Life on the mountain top: OKC Thunder enjoying good times

It’s been a long, winding road for the OKC Thunder over the past decade. And after experiencing the bad times, we can now fully enjoy the good ones.

Life as an OKC Thunder fan has been a mixed bag of emotions over the past ten years, but something about this season feels different. It’s a sense of accomplishment one gets after struggling to beat the odds. The feeling of achievement after overcoming adversity and proving the skeptics wrong. A feeling that can sometimes be difficult to put your finger on.

Throughout the early years with the original big three, the Thunder were expected to contend for a title. And going into every season year after year with the label of contender, we lose a certain amount of joy we would have had we overcome a lot of adversity to achieve the same goal. In short, winning is just that much sweeter after nobody believed in the team other than the players, coaches, and fans.

So after the better part of a decade with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, and amazing bench depth, it was hard to appreciate winning then as much as we do now. So in some way, maybe Kevin Durant is helping us appreciate where we’re at now.

Had the Thunder closed out the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors in 2016, or if Westbrook doesn’t tear his meniscus in the 2013 playoffs, and go on to win either one or both of those titles, would they have meant as much as winning a title this season? I think the feeling of winning one during the Durant era would have been relief more than anything.

Yes, there would have been a big sense of accomplishment too, but also a sense of relief because almost everyone expected that group to win multiple titles. And winning at least one before Durant left would have left us with thoughts such as, “Well, at least we won one before the rebuild.” Of course, had we won a title, Durant may not have left. But that’s difficult to speculate given we now know the friendship between Westbrook and Durant wasn’t quite as strong as we thought.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I would rather the Thunder not win in those years. That much is not a blessing. But the bright side of not coming away with a championship when we were supposed to, is being able to fully enjoy what we have today.

Going through the pain of losing, the backstab from Durant and then getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs in back-to-back seasons makes the good times we’re in now that much more enjoyable. Because the team has come a long way to make it back to the top and did it when nearly everyone was counting them out.

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Plus, now that Westbrook and Paul George are both veterans of the league, we’re experiencing the milestone moments in their careers together like the ones last game against Portland along the way. It seems like every win brings along another achievement, another record set or another triple-double. And being there for it when OKC was predicted by some to miss the playoffs is all adding to the joy.

All offseason, Thunder supporters were in the trenches, defending their team the media and haters came out in bunches after the first-round loss to Utah. Talks of Westbrook being a stat padder and not a winner increased significantly, and nobody expected George to ever be the same after his injury.

But thanks to all of the critics, the Thunder faithful can enjoy the good times just that much more. We no longer have to stand up for our team because the wins do it for us.

And even though, admittedly, knocking off the Warriors in the playoffs is a long shot, how much better would it feel to win a title this year rather than to do it in the Durant era when it was pretty much expected?’

Both would come with a great sense of pride, but I would submit doing it when nearly everyone counted us out would make it sweeter.