Roll of the Distant Thunder

Behind all of the glittering free agent splashes on the beaches of South Florida this month, there was a quiet ripple in once water-barren Oklahoma. Unlike the others, it had not been foreshadowed for years by media, did not attract fawning celebrities or politicians, nor did it crest during a televised special. Drowned out by the echoes of his peers' look-at-me screams, Kevin Durant signed a five-year extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder with an elegant dearth of bombast. He announced it through his Twitter account:

"Extension for 5 more years with the Thunder ... God is great, me and my family came a long way ... I love y'all man for real, this is a blessing!"
— @KDthunderup

In 139 earnest characters, Durant did what LeBron James and others could not in weeks of backroom-scheming and minutes of soulless posing. He did not preen for the media or manufacture suspense. He did not act like his signing was a gift for the city and franchise of his choosing. Durant's subtle announcement pledged his loyalty to his organization and teammates at the expense of his own stardom, a perfect contrast to the over-saturated media blitz of his me-first peers.

Now in fairness, no man is ultimately responsible to anyone more than himself. Just as James and Chris Bosh did not owe more years to their previous teams, neither did Durant. Truthfully, if any of the free agents thought his goals would be best served by heaping helpings of hype onto his free agent signing, nobody has any reasonable ground from which to castigate him for that decision. We can, however, question how those individual goals align with his team's.

If the contrast in contract announcements can be boiled down to one core reality, it is Durant's old-fashioned practice of buying into his team. What the Thunder star gave up by not trading in currencies of media, fame, and dollars he yielded in the respect of his teammates.

I am not going to join the bloodthirsty and foolhardy queue of doom-predictors for Miami's after-market upgrade squad. Despite all the faults of the base model and its assembly, the Heat still have three significantly above average pieces whose value cannot be ignored. There will be moments of struggle, but Miami can expect to be as good as any team. And yet, consider the bright future of the Thunder.

Remember it was Durant — not James — who led the league in scoring this past season, though James pettily chose to remind us during the season, "If I really wanted to be the scoring [champion] every single year — every single year — I could really do it." The Thunder have surrounded Durant with complimentary pieces such as Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green, and no player on the roster has a 2010-2011 salary greater than $7 million. If Oklahoma City can find one more young solution in the front court, this would appear to be the team poised to ascend to the post-Kobe/Phil Western Conference throne. But all of this would be impossible without Durant's buy-in.

Consider the hand-to-mouth transactions of the Cleveland Cavaliers during James' tenure there. Yes, the Cavs had seven years to build a champion around its star. But unlike Durant, James never showed a clear commitment to the organization, which makes that timeline misleading. With losing James to free agency always at the forefront, the Cavs repeatedly mortgaged the organization's long-term health for what they hoped was an immediate fix. In the end, James' own non-commitment was the root of why he chose to leave.

On the other hand, Durant has put the Thunder in a position to build a team, but more importantly, one he has bought into. He is not a mercenary who announced his decision where he would be "taking his talents." He is not asking to be courted while supposedly grinding for a title. Instead, Durant treated his announcement with the proper lack of reverence for events that happen in the offseason.

Certainly Durant passed an opportunity to get his name and face in front of larger audiences. But if sports teams are still ever more than the sum of their parts, we should expect his personal sacrifice this summer to have that effect on his Thunder.