought. If I get called, well
he's going to the free throw line and we're gonna
have the last shot. If I don't get called, well hey,
I alter his shot, we get the rebound, we win.
The game was a gamble and it worked out. But
that's the thing about players like Kevin Durant is that
he's a shooter, and like I always say, shooters shoot
and they always try I want to make this shot.

(33:00):
Had he tried to sell the foul call a little bit,
he would have been the free throw line. Think of
James Harden. Now, if that play happened to James Harden,
James Harden would go down like he was shot and
he would lay on the ground like I got a concussion,
and Lebron just go. He would have sold that call,
would have splayed his legs out and figured out a
way to get to the free throw line. Because that's
what great players do now, is they understand this shot

(33:22):
is coming. I don't have a cleaner look. I got contact.
I want to get to the free throw line, and
Durant was I'm strong enough to get through and make
this shot. After there was no foul call, Durant looked
up saying, where's the call? But if you don't look
like you're impeded, And it's a tough call for the
referee because both Durant and Lebron kind of have their
backs to the court because it's on the base line,

(33:44):
you may not get that call. You got to sell
that call. It's also final seconds, man, you've gotta get
mugged to get that call. You know, Superstar on Superstar
Crime and again Lemon James being the top guy going
in the game with without a lot of contact and
a big cell job. You're not drawing it. I mean,

(34:06):
it's just how many times do you see it in games?
You and I in the studio each night, when we're
putting our arms up going you really thought they were
gonna call her in an NFL game when the stakes
are higher in the final minutes or you get to
the places like no, you can mug each other. This
is the way it goes. They're they're not gonna blow
a whistle and become part of the narrative. They'd rather

(34:27):
be the we didn't. And you can fight over how
much contact necessitate it's a foul call versus we did,
and it was ticky tag rather rather do it the
other way, And that's exactly what you got here. So
this sends the series back to Miami. The Heat take
Game three. Lebron goes for twenty nine, pulls down fourteen rebounds,

(34:48):
and uh, maybe this is Lebron James finally getting it.
Game four is one by the Heat one. Oh fo.
And this goes back to something you and I talked
about on our show on Fox Sports Radio All the Time.
Oh by the way, Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon
Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday, ten pm to two
am on the East Coast, seven to eleven on the

(35:08):
West Coast. Check your local listings for the show and
time in your area. We always say this, when you
win an NBA title, show me the team that has
their supporting cast win a game and help them steal
a game, and I will show you a team that
wins the NBA title. Because you don't win a championship
now in the NBA without your support players taking a

(35:30):
game where you're either your best players didn't have a
great game or they became the unknown X factor. And
suddenly here they are contributing way more than your team expected,
way more than the opponents expected. They couldn't find a
way to slow you down. And you think, all right,
the one game we have Lebron and Wade and Bosh
down boy, somebody else goes for a big game and

(35:50):
they wind up winning again. Go through all the box
scores of all the NBA Finals the past fifteen years.
Show me the team that won the title. I'll show
you a game War two in which they're boarding cast
wins a game for them and you had to steal
him and and this was certainly that game. And that's
the point when you look at this Game four of
this NBA Finals series. You got what you would expect

(36:12):
Lebron James, you got what you'd expect out of Dwayne
Wade putting up their numbers. But Battier and Boss, who
had been giving you solid, sustainable minutes, still played big minutes.
Here Battier nearly forty minutes, Chris Bosh at thirty seven
and change. But here's your Mario Chalmers X factor game
as he erupts for a nine for fifteen night twenty

(36:35):
five points. Still minus five on the night, but it
gives you five points uh in in the starting lineup
and you needed every last one of them. But not
a guy you were expecting major contributions you've been seeing,
you know, ten points here Judonis has them only played
eleven minutes in this game, had zero points. Right, He'd

(36:57):
been a near double double guy for the m with
some regularity over the course of the season. But here
Mario Chalmers cements his place in NBA lore uh and
Lebron James should be sending you Christmas cards, uh, filled
with gift cards and other thank you for the rest
of his life. Well, this is also Norris Cole, the

(37:17):
rookie for the Heat, because this is a game that
Oklahoma City came out all right, we gotta get this,
and they came out like gangbusters. And then Norris Cole,
it's a couple of huge threes before halftime, and suddenly
it's a three point game, and the game that that
Oklahoma City was dominating suddenly, wait, we're only up by
three at halftime. But as you talked about the rowing
Sceremario Chalmers. They needed it because this is the game

(37:37):
that Lebron James left due to leg cramps. You want
to sit out the final two minutes of the game
with leg cramps? It was oh my god, really and
it went from oh, it's another year, you know. Game
one was Lebron's gonna always fall short to while Lebron
is leading the Miami Heat to it's got leg cramps
in the final government it's had sol Lebron all the
cramps jokes that happened, but so Lebron. Yeah, the Heat

(38:00):
held on to win, and it was, oh wow, they're
up three one. Lebron's gonna win the NBA title. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
But this is evidence that you had a supporting cast
in Miami finally, you know, after it took of your
year and a half to find it, but you did.
And the Thunder didn't have one. James Harden had a
bad game. And when you're not getting something great from everybody, Look,

(38:23):
Russell Westbrook had forty three in this game. But if
you're only getting it from a couple of players, eventually
the bottom of that socket drawer is gonna come up empty.
And Harden played poorly. He didn't have a great NBA
Finals to begin with, and that's part of the reason
why the Oklahoma City Thunder went home. But had they
had another couple of players that could, hey, take the
pressure off Harden when he wasn't shooting well, Hey, maybe

(38:46):
the Thunder win a couple of games, maybe they're the champs.
But they did not have a great team. We told
about the Jags they had. It was really a top
three roster and everybody else. And it's no surprise. This
is why the Heat are up three one. Yeah, just
an awful game in that one for Hard and two
of ten from the field. Did have ten rebounds, but
five files, four turnovers, just eight points and look your

(39:09):
rest of your squads cephalocious five points. Tobakka's for Kendrick Perkins,
who has some thoughts on the greatest thunder guy of
all time? Uh, he only had four. Nick Collinson, they
retired his jersey. He had six, Okay, so you know
they couldn't find anybody other than the seventy one between

(39:29):
Durant and Westbrook. It was no third guy riding in
to save the day. Good balance for Miami and that
X factor that you spoke of. Game five was the
fatal company for the Miami Heat up three one at
home with a chance to win the title. They do
it one one to one oh six, and again they
get X factor from someone you're not expecting. Mike Miller

(39:51):
goes seven out of eight from three point range, scoring
twenty three for the Heat. Mean Mike Miller the former
pro wrestler or Knicks coach? Uh? Sure either one? Yes,
either one or any other famous Mike Miller's, Michael Miller,
Mikey Miller and the Miller's in history. Great. The first

(40:17):
one to come up is the basketball player okay, uh,
the interim head coach of the Knicks. Just name him
head coach. Give the guys some dignity. Um, those are
the two that it's pretty pretty pretty simple. Name you
think they were gonna get more, get more hits than that.
They dominated the top of the U. There is a

(40:38):
writer director here in southern California. There's an h VAC
contractor h VAT contract like that. Oh boy, I didn't
think i'd go that deepde No, I didn't think we
get to VA contractors on the show. I had value.
But this was a game where hey, the Big three
for the Thunder played well. Durant was eleven, Westbrook was

(41:00):
teen and six, Harden was nineteen five and four rebounds.
But it doesn't matter because this was Lebron James triple double.
He is anointing himself as the true king of the NBA.
You know, and listen, when you get twenty three points
from an unexpected source in Mike Miller, instead of a
close game, it turns into a blowout. And that's what
happened to the Heat. They beat the Thunder, they win

(41:21):
the NBA title, but still at this time, it was
the Thunderer just getting started, right. It was the old
you get to the NBA Finals and lose, and you
understand what it takes to get back there the next year,
and then you start ripping off champions. The inches are
all around, wrong are everywhere around us. Harden scored just

(41:42):
twelve points per game, shot horribly, and you know, while
this was gonna be the beginning, everybody learns from it.
It turned out to be the last NBA Finals for
this Thunder group as they wound up slowly moving on,
and James Harden was at the crux of this. Following
the season, so you would think our three best players

(42:04):
twenty three years old, that he'd have their players. Hey,
we're gonna keep everybody. We're not paying everybody. Great. This
was the last time James Harden would play in a
regular season game for the Oklahoma City Thunder. But they
were going to run it back, they were. I mean,
you thought, so like this is it. Harden maybe gets
in the starting lineup and you know, they wind up
getting some players to come and just didn't happen. Now

(42:25):
you're saying this, I've got to start playing this Sarah
McLaughlin song. Would you consider a couple of dollars to
keep James Harden in Oklahoma City? We really would like
to have him. Can you help us keep him? Harden
was the reigning six Man of the Year. Depending on
who you listen to, James Harden either wanted to be

(42:48):
a Thunder long term and the Thunder said no, or
the Thunder were bent on trading him no matter what.
Because things got really crazy at the end of October,
just before the seat and began, Harden has traded to
the Rockets. The Thunder get Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, they
get a couple of first round picks and a second

(43:08):
round pick in a shocking trade, right because I mean
it was Wait, James Harden gets traded. James Harden six
Man of the Year. This is one of those trades
like in your fantasy league when you find out somebody
makes a trade, you go, dude, why didn't you call me?
I would have given you more than that, you know.
So Harden goes to the Rockets because honestly, this goes
back to me saying Oklahoma City is gonna be a

(43:31):
tough destination to continue success long term because are they
gonna be able to keep their stars and face with
their first big decision, they sort of punted on it
because I don't know that Sam Presty really was all
in on keeping James Harden. They offered him a four year,
fifty two million dollar extension, and according to Harden, they
gave him an hour to accept it, which tells me,

(43:53):
do you really want the guy or do you want
him to say no so you can trade him and
move on? Come on, that's the Oceans eleven and it's
George Clooney going to Matt Damon. Either in or you're
out right now the thunder we're facing a deadline to
extend him or allowed to become a restricted free agent
in July. So they go, according to Harton, here's our
offer four years and fifty two which is a pretty

(44:14):
good offer back then, uh, and you have an hour
to take it. As we talked about, the top earner
that year for perspective was Kevin Durant at fifteen and change.
So you know you're you're getting now star money. He
had just won the gold medal on the Olympic team.
I mean, Harden was an ascending superstar that many teams
would have loved to say, Yeah, we'll take you and

(44:35):
make you the focal point of our team. So if
you offer a guy four years and fifty two million
and you give an hour to accept it, how much
does that say we really want you? It doesn't. And
shortly after that they had the trade all set up
to the Houston Rockets, which tells me they knew this
was gonna happen. It's what they wanted to happen. They
didn't want to keep James Harden because either they were
afraid they weren't gonna have the money when they had

(44:56):
to pay Westbrook at the same time. So let's break
up the Big Three we just road these three to
get to the NBA Finals, and we fall just short
of winning. And now let's break it up before we
really begin. This was a panic move by the Oklahoma
City Thunder, and as we saw a few years later,
Kevin Durant leaves whilst the Rustbrook leaves. He winds up

(45:17):
going to the Rockets playing with James Harden again, and
the Thunder are looking at a roster of man, how
do we uh, how do we keep this going? Again?
We had three great draft picks and now they're all gone. Well,
but that's just it. You now played two well for
those draft picks too. To be high, right, I mean,
you're gonna have to have the diamonds in the rough
to where you go back to the Schneider model that

(45:37):
we talked about when you look at the Seattle Seahawks
across another sport of you know, the ping pong balls
have to fall just the right way for you, uh,
and and all of those assets that you pick up,
you've got a hit, and then that's gotta work fast.
Like that's the hard part is the running clock. When

(45:57):
you get a guy on his first contract in a
mid market or a small market or however, you wanted
to find them that the bright lights are gonna be there.
Sure their shoe money is rolling in from wherever right
hardened shoe money and Westbrooks and Kevin Durant and all
of those ancillary things are still gonna be there. Because

(46:18):
it is a superstar driven league, you don't necessarily have
to climb the mountaintop the individuality. And let's face it,
they're all characters their own right, because that's the one
thing here. You've got three guys that are great stars
but also can go and do some other things as
much as you know, I liked when when Chris Boss
showed up on a couple of the you know, different

(46:39):
Kids shows. You know he wasn't the booming personality at
the time. Here you have three guys that really can
hold your attention, and I think recognize getting out of
Oklahoma City was the only way to maximize what they
wanted to do from a professional side, and then personally,

(47:00):
I mean, we've known Durant and what he does or
did when he was up in Oakland for those years
in in inner city technology and other things he was into.
So you know, you're trying to find the bigger stage
to do that, and unfortunately, Oklahoma City, you had your window.
And the trade turns out terribly for Oklahoma City because, look,

(47:21):
they go get Kevin Martin, who was a nice player
coming off a good year, but he was almost thirty
years old. Jeremy Lamb was intriguing. He had just led
you con to the n c A title, so he
but you know, Jeremy Lamb didn't didn't pan out, and
so in the Thunders effort to say, all right, well
trade a superstar to get deeper, it didn't really work out,

(47:42):
and it was a slow dismantling of the team, and
slowly Kevin Durant realized, I'm not gonna win here. I
gotta go someplace else to win. And a few years
later he goes and joins the Golden State Warriors and
goes to three finals and he wins m v P
and two of them, and you know, cementious status as
the next great player in the NBA, you know, Lebron

(48:04):
James notwithstanding. I mean, look, this year was such a
it was such a shock to say, we have everything
in front of us. Look at these three young players,
and the three guys you needed to take care of.
They decided to only take care of two of them.
And if you go back to make this decision again,
I mean, nobody else does this. Oh yeah, oh, we

(48:26):
have three great players. You know what we gotta do
is trade one of them and try to get someone. No,
you keep the three great players and you fill in
around and try to get a better supporting cast of
people to come in. If you have three great players,
you can get those supporting cast players to come in.
This was Oklahoma City saying we're here. You know, our
guys have signed long term deals. You know, a Baka

(48:46):
signed long term. Durant was signed long term. They were
given Westbrook money. It was but I just in the end,
I feel like they just didn't really want Harden and
they wanted to find a way to push him out
and they could, you know, remake the team and just
go forward without him, which now just you'd see this
decision that doesn't make sense. It boggles the mind. But
you know it always you always wait to see what

(49:09):
comes out in the wash. And you know, the next
season started out great. They actually won more games. They
won sixty games that looked like they were gonna breathe
through the playoffs. They played the Rockets in the first round,
again Harden. They won that that series, but Russell Westbrook
gets hurt in Game two of that series, misses the
rest of the playoffs. They lose the Memphis Grizzlies in

(49:29):
the next round in five games. And that was really it.
It was woa, okay, now what happens? And it was
the absence of a superstar. You lose one, you're down
to one superstar. It's kind of hard to win. Well,
it's funny because we we talked about a lot on
our our show at Fox Sports Radio of windows right
where people try to put these big, long terms on things.

(49:53):
And I'll use the NFL for an example, right the
year Lamar Jackson was having for the Baltimore Rave and
or st Patrick mahomes Uh in eighteen and the big
pinball numbers that are going there, and there's just this
assumption that it's always gonna be that way. All right,
we're setting up for a decade plus. It's just great.

(50:15):
You don't know that, right, One or two linemen leave
or get hurt. One wide receiver twists and ankle and
can't get back on. And he's your speed, speed guy
that takes the top off the defense and suddenly you
got you know, they can load up in the box,
whatever the case may be. Like you never assume you're

(50:35):
getting back Dan Marinos second year or this particular Oklahoma
City Thunder team, is that you you assume there's next
year and the said thing we're told all the time
in our life, you're not promised tomorrow. In athletics. I
mean we see this in all sports, how quickly things
change and how quickly fortune change and dynasty's collapse or

(50:58):
those that were six expected to be never actually materialized.
You know, it's it's the tragedy that you had those
three great talents that just couldn't get over. So that's
our look back at Oklahoma City Thunder. Let's take a
look at some players. Where are they now? Mr? Harmon?
All right, most of most of these guys are actually
still involved with basketball like there were there were. I

(51:20):
don't have any horror stories like sometimes we do the
where are they now and there's like three or four
guys you eliminate because of some grizzly off the field
and off the cork kind of things. You don't have
that here. But we have some guys to continue to
play overseas. You got Dake Kwon Cook in the Israeli
Premier League. You got Eric Mayner who's in the Italian Legua.

(51:42):
You got Royal Ivy who's now on your Knicks coaching staff.
And I thought Royal Ivy. Wasn't that the name of
jay Z and Beyonce is one of their kids, is
Royal Ivy. I believe that could Yeah, if not, it
should be all right. Uh Lazarre Hayward playing Uh the
Arros de Laura I likes. Yeah, a guaro is a

(52:05):
South American parrot, so he plays, and they got a
really cool logo. I wastill gonna get some play with
the parents pretty much, Yeah, the parents of Laura, Laura,
Laura like, you know, a woman of a place, Laura.
And then finally Brian Keith saying you can't go home again.
He was an assistant coach for the squad and then

(52:26):
he disappeared while he went was an assistant coach for
your Knicks. See it all in all circles together because
a bunch of these guys actually went to play for
the Knicks and played for them for a long All
the guys who weren't hardened pretty much rant or West.
Everybody had a cup of coffee there. Uh, and I
didn't want to depression. So but Keith goes to the Knicks.
Then he's with the Lakers as a player development guy,

(52:49):
an assistant coach for a few years during the Magic
Johnson Rain, and now he's back in Oklahoma City as
an assistant coach once again. Most of the other we
were recognize the names. They're still having nice, productive NBA careers.
So there it is your Oklahoma City thunder close but
no cigar. Hit us up on Twitter at how about

(53:11):
a frescup, Mike at Swollen, don't let us know who
you'd like to see featured on a future episode of
Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Carmen. We'll talk
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(53:32):
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(53:53):
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