Literary Indignation, Post #3

Okay, something more fun this time.

Before we start: I generally agree with the sentiment. Durant doesn’t have to do what fans want him to do. But having an opinion about it… isn’t that what sports is about? I love data etc. blahblah, but people like sports because they care about the players…right?

B.S.: We’re agnostic. I don’t really care. I was upset that Durant didn’t go to Boston, but ultimately, I don’t care who’s right — OKC or Durant.

Neither do I…?

I thought [Chris] Bosh made a really good point on my show last night about when you get that close, sometimes that’s the hardest. When you get that close and you can taste it, it fundamentally aches and hurts, and you just want to get away from it.

1000% Chris Bosh knows about this more than I. But I don’t think KD “gets away” from anything. He’s still playing basketball…?

Maybe he was tired of living in Oklahoma City, which is a really small city where he stands out. He’s a 7-foot black guy walking around this tiny little town in the middle of America. Everywhere he goes, people know who he is, what he’s up to, and what he’s doing.

That would have totally been different in Boston.

I support it — the players’ right to self-determination when the circumstances provide the opportunity,

For the record, I also agree with this.

B.S.: And the loyalty thing is really annoying to me. First of all, Clay Bennett moved the Thunder from Seattle to Oklahoma City. That doesn’t seem very loyal.

But second of all, the fans of OKC have been very supportive of the team and its superstar. That seems very loyal.

Sports isn’t loyal. Shit happens.

Yeah, that’s exactly the sentiment of Boston sports fans, typically.

think to put in a piece, to talk about his decision in the context of him proposing to his girlfriend and then changing his mind … I don’t agree with that at all. He was 24. He got engaged, and then he called the engagement off.

I guess I can’t disagree with him criticizing the content of something someone else wrote. Moving on.

J.H.: Reminder: Some of those people in his life are the people that pay him the real money — Nike. He doesn’t make his money playing basketball, he makes his money from his shoe contract. I think Nike might have a little say in that matter.

Wait, let’s scroll up…

Bill Simmons: The narrative when Durant left, which was pushed out in multiple places I read, made it seem like KD … changed, [like] he’s impressionable, he had outside forces that pushed him to this.

Joe House: We don’t have to name names. That’s ridiculous.

I am willing to concede that it was a joke? I didn’t listen to the podcast.

I get being bitter when somebody leaves. Roger Clemens. He left Boston. I wrote a whole piece five years later: Is Roger Clemens the Antichrist? I get the bitterness. It fucking hurts when somebody that you loved and you rooted for leaves. I get it.

So…

I get it. You’re on a podcast. You can say whatever you want, and you get to seem like you have some kind of moral authority on who can be upset about sports (Boston people: ok, Midwestern people: not ok). I get it.