Russell Westbrook averaging a triple-double this past year brought much deserved attention to the great Oscar Robertson, who previously had been the only player to accomplish such a feat, way back in 1962, his second year in the league. Robertson came close to doing it his first 5 years in the league, usually missing because he would “only” average 9 assists one year or 9 rebounds another year. He also had 5 different seasons in which he averaged over 30 points a game.
But as for rings for NBA titles with the Cincinnati Royals, he had nothing to show for his greatness. While his teams made the playoffs 6 straight seasons from 1962-67, they lost to either Bill Russell’s Celtics or Wilt Chamberlain’s 76ers in 5 of those six seasons. Four of those 5 defeats were to the eventual NBA champions.
It was not because he did not elevate his game in the big moments. He averaged a triple-double in the 1962 playoffs. Over that 6-year period his average playoff numbers were 29 points, nearly 10 assist, and over 8 rebounds a game. Oscar Robertson spent his first and best 10 years in the NBA losing year after year in the playoffs because his team was simply not good enough.
Here is my question for the Kevin Durant (KD) critics who insist that he should have never joined the team that he could not beat: do you honestly believe Oscar Robertson would have stayed in Cincinnati all those years with the same foreseeable outcomes if he had the choice to join Wilt in Philly or Bill in Boston or even Elgin Baylor and Jerry West in LA?
Would you have? If your GPS tells you that you can shave 10 minutes off your commute to your destination, can you honestly say you would ignore it and insist on going the hard way?
The fact is he didn’t have a choice because free agency at that time was a mere shadow of what it is today. As a matter of fact, Robertson would go on to become the National Basketball Players Association president and in that capacity, in 1970, would file an anti-trust suit under his name against NBA owners which challenged, among other things, to do away with the option clause which bound a player to one team. Though the suit was eventually dismissed as part of a collective bargaining agreement, it was an important piece of leverage that led to the free agency today enjoyed by players like KD.
With this important piece of historical context and the larger issue of LABOR RIGHTS, I am at a loss for why all this shade is being thrown at KD for joining the Warriors?
Whatever happened to “if you can’t beat them join them”?
That’s what Deion Sanders did when he left the Falcons to join the division rival 49ers to win a Super Bowl ring. That’s what Greg Maddox did in leaving the Cubs to join the Braves to win the World Series. What KD did is not new in sports.
Ok, if KD tweeted criticism of LeBron for going to Miami, he set himself up for some of this.
Furthermore, admittedly there is a competitive romantic side of me that would have admired KD even more as a champion had he done it from Oklahoma City. There was an additional gratification when seeing the long-suffering likes of Andy Murray in tennis and Phil Mickelson in golf finally win major titles after multiple heart-breaking disappointments. The same feeling came watching the Cubs in baseball and of course the great Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler with the Houston Rockets.
But that romanticism will always be trumped by the necessity to appreciate the struggle, yes even among professional athletes, for labor rights. The fact that most of us in our lifetime will not have the leverage to impact our compensation and place of labor the way professional athletes do is not a basis to begrudge them. After all, the simple reality is that millions of people have no interest or willingness to pay to watch you nor I do our jobs. It should be an incentive to improve our own collective 99% lot and not hate on them, be it John Elway or Eli Manning maneuvering out of Baltimore and San Diego, or KD leaving Oklahoma City.
I suspect that the common sports myth of loyalty is a factor of the KD hate.
Weather we as fans want to continue to deny getting the memo or not, sports loyalty has always been at best the exception and not the rule. Don’t let the final chapters for Kobe Bryant and Derek Jeter fool you. The more common finality between a player and a team is that of Babe Ruth who ended his career with the Boston Braves when he could no longer hit homers for the Yankees. Or Johnny Unitas who ended with the San Diego Chargers when he could not throw enough TD passes for the Colts. The reality is under capitalism, even the all-time greats are mere commodities for the enrichment of the owners. And yet you can find more needles in a haystack than you can fans that hold never-ending grudges against teams for their lack of loyalty to players.
Chris Rock once declared that men are only as loyal as our opportunities. That bit of truth is not restricted by gender or other aspects of life to include sports. So, I urge you KD haters; chill, get your favorite mind-altering substance, plug in some Toni Braxton, and LET IT GO!
