The Warriors gave us a thrill by getting rid of the Thunder

Stephen Curry came up big in Game 7. (Ben Margot / Associated Press)

Once the Warriors won Game 6, you knew that they couldn’t be denied. Everything looked bad for them when they were down 3-1. But this championship team knew that they had to do one thing — believe in themselves.

All the pundits said that they weren’t going to win the series. Instead they fought hard and got that Game 5 win. Then they had no business winning Game 6 but willed their way to that victory. And in Game 7, they came back one more time to eliminate the Thunder.

You can say that it was the Thunder who didn’t handle the pressure well and you would be right. But it takes an opposition to strong and so determined like the defending champions to complete this comeback. The Warriors are that team and how they won was simply amazing.

Warriors getting destroyed by Thunder is a reminder of why we love sports

**This post isn’t to analyze how the Thunder are playing so well and how the Warriors are playing so poorly. This is just me looking at this series as a reminder of the fun of sports. 

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After watching the Golden State Warriors get destroyed in the last two games, the discussion continues on whether or not the team will choke against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

After all, the Warriors were heralded as the greatest team of all time with their new style of basketball. They have the 73 wins and Stephen Curry won MVP unanimously. Everything about this team told you that they were going to win the championship again and cement their legacy.

But of course, that would be foolish for me or anyone to really think that any of that was going to be a guarantee. Even if the Warriors had the best record. Even if they had the best player. There is always that predictable unpredictability in sports and the Thunder are giving it to them.

Mitchell & Ness’ ‘Team Short’ snapbacks are copying Reebok

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One of the best team apparel cap designs I have ever seen was created by Reebok for the NFL in 2006. All team caps were unique in design because the side panels of the caps were actually the design of the team pant stripes that year. In Reebok’s tenure in manufacturing items for the NFL, this was their best design.

Today, Mitchell & Ness released a series of throwbacks for the Lakers (here, here, here), Sonics (here, here) and Grizzlies (here). Notice anything? They took the same concept of what Reebok did with their snapback. It’s a great looking cap, but it doesn’t feel original. Of course, there are limitations in designing such a cap. But it just feels like M&N took what Reebok did and re-purposed it for their design.

This could just be a coincidence but since the Reebok idea isn’t an innovative idea and it came out almost a decade ago, you never know. I’m surprised that there are only these three teams. I wonder if more is to come.

Kevin Durant’s painful, truthful, heartfelt tweet about Seattle

I love and miss Seattle…damn

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 12, 2013

Kevin Durant’s first and only season in Seattle.

The Seattle SuperSonics in their final season in the city, drafted Kevin Durant as the #2 overall pick in 2007. That draft pick would be a major piece of the foundation of what the team would be in future years.

However, the city of Seattle never got a chance to reap the benefits of that. Their move to Oklahoma City and name change still hurts the fans of the Pacific Northwest.

Durant was in Seattle for the Jamal Crawford Pro Am (he scored 63 points) and returning to Seattle brought back memories.

He has spoken highly of Seattle numerous times since leaving and he did so again Sunday.

If you’re not on the Warriors bandwagon now, you better get on soon

Despite struggling with three-pointers, Stephen Curry came up clutch late in the game.

If you didn’t watch the Warriors beat the Thunder last night, you missed out on a fantastic game. To be more exact, you missed out on a win that could change the entire direction of the team’s magical season.

After over a decade of futility with one playoff appearance, the Warriors now appear to have established themselves as serious contenders to win the Pacific Division. More importantly, they’ve done it in convincing fashion.

Coming into last night, the Warriors have defeated the Clippers three times this year and also have a road win in Miami. I don’t know if people were calling the Warriors flukes up to this point, but beating the Thunder was their biggest win of the year. Defeating the team with the best record and the defending West champions goes a long way in the team’s identity.

Now that the rumored Thunder alternates are real, we can throw things at our computer

They didn’t have to, but they did.

There you go. What was rumored from NBA 2K13 is now a reality.

MORE DETAIL ON WHEN THESE WILL BE WORN

The Thunder have apparently taken their current identity, thrown it in the trash and re-created something totally new and called it their alternate. This set looks nothing like their home or road uniforms and more importantly, you can’t trace any kind of connection.

Instead of going with the light blue, orange or yellow, they decide to use the dark navy that I don’t think many people associate with the Thunder. Also, the design has been used before but it’s not a very good one.

These new Thunder alternates look extremely confusing to me

I don’t understand why they chose to go with this.

I don’t mind when teams introduce new alternates. As long as it somewhat either resembles their current set or has some kind of historical connection, it works.

But what appears to be the new Thunder alternate is just so confusing. How can that be associated with this?

I know the current set features a dark navy trim, but to make an entire set out of it with a design that has no connection to their uniform makes no sense. It’s a mixture of the old Royals set with with a cup of uninspired.

There is the strange vertical stripes down the jersey with the team name in a boring font. Adding the small number on the upper right and you have a disaster of a uniform. A terrible, terrible idea. Worse than a jump to conclusions mat.

Not getting angry at LeBron James, Heat for winning the NBA title

I’m pretty sure that most of the dislike for the Miami Heat is fueled by LeBron James. And that’s a perfectly good reason. James was the ringleader of an offseason of what many fans believe seemed to be an unfair advantage to the NBA.

James had “The Decision” and that was a bad idea. Then the Heat held a celebration party when James and Chris Bosh joined with the team. Then pretty much whatever James did, it was scrutinized. He and the Heat have not been very mature recently.

I didn’t want the Heat to win for all those reasons. But I am trying to be as realistic of a basketball fan as I can and I have to give props to the Heat for what they did. (But I’ll still call them the nWo just because it’s funny to me.)

We have just witnessed the birth of a dynasty in the NBA

Dynasty in the making?

After watching the Oklahoma City Thunder win the game last night to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals, it occurred to me that this team will be a dynasty. I realized that right now, if they can keep this core of players together, they can win not one, not two, not three — you get my point.

Think about it. The team’s average age is around 25 years old. They have a deep bench, solid role players and emerging young talent. The rest of the West right now seems to be declining with age and injuries. The Thunder is going in the opposite direction.

What they have right now is a blueprint for success. They took down the mighty Spurs in what I thought wouldn’t happen. And I say the Thunder are the favorite to win it all this year. Unlike the Heat, this team has a Big Three that fit well together.

The only other team that I can think that has this kind of dynasty potential are the Bulls. But with the injury to Derrick Rose, it might have to hold on for a while. But right now, the Thunder are now the the cream of the crop.

Another episode of the rich and racist courtesy of Lil Wayne

This is the Lil Wayne I remember. Whatever happened to him?

So if you haven’t heard the news, rapper Lil Wayne asked the Oklahoma City Thunder for a seat courstide for Game 3. The team said that the seat was unavailable. Then Wayne tweeted this:

Was going to go to the Thunder game tonight but was denied by the team to be in their arena. Wow. Smh. Go Spurs!

— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) May 31, 2012

Kevin Durant and James Harden offered to get him tickets but instead, Wayne decided to make it a bigger deal than it should have been.

”That’s not the point, though,” he told The Associated Press in an interview Friday night. ”It’s the players stepping up but of course the players aren’t white. I don’t want to be sitting there on behalf of you and I’m sitting next to a (person) that’s like `I don’t want this (guy) sitting next to me.’ (Forget) you . . . I’m in Forbes,” he said, laughing.