The Thunder are not of this world, but they might change it
Maybe they can cure cancer. Or solve world hunger.
Heck, if everybody’d just watch their games, we’d probably quit hating each other in this country.
You know, all but the emboldened racists who latched on to “birtherism” and haven’t let go.
And still?
And still the Oklahoma City Thunder might be that good, that great, that inspiring and that everything, not only the best team the NBA’s ever seen, but galvanizing enough to send the unrepentant haters back into their dark and quiet shame pockets.
Watch them horse around with sideline man Nick Gallo after each win.
Watch them gather around each teammate interviewed on the court.
Watch that for a whole season, or maybe just a few games, and it’s like what Rodney King said the night of the riots, the night of the day the cops who beat him, almost to death, beat the rap.
“Can’t we all just get along.”
In a world the Thunder rule, we sure ought to.
To say nothing of how they play.
The joy, lack of ego, sharing and all-the-time defending.
“Basketball utopia,” two-time MVP Steve Nash said postgame the other night.
Ten months ago I thought I could put the Thunder into proper context and, guess what, they might have been the best team we’d ever seen even then.
Because there’s a stat called net rating, I wrote, that begins with two stats, offensive rating and defensive rating, that become one, and by that measure one could argue Oklahoma City to be the best team we’d ever seen.
It went like this:
Every 100 offensive possessions the Thunder were scoring 118.5 points and every 100 defensive possessions they were allowing 105, the difference of which is 13.5, and never before had an NBA team amassed a 13.5 net rating over a single season.
They wound up finishing at 12.8, less than a point behind the ’95-’96 Michael Jordan Bulls’ 13.4.
Oh, well.
Now, 25 games into this season, all three numbers have improved.
Oklahoma City’s offensive rating is 120.5, its defensive rating is 103.3, making its net rating an insane 117.2.
Crazier is the defensive number all by itself.
The offensive number is not the league’s best, trailing the Nuggets (124), Knicks (121.8), Celtics (121.4) and Rockets (121.4). But the defensive number is almost eight points better than second-place Houston’s 111. To find a team trailing Houston by the same margin, you must scroll down to the lowly Los Angeles Clippers, 25th in the league, at 118.7.
It’s silly is what it is.
Of course, the Thunder are 24-1, riding a 16-game winning streak and Saturday night take on the San Antonio Spurs in Las Vegas in one of two NBA Cup semifinals.
If you missed it, they earned the chance Wednesday, embarrassing Houston 138-89, and if quick math’s not your thing, that’s a 49-point beatdown.
During the national broadcast it was pointed out the Thunder have led by at least 20 points more often this season than they’ve trailed by anything.
There’s also the matter of injuries, scrapes and bruises. Oklahoma City’s “real” starting lineup of reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein have yet to start a game together.
Williams missed the first 18 following wrist surgery, Dort’s missed nine, Hartenstein six, Holmgren four and Gilgeous-Alexander one, last Sunday night at Utah, a 131-101 victory.
Another measure, Gilgeous-Alexander, averaging 32.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.8 turnovers, the last of which is nothing for a player with the ball in his hands so frequently, has ridden the fourth-quarter bench in 14 of the 24 games he’s played, the Thunder not needing him, offering rest instead.
To tie the greatest regular season in league history, Golden State’s 73-9 mark 10 years ago, Oklahoma City need only go 49-8 the rest of the season, or one win better than it fared the last 57 games of last season.
Easy peasy.
To chart their dominance, one must go off the board.
Back when hockey ties were a thing, the ’79-’80 Philadelphia Flyers went 35 games without a loss. Still, that team lost 20 of 80 games.
The ’71-’72 Lakers won 33 straight but still lost 13. The Thunder are on pace to lose three or four.
Though Tiger Woods failed to match Jack Nicklaus’ major victory mark of 18, the greatest golf ever played has still been played by Woods, his window of dominance more dominant than all others’ dominance. The Thunder are that kind of dominant.
Were they a great band issuing their first album, they’d be Boston, The Cars or The Doors, in front of Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Or you can go with college teams like Patty Gasso’s ’21-’22 Sooners, who went 59-3 on the softball diamond on their way to a third straight national championship. That or the following season, when they went 61-1 on their way to a fourth.
Or maybe the ’90-’91 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, featuring five future NBA’ers, three of them Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony, the best collegiate team we’ve ever seen, though they fell to Duke in the title game, finishing 34-1.
The Thunder are something like that, but without that end-of-the-season loss.
All that and ushering in the end of the so-called “Players’ Era,” too.
Because to play with this team, to hang close, to not lose to it by 20, 30 or 40 points, it can’t for a moment be about you.
Wednesday, against the Rockets, Gilgeous-Alexander, off a turnover, stared at a breakaway dunk.
In a different kind of game, a close one, a nailbiter, in the midst of a rally, he might have slammed it for the greater good, boosting adrenaline, demoralizing the opponent.
This time?
The softest dunk you’ve ever seen from the right-now best player in the world.
Who else does that?
Beyond teammates taking his lead, probably nobody.
They’d rather bring the house down even though it was already down.
Sound and fury signifying nothing.
The Thunder?
What’s the point?
Take the two points and keep playing.
It’s a revolution.
The rest of the NBA and everything else is so far behind.