The Durantula: The Deadliest Creature in Oklahoma

The Denver Nuggets have more than a few foes to worry about as the last stretch run of the season begins. The Jazz are in the rear view mirror as are the Mavericks. Though Utah has been hot and Dallas made a big time trade for Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood, I find myself dreading another opponent even more.

During the 2006-07 collegiate season one particular player caught my eye more than any other prospective NBA’er had since the class of Melo and LeBron. With his incredible length, height of 6’9”, ability to score from anywhere on the floor, speed in transition, and pure passion for the game, this young man screamed prodigy more than any other within the last five years. Of course, I’m talking about Kevin Durant. During his short tenure at the University of Texas he grabbed every NCAA honor available, besides MVP champion. He entered the draft with expectations second only to Greg Oden.

Allow me to digress from Durant’s chronological narrative and expound on my feelings at the time of the 2007 NBA Draft. I remember reading an article in Sports Illustrated in 2004, fairly recently after Michael Jordan had permanently retired, detailing what the next example of him might look like. The author explained how in the coming years as the NBA’s players grew in stature and the speed of the game increased, Jordan’s heir apparent would have to be closer to 6’9”, with a wingspan of at least seven feet. He would of course still be a shooting guard/small forward highbred, with a handle as good as Jordan’s, and at least a 40” vertical leap. At the time, the article was making the case for LeBron James possibly being such a player. Now while LeBron has certainly turned out to be even better than his hype, we have learned over the last half-decade he isn’t going to be Jordan. He is more akin to a super athletic version of Magic Johnson with the hops of MJ. Even more than this, guys like LeBron and Melo don’t quite have the same passion for the game of basketball itself as Michael Jordan did. Sure, both of these superstars want to win badly, and they love what opportunities the NBA has given them, but it took both of these men until early high-school to adopt basketball as their sole concentration (with LeBron even playing football until his senior year). Though Michael’s first love was baseball, it didn’t take him long to fall in love with that ball falling through the hoop. As his father once said, “sometimes you see someone and you realize they were made for only one purpose and this is Michael’s” (paraphrasing).

Watching Durant that college season I found myself feeling the same way about him. This skinny, abnormally lengthy, pure shooter seemed to have come from another planet. One where offspring were bred and raised to dunk on fools. The way Durant played the game, there was a sense of destiny. I took interest and through interviews he gave, I began to understand how important basketball was and had been to him. He demonstrated a love for the game sorely lacking with many of the pro stars today. It was the only sport he had ever loved and was ever really good at. He saw it not only as a way to transcend the world around him, but as an end unto itself.

Going back to the ’07 Draft, I was eagerly anticipating where both Oden and Durant would be going. It was well known Oden was coveted by Portland with the Seattle Super-Sonics, now the OKC Thunder, probably picking Durant by default. At the time, I couldn’t help but draw more comparisons between Durant and Jordan. Portland famously picked center Sam Bowie over Jordan in the ’84 draft and regretted it for the next twenty years. When Portland inevitably made their pick, I simply shrugged and decided history just has to repeat itself. I even began to notice how similar Durant’s facial features were to Jordan’s (don’t refute this comparison too quickly; I suggest you take a look for yourself). Now three years later, we are seeing these feelings of mine and other prognosticators coming to fruition. Oden has been beset by injuries, just as Bowie was, and has barely played for the Trail Blazers. Meanwhile, Durant has been a durable contributor and now prolific scorer capable of making any team better.

Durant is having a splendid year thus far and is exceeding just about everyone’s expectations of him. Not only have the Thunder won nine in row, soon to be ten I’ll bet, but he is riding a 25+ point scoring streak second only to, who else, Michael Jordan during the ’87-’88 season . The streak stands at forty games for Jordan. As the parallels for both players continue to pile up, I would not be surprised if Durant reaches that number and exceeds it (his streak is currently 28 games). The Thunder are not only a playoff team this year, they are dangerous.

The reason I have gone into such detail over Kevin Durant’s short yet special career is to illustrate a point. While other teams beside the Lakers and Nuggets might have winning formulas and better records than the Thunder, none have a player as capable as he is. The Mavericks have Nowitzki, but as he has proven, he is not very good in clutch situations and can’t do the things on the defensive end Durant can. The Jazz have Deron Williams, but a point guard must defer to his teammates and therefore must leave it up to them to convert his assists and win games. The Thunder not only have a go-to scorer and full fledged superstar/clutch operator, they are a supremely talented and youthful team tasting true victory for the first time. Other players like Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Jeff Green, and Nenad Krstic all contribute to the effort well and buy into the team concept. They are getting good at this victory thing, too. Seated fifth in the playoff standings, I look for them to continue their winning ways and move past Phoenix for the fourth spot and stay there.

My fear is facing Durant and the Thunder in the first or second round and the Nuggets taking a series victory for granted as they have with other sub-.500 teams. Remember their victory over the Nuggets in OKC? It was one of the worst losses for Denver this season, with the Nuggets staying comfortably behind the Thunder for the duration of the contest. If we don’t take this team seriously the rest of the regular season and in the playoffs, Durant might just garner another nickname besides “Durantula”, the “Nugget Killer”. I pray the Thunder’s playoff naïveté gets the better of them and some other team, Phoenix, gets the best of them in the first round. If they can get past the first, there is a real chance for momentum to build.

Until this day comes though, I will simply sit back and enjoy the growth of one of the league’s premier scorers. Without young guys like him, the NBA would just grow stale. As always, GO NUGGETS!!