Red Mosquito

Harrison Barnes: Olympian

So, after a few months of speculation, and salivating by two or three cities on the coasts.... isn't Kevin Durant's best chance likely staying put?

The only place I would think makes sense to him would be maybe San Antonio, because it's closer to home, and no state income tax but... why leave for a year? Make one more run with Westbrook no?

Sure the east is hot wet steaming garbage outside of Cleveland but do you really want to play in Miami? New York should not be a destination for anyone that wants to win. Sorry, the Knicks are a shit organization, I'm so freaking tired of hearing about them. Every national writer bloviates about New York. It's a dead franchise right now and the building sucks too. I don't care a thing about high school or pickup basketball.

I guess Boston is a possiblity, but really, if I'm Durant, and I kind of like country life, Boston's not really where I'd want to go either. There's an outside shot in Oakland I guess, but, I mean I'd ask for some Oracle stock options....

Miami has no shot at Durant if Whiteside is not going to be there next year.

Electromatic wrote: Sorry, the Knicks are a shit organization, I'm so freaking tired of hearing about them. Every national writer bloviates about New York. It's a dead franchise right now and the building sucks too.

If by "right now" you mean last 30 years, I agree.

The fact that NYK and Chi are such shit organizations is really sad. Those are the two best basketball cities in the country.

Philly is actually a great basketball city too and they are also completely embarrassing. Thank God the basketball Meccas like Oklahoma City and San Antonio are thriving.

@SkitchP wrote:

Electromatic wrote: Sorry, the Knicks are a shit organization, I'm so freaking tired of hearing about them. Every national writer bloviates about New York. It's a dead franchise right now and the building sucks too.

If by "right now" you mean last 30 years, I agree.

Yes.

verb_to_trust wrote:Philly is actually a great basketball city too and they are also completely embarrassing. Thank God the basketball Meccas like Oklahoma City and San Antonio are thriving.

What do you think of Ben Simmons?

verb_to_trust wrote:Philly is actually a great basketball city too and they are also completely embarrassing. Thank God the basketball Meccas like Oklahoma City and San Antonio are thriving.

I want so badly for Philly to be great again.

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

verb_to_trust wrote:Philly is actually a great basketball city too and they are also completely embarrassing. Thank God the basketball Meccas like Oklahoma City and San Antonio are thriving.

I want so badly for Philly to be great again.

Trust the process.

I actually thought they drafted pretty well last week. They'll likely have two top ten picks next year in a much deeper draft.

Electromatic wrote:

verb_to_trust wrote:Philly is actually a great basketball city too and they are also completely embarrassing. Thank God the basketball Meccas like Oklahoma City and San Antonio are thriving.

What do you think of Ben Simmons?

He's a great physical prospect but the idea of a number one pick savior of franchise not being able to shoot in today's NBA is a huge red flag with him.

I hate meetings. Unless, the outcome is Kevin Durant to Boston.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16555 ... t-clippers

I wouldn't mind Durant being on the Celtics, since they're such a storied franchise and they've also got Bradley from Texas.

Durant and Rose are tight. I think New York has a better chance than Boston. Which is still basically no chance.

How long has it been since there was an appreciable correlation between local basketball talent (high school and college) and the pro team in that city/area being good because of it? In other words the local boys are awesome and play for the home team at the pro level.

It's not that. It's more like these basketball rich cities should demand excellence from their NBA team, that their team should reflect how much basketball matters to them. In Chicago, New York and Philly it hasn't worked out like that. From the perspective of a Bulls fan I can tell you I feel personally insulted with how the organization is run and how it still tries to suck off Jordan's legacy.

verb_to_trust wrote:It's not that. It's more like these basketball rich cities should demand excellence from their NBA team, that their team should reflect how much basketball matters to them. In Chicago, New York and Philly it hasn't worked out like that. From the perspective of a Bulls fan I can tell you I feel personally insulted with how the organization is run and how it still tries to suck off Jordan's legacy.

Well there's the fan base, and then there are the owners and people who run the organizations. Two different groups.

Arguably two different priorities (many a Mariners fan will tell you ownership cares infinitely more about profits than wins).

Demand all you want - your team's owner ain't going nowhere until he's caught on tape telling his mistress not to sit with brothas at the games.

Yeah, as long as people show up it doesn't matter for most sports owners. Best case scenario is you end up with someone who cares about both the bottom line and winning. Reinsdorf is famous for saying he'd give back all 6 finals trophies for one world series win. He's a pathetic shit stain of a human being and somehow he's in the basketball hall of fame.

verb_to_trust wrote:Yeah, as long as people show up it doesn't matter for most sports owners. Best case scenario is you end up with someone who cares about both the bottom line and winning. Reinsdorf is famous for saying he'd give back all 6 finals trophies for one world series win. He's a pathetic shit stain of a human being and somehow he's in the basketball hall of fame.

The only power you have as a fan (you alluded to) is to stop going to, and stop watching, the games.

verb_to_trust wrote:It's not that. It's more like these basketball rich cities should demand excellence from their NBA team, that their team should reflect how much basketball matters to them. In Chicago, New York and Philly it hasn't worked out like that. From the perspective of a Bulls fan I can tell you I feel personally insulted with how the organization is run and how it still tries to suck off Jordan's legacy.

THIS.

As a Celtics fan, it's been incredibly satisfying to see the franchise move from the Russell era to the Bird era to the new Big Three winning a championship. We were stuck in 1986 for a long time until Trader Danny sold KG on Boston.

Don't look now, but The Vertical has Boston with the second best chance of landing KD. Still, I think KD stays w/ the Thunder. But, it's always fun to dream. I was 50/50 on KG coming to Boston, so as he says "Anything is possible."

Here's that story; compelling case for the Thunder. Looks hard for the other teams.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/front-offi ... 21631.html