Is Oklahoma City truly fit for the major leagues?
That was once a legitimate question asked by fans around the NBA. How would a city in the middle of nowhere, multiple states away from any coastline and devoid of any blueprint for professional success support an NBA team?
I think OKC has done just fine.
Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s leading scorer and the focal point of one of the most dominant regular season teams in NBA history, was awarded his first MVP on Wednesday, becoming the third player to do so in OKC’s 17-season history.
First was Kevin Durant, who won the award in 2013-14. Then, in the wake of Durant’s decision to leave OKC for the Golden State Warriors, Russell Westbrook became the first player to average a triple-double since Oscar Robertson, willing an underwhelming OKC roster to the playoffs.
Those two have left their mark on both OKC and NBA history. Now, it’s Shai’s turn.
By averaging 33 points per game and leading OKC to the one-seed, he left his own mark. Each player’s peak, to this point, has been marked by the same accomplishment, but each did it differently, and in some ways, each represents their own era of Thunder basketball.
To compare the trio is easy, but what is it that sets them apart? What things made each able to achieve the highest form of individualized recognition that the sport of basketball has to offer?
Each of their journeys to becoming an MVP is unique, and each went through their trials and tribulations to reach the highest level of any player on the planet in their respective years.
Kevin Durant – The Ascension
When Durant came into the league, expectations were high.
As the second pick out of the University of Texas, Durant was unlike anything the NBA had seen before. His combination of size, skill and offensive ability was unparalleled, but his slender frame caused concern among some.
Those doubts lasted for roughly a game. Durant quickly ascended from rookie to star, and from star to superstar. He was the first glimpse that Oklahoma City had at professional basketball, and he and his young cast of all-star teammates became a force quickly.
The Thunder peaked in 2011-12 when it reached the NBA finals on the backs of Durant and Westbrook. Durant finished second in MVP voting and made the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive season.
OKC eventually came up short, losing in five games to the Miami Heat, giving Lebron James his first championship, which was immortalized in Thunder lore with a photo of the despondent trio of Durant, Westbrook and James Harden, arms around one another, looking on as an opportunity to win a title slipped away.
The next season, Durant and the Thunder improved and looked every part of a title contender, despite Harden being shipped to Houston for minimal return. It ended abruptly in the playoffs when Westbrook suffered a knee injury that would keep him out nearly half of the next season.
The injury was a fatal blow to OKC’s title hopes, but it led to Durant’s most spectacular individual season.
With no real second option, Durant took on an offensive burden matched by few before or since, and he responded by averaging 32 points, five assists and seven rebounds while shooting 50% from the field and 39% from 3. OKC went 58-23 despite Westbrook’s 36-game absence. It made the Western Conference Finals before losing to the San Antonio Spurs, who would eventually go on to win the NBA Finals.
It was the closest the NBA ever got to seeing Durant, untethered, at full strength. He was probably at the peak of his powers a few years later in Golden State, but he was individually subdued by the all-around strength of his team.
2013-14 Durant is likely the best player to ever suit up for the Thunder. The ease with which he scored, the improved playmaking and the tenacious rebounding on a team that lacked elite talent, and getting said team to 58 wins, is remarkably impressive.
It was the confirmation of Durant’s superstardom. The NBA seal of approval that not only did OKC belong, but it was thriving as an NBA market, and it had the best player in the world to show for it. OKC had ascended. It had already been to the NBA Finals and now it had an MVP, but dark clouds would soon block out the sun.
Just two seasons after winning the MVP, Durant was gone, and he took the childlike wonder of an NBA city and fanbase in its infancy with him.
For all the greatness that Durant displayed during his MVP campaign and his time with the Thunder, the emotional distress he left in his wake will always overshadow it. The dynamism of his ability set the table for not only his own MVP, but the MVP that will always mean the most in the hearts of most Thunder fans — the MVP won by Russell Westbrook.
Russell Westbrook – The Redemption
OKC was a city scorned.
Durant had just left and signed with the Thunder’s stiffest competition. In a city like OKC, an immediate rebuild seemed like the most likely path. Even when Westbrook signed a short-term extension in the weeks following Durant’s departure, it seemed like no more than a means to an end. An extension on the “we need time to figure this out” warranty.
Then, just like the name of the team suggests, an angry Westbrook arrived like a storm.
Cupcakes, forehead-to-forehead confrontations, triple-doubles, ferocious dunks.
2016-17 was the year of Westbrook, and the NBA world was just living in it. His awe-inspiring athleticism, his unrelenting will and his unwillingness to relent coined him a handful of nicknames.
“Mr. Triple Double” was an obvious one. “Russ,” a name typically muttered under the breath of OKC fans in frustration during the Durant Era, became a rallying cry for the fans who remained loyal. And to some, the name was simply, “Mr. Thunder.”
Regardless of what you called him, for that one season, Westbrook was undeniable. He averaged 31 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds and had the most efficient year of his career, shooting 34% from 3 on a career-high seven attempts per game.
Eventually, he edged out his former teammate, the then-superstar Harden, to win MVP.
Harden’s Rockets disposed of Westbrook in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, but Westbrook’s MVP wasn’t about wins and losses. It was a moment in time. A revenge tour that was executed in a poetically perfect fashion.
As it turns out, Westbrook’s MVP season was the least successful of any of the three in OKC’s history from a team perspective, but to this day, it may mean the most to a fanbase that, at that time, wanted nothing more than to feel loved again.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – The Arrival
Twelve years after Durant won MVP, Gilgeous-Alexander is on the cusp of doing the same. Oh, and OKC is favored to win the NBA Finals.
Gilgeous-Alexander has OKC in the Western Conference Finals and has led his own band of young, talented clumps of basketball clay to the edge of greatness.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s rise is different than that of Durant and Westbrook.
OKC no longer has any doubts about its status as a “Big-League City,” as Mayor David Holt said two seasons ago when the citizens of Oklahoma City voted to pass a bill approving the construction of a brand new, publicly-funded basketball arena in the heart of downtown.
Fans know they have one of the NBA’s best decision makers running the show in Sam Presti, the general manager who sculpted the first and second iterations of OKC’s title contenders.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t rise with OKC. He came into what was a franchise amid a rebuild, but its status as one of the NBA’s most stable organizations was secure. They went from prospective, to good, to great simultaneously, but OKC’s status as a capable NBA market was secure.
Did OKC fans have some trust issues upon his arrival due to the exits of Durant, Westbrook and Paul George? Sure. But there was no longer an insecure, “do we even belong here?” feeling.
His rise may have reflected the mood of the city the least, but it may be the most emblematic of what it is.
When he came in, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t thought of as a future MVP. He wasn’t even thought of as a future all-star by most. He was brought in as an extra alongside an unparalleled bevy of draft capital, who some thought could turn into a part of OKC’s next era. But nobody thought he would be the defining piece.
Year after year, it became more and more clear that he was exactly that.
In his first season, Gilgeous-Alexander ascended into what most considered to be a future all-star. Then it became clear he was destined to be a borderline All-NBA guy. Then came the first-team locks. Now, the inevitable MVP that seemed all but an eventual certainty starting two seasons ago.
Gilgeous-Alexander has officially arrived. He led OKC to the best season in franchise history, racking up 68 wins and amassing the best point differential in NBA history. He averaged 33 points, six assists, five rebounds and was second in the NBA in steals.
Some think he’s an intolerable foul-baiter. Others think he is a Kobe Bryant clone.
No matter what is thought of him, he has reached the point of becoming a polarizing figure in NBA circles, just as Westbrook did before him. Once a player reaches a certain point, they gain their share of cynics, and Gilgeous-Alexander is there.
Now, he has a chance to take his spectacular individual season and combine it with OKC’s first NBA Championship, a feat that Durant, nor Westbrook, despite their brilliance, could ever accomplish.
Whether or not a title would give Gilgeous-Alexander the best MVP season in OKC history is in the eye of the beholder. Some will lean toward Durant’s effortless dominance. Others will always remember Westbrook’s heart. But, should Gilgeous-Alexander secure a Larry O’Brien, it would take him and the Thunder into a completely new stratosphere of conversations.
MVP = OKC
Regardless of who had the “best” MVP season, one thing is certain. OKC is doing something right.
Whatever is in the water in the state without a region is spawning MVPs left and right. Before Wednesday’s announcement, no team had ever had three different players win MVP in 12 years.
All of those MVPs represent a significantly different state of OKC history despite their closeness in nature.
Durant was OKC’s first love. Westbrook was its rebound. And now, Gilgeous-Alexander seems to be the long-term partner that you have to go through a lifetime full of experiences to find.
Each should have their jersey retired in Paycom Center, or whatever the next arena is called, when the time comes, but for now, one thing is certain. OKC is once again the home of the MVP, but for the first time in a long time, it has a chance to house the Larry O’Brien, and that’s what will define Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP season.
