What Kevin Durant left behind in Oklahoma City
IT’S BEEN SEVEN months and six days since Kevin Durant made his decision.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have moved on, or so they say. The city hasn’t, at least not entirely, as aftershocks — T-shirts that read “35-35=0” or the occasional No. 35 jersey with Durant’s name changed or crossed off — still reverberate around town from time to time. As much as there’s celebration and appreciation for Russell Westbrook‘s historic run, a trail of smoke lingers.
All roads, and conversations, find their way back to Durant.
His presence was everywhere in Oklahoma City for eight years — he lorded over the city as its global ambassador. It reached a crescendo in 2013 when Durant put down a physical landmark of sorts, partnering with a restaurant group to open KD’s Southern Cuisine in Bricktown, less than a mile from Chesapeake Energy Arena and right next to Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill.
Durant’s restaurant wasn’t the most popular OKC eatery, but it was a tangible representation of how deeply his roots extended into the city’s fabric. It’s where Durant and many of his teammates would gather after home games in a private room. It’s where Durant held charity and fundraiser events. It’s where his family ate a couple of days before Durant heard the Thunder’s free-agency pitch last summer.
Inside its doors was not only a celebration of Durant but also of Durant playing for Oklahoma City. Cases full of memorabilia lined the walls: jerseys, shoes, signed balls and framed pictures. Instead of TVs tuned to ESPN, most were programmed to run a loop of constant YouTube highlights of the Thunder superstar.
“Oh, I’ll be booing, I hope just like everyone else is … in my Russell Westbrook jersey, too.”
When Durant left, he withdrew his stake and the restaurant underwent a rebranding. Its Yelp page took a beating.
Durant’s friend, Randy Williams, and manager, Charlie Bell, came back and scooped up all the jerseys, shoes and signed pictures. The restaurant reopened seven weeks later as Legacy Grill, a road map of Oklahoma’s history and its important figures. Durant’s jerseys have been replaced by those of Barry Sanders, Troy Aikman, Blake Griffin, Sam Bradford, Tony Allen and Adrian Peterson.
There are two framed pictures at each booth, honoring the state’s finest from Garth Brooks to Mickey Mantle. There’s even one of Chris Paul accepting his Rookie of the Year award when he played in Oklahoma City during the then-Hornets’ relocation after Hurricane Katrina.
Three Thunder jerseys hang by the bar — Westbrook, Victor Oladipo and Steven Adams.
There isn’t one thing in the entire place for Durant.
DURANT HAD BEEN gone less than 24 hours and Harvey Sparkman was already calling about the seats.
For eight years, the spot — directly across from the Thunder bench, right about even with the free throw line — was home to Team Durant’s base camp, where Durant’s family sat, where he’d point before the beginning of every first and third quarter, and where he’d go after each game before heading home.
It’s where he ran to embrace his mom in the closing moments as the Thunder clinched a spot in the 2012 NBA Finals. Those four seats were an embodiment of Durant’s investment in the franchise, with his mom, brothers and friends positioned right on the front row.
Now Sparkman, a local businessman, owns them. He sat a few seats down before, positioned in the corner at the end of the row. But when Durant announced he was leaving to join the Golden State Warriors, Sparkman saw an opportunity to upgrade. After a week of waiting, the Thunder told him the seats were his. He doesn’t think about who they belonged to, or the moments Durant’s family and friends witnessed while sitting in them.
“I’m here to support Russell Westbrook,” Sparkman says. “We’re not going anywhere. We hated that Kevin left, but fortunately, life goes on.”
THERE WILL BE no tribute video for Durant on Saturday. He’ll be recognized just like all other departed Thunder players before him — Serge Ibaka, James Harden, Kendrick Perkins, Jeremy Lamb or Cole Aldrich. His name will be called in starting introductions along with, “Please welcome back to Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant.”
And the fans will most assuredly boo.
“Oh, I’ll be booing, I hope just like everyone else is,” Thunder fan George Overbey says. “In my Russell Westbrook jersey, too.”
Overbey was a student at Oklahoma State in 2011, and when Durant tweeted that he wanted to play some flag football during the NBA lockout, Overbey invited him up to Stillwater for a game. Durant showed up in his van and played some ball, with cell-phone videos going viral everywhere.
It was another example of Durant’s connection with the people of Oklahoma, how his down-home demeanor aligned with the state. After Durant left that night — throwing four touchdowns and picking off three passes, or so he claimed — he gave a shoutout to Overbey on Twitter. Durant even called Overbey his “new buddy.”
“I don’t hate the guy, or really even dislike him, but I’m a Thunder fan, and I want to support the players that are here,” Overbey said. “That’s our responsibility now as fans. He chose to leave, which was his right to do, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Some will judge Thunder fans for booing. Some will shame the organization for doing the bare minimum for a player who helped build the franchise, a player general manager Sam Presti dubbed a “founding father” of the Thunder. How could they not appreciate the eight years (nine for the franchise including one in Seattle) Durant gave them?
The general feeling of most fans, as Overbey explained, isn’t just that Durant left for another team — they actually kind of understand that part. They aren’t happy with it, but they can at least parse the fact that Durant wanted to play elsewhere.
But it’s the who, the what and the why that breeds the animosity. That it was to the Warriors, the 73-win team the Thunder were set to conquer before blowing a 3-1 lead, with Durant shooting 39 percent in the final three games of the series. That the decision was announced with a brief five-paragraph message on The Players’ Tribune, with only 192 words spent on the city and franchise that “raised” him. And that after almost eight months, there’s still no clear understanding of Durant’s reasoning.
It’s also about Westbrook. In terms of the level of animosity when Durant returns, the city will…
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