by Fresh8 on Mon May 16, 2011 10:53 pm
Chapter 30
Kevin Durant could see himself on the Madison Square Garden jumbotron screen. He kept looking up at himself as the pro-Knicks crowd booed. He then put up both hands to show to the crowd; four fingers extended on the left and then three fingers extended on the right.
“43 points motherfuckers!” he was yelling at the top of his lungs.
No one could hear him but they knew what he was trying to make a statement about. Durant had just scored 43 points and grabbed 8 rebounds against the Knicks. It was a big night for him.
“Hey, that’s enough showboating on our court!” Ron Artest was walking by and shouting in Durant’s ear.
Durant purposely bumped into Artest as he walked past. Artest reacted by nudging back and then using both arms to lightly shove Durant. Lamar Odom was behind Artest and grabbed the back of his jersey to restrain him.
Durant was nodding his head and yapping, “Not so tough are you tough guy?”
The crowd was now jeering them on as the team officials who had not left the court spilled back out onto the floor to pull the players apart. Andrew Bogut had come back out to see what was going on.
“You’re getting old Ron,” Durant laughed, “I could throw 100 on your ass anyday.”
“And I could knock you the fuck out anyday!” Artest retorted as Odom and Luis Scola pulled him back towards the tunnel.
The crowd booed as Durant turned to walk the other direction. He had both arms up in the air as he shrugged his shoulders. He was enjoying this moment. Bogut waited for him at the edge of the court and gave him a high five. The duo walked off the court to the loud disapproving Knicks fans.
Reshawn Tyson had his right hand wrapped up. He had dislocated a finger during the last moments of the game. Ty walked slowly out of the visitor’s change room past a mob of reporters surrounding Durant. Ty kept his head down and walked right past them.
“You know why we’ve won 10 in a row,” Durant boasted, “Because they have the MVP of the league here. That’s me.”
“How do you think Tyson’s injury will affect your team’s performance?”
Durant laughed loudly and raised his voice so Ty could hear him, “We’re a better team without him!”
Ty was led out by one of the team’s trainers and Durant smiled as he watched Ty leave and out of his sight.
“Allen Iverson is a legend of the game and he can still ball,” Durant stated, “We will have no issues keeping up with this winning streak. I think we have a long ways to go before we drop a game.”
A few nights later in Portland, Durant made his point clear about being the best player in the NBA. The Portland Trailblazers watched in awe as Durant dunked the ball through the hoop with a ferocity more vicious than Kevin Garnett in his heyday. Durant landed on the hardwood bellowing at the top of his lungs, thumping his chest and turning to run back down the floor. It was only moments before when the Blazers had been up by 8 points following back to back Brandon Roy three pointers. Durant’s dunk was the second one in a span of a minute and it had trimmed the lead back to 4 points. Ben Gordon was blocked on the other end by Bogut before Durant delivered with a drive to the hoop. The Blazer fans were silent at this stage and in disbelief as Durant had found a way to squeeze his team back into the match.
“Time out!” Roy yelled to the game official.
George Karl took over the team huddle, “Get the ball to Kevin.”
His instructions were loud and clear. Ben Gordon dribbled out the shot clock and threw a pass to Roy. Roy lined up behind the perimeter and launched a three point attempt. The ball hit the back of the iron. Bogut gathered up the rebound and the teams returned to their benches for a timeout. This time, Karl didn’t need to draw up a play. Everyone knew what was going to happen. When both teams returned to the floor, the Blazers opted to go with single coverage on Durant.
“You haven’t stopped me this whole quarter,” Durant said to Roy as the players prepared for the inbound, “I think you really should be doubling me.”
Roy stated, “You’re not going to get a good look on me.”
“How much you willing to bet?”
“My life as long as you don’t cheat.”
The ref blew gave the ball to David Lee who looked for Durant right away. Durant pushed off of Roy and bolted towards the ball. Durant caught the ball and wrapped both arms around it. He pivoted to face the hoop. Roy was right up in his face.
“Watch this,” Durant said to Roy.
Roy couldn’t hear him above the noise and kept his eyes on the ball. Durant jab stepped to try and catch Roy off-balance. Roy wasn’t going to move. Both teams had backed off and with time winding down, it was one-on-one between Roy and Durant. Durant put the ball on the floor and dribbled between his legs before spinning and backing down on Roy. He knew there wasn’t much time left and spun to his right. He took two dribbles towards the basket. There was just a few seconds left and so he lifted off the ground with Roy in front of him the whole time. Durant had to jump backwards and he threw up a high arching fadeaway over Roy. As the ball left his fingers, he knew it was good. Durant landed on his ass but still had his shooting hand up. Roy had landed on his feet with his head and body twisted to watch the shot splash through the net. Durant’s teammates ran over to help him up as Roy walked to the Blazers’ bench with his head in both hands.
“You can’t touch me! You can’t touch this shit!” Durant was throwing his arms around and shouting towards Roy.
“Bow down to me!” he hollered, “I’m the fucking MVP! I’m the fucking greatest!”
Durant came back out in the extra period to score 8 of his 55 points and lead the Stealth to their eleventh win. It was a sweet one as they broke the hearts of their bitter rivals.
The winning streak continued through the new year and it wasn’t long before Ty re-joined the team. The time spent away from the team made Ty appreciate his role on the squad. Although he hated Durant, he had to concede to Durant’s leadership. It was, as Durant put it, his team. All was not lost for Ty though as he was fast gathering pace in All-Star voting and looked set to lock up a starting spot in the mid-season spectacle. In the meantime, Durant was playing the most inspired basketball of his career. Durant was spectacular night in and night out as was the Stealth. The team’s winning streak was approaching historic levels in the middle of January and as the team blew out more teams; the more reserves like Adam Morrison, Jao Wu and Mingyu Li got to play. The cumulative effect was better camaraderie and more rest for veterans like Kidd and Iverson. Jason Kidd was also playing some of the best basketball he had played in months. He and Andrew Bogut were really shining and there was even talk of the possibility for four Stealth players to be playing in the All-Star Game. As January drew to a close, the Stealth were clearly aiming to break the Lakers’ 33 game winning streak record from 1972.
“Good practice guys,” Karl clapped as his players were stretching to warm down, “We come back in here tomorrow and get a good win against the Heat!”
As the players left the practice court, Karl held back his star player.
“How are you feeling?”
“As good as ever coach,” Durant replied, “I’m feeling it. I’m feeling like I’m going to play a great game tomorrow night.”
Karl nodded and let Durant go. Durant was met by a number of reporters at the door. He was told about Dwyane Wade calling him the best player in the NBA.
Durant was surprisingly reserved in his response, “He’s just playing mind games. Me and D-Wade are good friends but he’s just trying to challenge me. He will be sorry for doing this.”
Durant pushed past the reporters to get to the showers. The next night, he made good on his word and punished the Heat with 28 first half points. He did not play a minute in the second half and retired to the training room early in the final quarter.
Wade complained after the game, “That’s just disrespectful to walk off like that. You don’t see me doing that.”
When told of Wade’s comments, Durant brushed it off and laughed, “D-Wade just wishes he had the same concessions as me. When you can help your team get a 40 point lead, I think you are entitled to do whatever you like.”
The next night, the Nets visited the Stealth. New Jersey went down to the Stealth as well. Afterward, Durant watched Nets’ forward Chris Bosh conduct a podium interview.
“Reshawn was just on another level tonight,” Chris Bosh stated, “He can ball.”
Durant stared down Bosh as he walked out of the room.
The first thing Durant said to the media was and objection to Bosh’s statement, “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Someone who is his size and can only score 5 points and grab 2 rebounds doesn’t deserve to have an opinion about the game of basketball.”
Sit was well aware of the trouble that Durant was causing. During the Stealth’s thirtieth straight win, Durant had actually left the arena and joined friends at Burger King before returning for the end of the game. David Stern had called Sit to tell him to sort it all out or risk the team being fined. Sit was shaking his head as team owner Magic Johnson joined him for a meeting.
Johnson defended Durant, “He’s our star player and he is the best player in the league. I think we need to give him some leeway.”
“How much leeway does he need? Seriously!” Sit was annoyed.
George Karl had walked into Sit’s office and took a seat next to Magic, “I don’t think you should fine him. I’ve got him under control.”
“Under control? This guy is out of control!” Sit yelled out, “Are you kidding me Coach?”
Magic argued, “You don’t want to ruin the flow for this team. They’re on their way to something special. You don’t want to piss off your team’s best player.”
“Then he’s holding us at ransom!” Sit frowned, “Magic, this is not right!”
“I’m the owner and I won’t let you do this,” Magic boldly announced, “If you do this then I will have to fire you.”
Sit didn’t say anything. He knew he’d never win a fight against the team’s owner and the head coach. This was an ongoing nightmare.
Manu Ginobili was on the ground with a look of disbelief on his face. The refs did not call the charge but called a foul on him. The Argentine hopped up and approached the ref. Durant cut him off.
“Stop flopping you girl!”
Manu tried to push Durant out of the way with his right arm to which Durant grabbed a hold of. Durant let go of Manu’s arm and pointed in his face.
“Don’t try that shit on me.”
The refs had stepped in between the two players. Manu and Durant were arguing with eachother and both assessed technical fouls. Bogut led Durant away from Manu, telling him to settle down.
“Calm the fuck down,” Bogut shook Durant.
The damage was done and even though the Stealth led by 13 at that stage close to half time, Manu Ginobili ripped the team apart in the second half. Manu had scored 20 of his 35 points in the third and fourth quarters. The Atlanta Hawks had now tied the game at 119 apiece. There was only a minute left in the game and Durant sat on the bench having fouled out of the game. A towel around his head and water in his hand; Durant shook his head. This was a big game against the Hawks. With time about to expire, a historic winning streak was on the line. Durant understood the enormity of the second longest winning streak in NBA history not continuing after tonight and remaining etched in second place.
Coach Karl had to turn to someone else down the stretch. His team was tired and the emotional toll the winning streak had taken on his team could be seen in everyone’s faces. His team wasn’t playing freely and gave up another double digit lead tonight. Karl looked around at all the faces and thought about who he could trust with the rock.
The answer had been obvious all along and he looked at him, “You’re up.”
Ty looked up at his Coach with an uncertain look.
Karl recognised his young players’ feeling and reassured him, “Yes. You.”
Ty nodded.
It was crunch time.
Sucks about the loss.
,
