National Basketball Association

Mr. Unreliable? Oklahoma newspaper mocks Durant before Game 6

Published May. 1, 2014 7:45 p.m. ET

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Sam Gardner

The prevailing logic is that Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant will be named the NBA’s most valuable player in a few days, and there’s little argument that Durant has been anything but otherworldly since entering the league as a Seattle SuperSonic in 2007 — a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

But apparently 32 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game this season from one of the league’s most durable players isn’t enough to sate The Oklahoman, which slammed Durant with the tag of “Mr. Unreliable” after Durant missed a crucial free throw (with an assist from referee Joey Crawford) late in Game 5 of the Thunder’s first-round series with the Memphis Grizzlies.

True, the missed free throw helped to seal Oklahoma City’s fate in Game 5, putting the Thunder, one of the presumptive Western Conference favorites coming into the playoffs, in a 3-2 hole heading into Thursday night’s Game 6 in Memphis. But the reaction to the paper’s description of Durant as “unreliable” was swift and overwhelmingly negative — even Durant’s mother weighed in — to the point where the paper apologized for the mischaracterization of the team’s star.

“We take great pride in our headlines about big sporting events and news in Oklahoma,” wrote Mike Sherman, sports editor of The Oklahoman, on the paper’s website Thursday. “Thursday’s headline in The Oklahoman on Kevin Durant’s performance in the Memphis series missed the mark.

“The words were overstated and unduly harsh. The headline and presentation left the impression that we were commenting on Durant’s season, career or even character. We were not. We were referring only to the Memphis series.

“The fact the headline and presentation left that impression with so many readers is proof that we failed.”

To be fair, the actual column, written by Berry Trammel, was not nearly as inflammatory as the headline. The story gives plenty of due credit for Durant’s up-and-down play in the series to Memphis’ top-notch defense and its anchor, Tony Allen, and acknowledged that the comparisons Durant gets to Michael Jordan are often warranted.

The lone reference to Durant’s lack of reliability came in a graf that was immediately followed by one of those plaudits for the defensive stopper Allen, and even Durant, himself, acknowledged on Thursday that The Oklahoman’s harsh characterization of him was fair.

Really, the whole thing comes across as small-market fans being overly defensive of their team’s biggest star — one wouldn’t imagine the same headline about, say, Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James would ignite the same fire in the fanbase — but fortunately, the story doesn’t have much time left to smolder.

Durant scored 36 points Thursday night as the Thunder forced a Game 7 with a 104-84 win, and with one more dominant performance, Durant — who still is averaging around 30 points and 10 rebounds for the series — can make The Oklahoman and all of his fans forget that he ever was  “unreliable” to begin with.

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