Since winning the championship, the Golden State Warriors have been basking in the glory of it all. Kevin Durant has been calling out haters on twitter. Draymond Green went on a talk show. Stephen and Ayesha Curry went to a beach. Klay Thompson went to China where he ended up posterizing himself (much more on that in a moment).
It’s been a subtle (at times), low-key victory tour, which is what you might expect from a team that set their expectations as “championship or bust.” No huge proclamations. No unruly dancing on the graves of their opponents.
Well, almost none of that.
Yesterday, JaVale McGee held his third annual #JugLife celebrity softball game at the Oakland Coliseum. Andre Iguodala was there. Marshawn Lynch was there. Draymond Green was there. It was a heck of a party. But, no one made quite the splash, or statement, as Kevin Durant, who showed up to the game wearing a simple hat that sent a strong, cold message.
Kevin really put a ring instead of a cherry on top of the cupcake pic.twitter.com/1GVaFNbQet
— Julie Phayer (@juliephayer) June 24, 2017
Oh, Kevin. Why’d you do them like that?
Hahahahahaha okc twitter gonna be mad, again, as always. https://t.co/r8qdeCrNiR
— Golden State of Mind (@unstoppablebaby) June 24, 2017
There’s no one in the world quite so fragile or salty as Oklahoma City fans. After Oklahoma City’s owners, Clayton Bennett and Aubrey McClendon, stole the Sonics from Seattle — where they truly belong, even to this day — and moved them to a town that traditionally hadn’t given two shits about basketball, only Sooners football, OKC fans were gifted a strong, young team full of promise that drafted Durant in 2007, Russell Westbrook in 2008, and James Harden in 2009. It was an unprecedented, brilliant stretch of drafting. The team grew quickly, made the Finals faster than anyone could have predicted (in 2012), and then ... blew it up. Because they didn’t want to pay James Harden. Because they were cheap and, again, didn’t care to spend the money necessary to keep a championship-caliber team together for the long haul. Because they thought they could just bank on Durant and Westbrook. And again, because do they even care about basketball?
If OKC’s owners actually cared about basketball, they would have built a new arena in Seattle, and let Durant and Westbrook grow and develop in a city that actually had the basketball acumen to appreciate them. Instead, here we are. Cupcakes, snowflakes, and all.
So, in a not-so-subtle jab at fans who had openly mocked him since his Fourth of July decision — and who had moaned and cried when he took out a full page ad thanking the Warriors faithful after his first championship — Durant decided to wear a hat. A simple hat, really. But, oh, what a hat.
To paraphrase Julie Phayer, he really did put a ring on it.
I guess he liked it.
In other news from around the world, Klay Thompson got punked by a rim in China, where he was promoting his shoes. I kid you not, here check it out. It’s actually pretty funny:
Klay Thompson tried to dunk for these fans and the rim rejected him:https://t.co/PRypu1oa3Q pic.twitter.com/WdUfP7bx38
— SB Nation (@SBNation) June 24, 2017
Honestly, I’m just glad he didn’t get hurt. This could have gone a lot of different ways. The best part is him obviously cracking up, even as he falls to the ground, and then raising both arms in celebration, as people rush to help him up.
Adam Silver should ask Klay to participate in the 2018 Dunk Competition, if only just to rub it in. Lol, this was good stuff.
On the other side of the world, Stephen Curry was busy proving that his life is better than yours or mine. Hitting the beaches in Hawaii, he showed off his chiseled physique, threw back a couple of cold ones, and skipped out on some of the other team-oriented festivities to spend some much needed time with his family.
Ayesha, for one, was very happy that Curry was at the beach rather than going to JaVale’s celebrity game.
Dang Steph! Put that thing away! You’re making the rest of us look bad!
I’m actually going to Hawaii on vacation next week, and there is a 0% chance I will look this cool on the beach. But, there is a 100% chance I’ll get some stupid, awkward sunburn and lose my sunglasses in the surf, thereby guaranteeing that I squint, sun-blinded, into the ocean until the sun finally sets like a blind, baby mole rat. If you don’t think I remember how much sun is in Hawaii, take note of the fact that I somehow used the word (in some variety) four times in the preceding sentence.
Anyways, things are good for the Warriors right now. Draymond Green is still punking on all the people taken ahead of him in his draft. Durant is twisting the knife in OKC’s cold, angry hearts. Klay is, well, being Klay. Curry is winning life, again and again.
That championship glow still abounds, as evidenced by all the dope things people have been up to. Keep up the good work, fellas.
Dubs brought Larry along! #DubNation pic.twitter.com/xFreM6wlBZ
— Oakland Coliseum (@OAColiseum) June 24, 2017