On Wednesday night Oklahoma City Thunder superstar forward Kevin Durant led his team to it's 1st NBA Finals appearance since 1996 when they were the Seattle Supersonics. Durant led the way with significant contributions from Russell Westbrook, James Harden, defensive stopper Thabo Sefolosha, and even angry big-man Kendrick Perkins. An underrated piece to the rising dynasty of the Oklahoma City Thunder is Head Coach Scott Brooks.
Westbrook, Durant, and Harden have grown up before our eyes these playoffs as players but Coach Brooks has done so as well, and maybe the most underrated piece of the Thunder. A huge story-line to last night's game was the fact that Kevin Durant played all 48 minutes for the Thunder. We saw Rajon Rondo play every minute of the Celtics' overtime game earlier in the Eastern Conference Finals but we don't see this strategy played out enough. I think if you have a young, great player the coach should ask them to play the whole game at times and I applaud Scotty Brooks for playing Durant the whole game last night. I also believe that encouragement of your players and getting the most out of them is as important as creativity on offense and defense for a coach, and that's why I am so high on Brooks now. Brooks got more out of his team this series than he has at any point ever, which tells me he got his team to truly buy in and had his players willing to sacrifice for their teammates. Brooks has also played the physiological card perfectly for the last few months in terms of motivation and encouragement. Brooks was asked earlier this series about Westbrook enduring all his criticism and what he tells Westbrook when he gets down, and this was Brooks' response, "I just tell him, 'You're not their point guard, you're MY point guard'." Coach Brooks also is said to use the injury of loved G Eric Maynor, and the disrespect of G Derek Fisher for being too old as motivation for the whole team to win the NBA Championship and I think that is simply fantastic and very smart. I don't think it's rocket science, the Thunder got outplayed the first two games of the series and then went on a rampage of winning four straight against the San Antonio Spurs, who at some points some analysts were willing to just hand the Larry O'Brien Trophy over to. Yes the Thunder do have grand amounts of talent but a large part of the Thunder's four game winning streak has to be about their coaching. Brooks in some ways out-coached the legendary Gregg Popovich and should be commended for doing so. I have completely done a 180 in last few weeks with my thoughts concerning Scott Brooks and I am willing to admit I was wrong. The guy did a great job this series and the previous ones and deserves a whole lot of credit. I mean he got Kendrick Perkins smiling last night, as well as all of Oklahoma City.
Side Note: Would write more concerning the game but I have to go to work, so I'll right another post after work about the game.
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