Losing will Just Motivate Kevin Durant?
It’s a copout to say this is a lesson for Durant and his young Thunder team, but that’s exactly what it is. Falling on the big stage manifests motivation, puts that little extra something in you. Durant and the Thunder have now been near the top without tasting it. That kind of drive is what fueled LeBron this season and now Durant knows that pain.
“It hurts,” Durant said. “It hurts, man.”
Those were his first words at the podium Thursday and he really didn’t need to say anything else.
What makes it hurt so much is that the journey just to get here is so long. To get back seems forever away. What stands between Durant’s shot at redemption is an 82-game season with back-to-backs, long road trips and meaningless February games in Sacramento. Gone are the big shots of the postseason, the moments where legend is born. It’s back to the grind, but that’s what you have to press through if you want another shot.
“We’re not frontrunners,” Durant said. “We’re not guys that are just happy when things are going well. It’s the toughest time we’ve ever been through, and we want to do the same thing we would do if we won the game.”
That’s the footprint of this Thunder team, and it’s because it falls in step behind Durant. It’s all about evolution, about hard work, about taking another step forward. The Thunder did precisely that going one round further this season than last, but it ended all the same. Heads hanging low while watching the other team put on extra large t-shirts and way-to-crisp hats.
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