In ESPN’s preseason poll of 30 of its NBA writers, 12 predicted KD to win the 2012 NBA MVP, while 11 believe it will be LeBron and 7 think it will be Chris Paul. What’s your predicting for 2012 NBA MVP?
OKLAHOMA CITY, December 6, 2011 – The Thunder’s entire 66-game 2011-12 schedule was released earlier today by the NBA. Including the Thunder’s previously announced Christmas Night game versus Orlando followed by the Thunder’s road contest on December 26 at Minnesota, the Thunder with play 18 sets of back-to-backs in addition to one back-to-back-to-back in early January.
In a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals, Oklahoma City will take-on the Dallas Mavericks four times during the 2011-12 season with two of those meetings occurring in the first eight days of the regular season.
Once again, the Thunder will play a home affair on New Year’s Eve as the Phoenix Suns travel to the Chesapeake Energy Arena on the final day of 2011. The Thunder has played on New Year’s Eve every season since moving to Oklahoma City as a part of the city’s Opening Night celebration.
The 2011-12 regular season schedule is highlighted by 24 nationally televised appearances for the Thunder. Oklahoma City will play two games on ABC this season with the first coming on April 1st when the Thunder hosts Chicago and later when the Oklahoma City travels to play the L.A. Lakers (Apr. 22) in the final week of the regular season.
The Thunder will make nine appearances on this season ESPN commencing with the Christmas Night opener (Dec. 25) and followed by a pair of road match-ups against the Dallas Mavericks (Feb. 1) and the Utah Jazz (Feb. 10). The Thunder will later host the Denver Nuggets (Feb. 19), Boston Celtics (Feb. 22), San Antonio Spurs (Mar. 16), Portland Trail Blazers (Mar. 18) and the Miami Heat (Mar. 25) on ESPN. The Thunder will round-out their ESPN telecasts on the road with a meeting against the Heat in Miami (Apr. 4).
TNT Sports will feature six Thunder games during the 2011-12 season including the Thunder’s first-week match-up versus the Dallas Mavericks (Dec. 29). The Thunder will later appear on TNT for games against Boston (Jan. 16) and Sacramento (Feb. 9) before hosting the L.A. Lakers on February 23. TNT will lastly televise the Thunder’s road contests against Orlando (Mar. 1) and the L.A. Lakers (Mar. 29).
The Thunder is also scheduled to appear on NBATV seven times this season.
Thunder fans will be treated to a pair of five-game home stands during the 2011-12 season. The first of which will occur in late February when Oklahoma City plays host to Golden State (Feb. 17), before competing in two sets of home-and-home back-to-backs vs. Denver (Feb. 19) and New Orleans (Feb. 20) followed by games vs. Boston (Feb. 22) and the L.A. Lakers (Feb. 23) just prior to the NBA All-Star break. The second five-game home stand falls shortly thereafter in early March when Dallas (Mar. 5), Phoenix (Feb. 7), Cleveland (Mar. 9), Charlotte (Mar. 10) and Houston (Mar. 13) all make stops in Oklahoma City.
The Thunder continues its tradition of family friendly scheduling this season with 17 home games that will be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The 2011-12 regular season will conclude with a home-and-home back-to-back on April 24 and 25 with games played versus Sacramento and Denver, respectively.
Single game tickets for the first half of the regular season go on sale Monday, December 12 at 10 am online at thunder.nba.com. Tickets for the Thunder’s preseason home game vs. Dallas will also be on sale at that time.
With very few national TV exceptions, FOX Sports Oklahoma will carry the Thunder’s regular season games. A full broadcast schedule will be released later this week. The Thunder’s TV schedule begins Tuesday, Dec. 20 with the preseason game vs. the Mavericks.
Play-by-play announcer Brian Davis, analyst Grant Long and sideline/web reporter Kelly Crull return as the Thunder broadcast team on FSO. Radio play-by play announcer Matt Pinto will bring every Thunder game to listeners on WWLS (98.1FM) and the Thunder Radio Network.
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The future face of the NBA will be, or had better be … the tall skinny guy walking the mall in flip-flops. He never brings along a posse or a security guard. He usually drives there in a conversion van. He wears gym shorts just in case someone wants to play 5-on-5. His basketball and his high-tops are in the car.
They don’t grow superstars like this anymore. On the team bus, his phone will ring and he’ll say, “Hi Mommy.” His teammate, Royal Ivey, will elbow him and say, “You could be a little smoother with it. Or at least whisper.” But that’s the one of the most revealing parts about him: He hasn’t changed since he was 8 years old.
You’d think leading the NBA in scoring twice by 22 would have gone to his head. You’d think leading Team USA to last summer’s FIBA World Championship would have had him sleeping in. You’d think taking the NBA’s youngest playoff team to the conference semifinals would have lengthened his Q-rating. But half the time on the road, he’s “what’s-his-name.”
He was walking through a Cleveland mall just this past March, along with Ivey and a team employee, when a man rushed up to say, “Kevin Garnett!!!! You’re Garnett, right?”
“I’m Kevin,” he said, politely. “But it’s not Garnett.”
And away walked Kevin Durant, not offended in the least.
The most unpretentious NBA superstar
Something has made him this way. Something has made Durant probably the least pretentious megastar in pro basketball. He’d rather have a key to the gym than a key to the penthouse. It may sound clichéd, but he really is usually first to practice and last to leave. He’s not clamoring to take his talents to South Beach; instead, he just re-upped for five more years with Oklahoma City.
“Oklahoma City’s got a basketball team?” he was asked during another stroll in the mall one day.
“Yeah, we’re relatively new,” he answered
Great story from ESPN Outside the Lines on Oklahoma City and what the Thunder meant to the city following the tragic bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995.
Take a look at this piece from ESPN.com on the influence Kevin’s mom Wanda Pratt has had on his basketball career.
Before he had even reached the age of 10, Kevin Durant had settled on his future profession.
He wanted to be an NBA player. It was that simple.
So he sat down his mother, Wanda Pratt, to make his plans known.
Pratt, a single parent of two for most of Durant’s childhood, did what any mother would, promising to help him any way she could. But even Durant wasn’t prepared for how far Pratt was willing go.
She enlisted a family friend, Taras “Stink” Brown, to help with the physical part; Brown would run a young Durant ragged with endless amounts of sprints and suicides up and down hills in his hometown of Seat Pleasant, Md.
Pratt, meanwhile, would take care of the drive — both by carting Durant and his older brother, Tony, to practices upon practices and by making sure he stayed focused.
Last night KD and the Thunder took on rookie sensation Brandon Jennings and the Milwaukee Bucks. The game was broadcast nationally on ESPN, making it the first nationally televised game of the season for the Thunder. The Thunder made sure to show basketball fans around the country what all the hype surrounding them is about, defeating the Bucks 108-109. KD finished the game with 33 points and 12 rebounds 5 assists and 3 steals. Here are the highlights:
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