It's a new era we live in.
Instead of press conferences or even leaked reports, the first official word of major sports signings are happening on Twitter. On Wednesday, Kevin Durant announced his five-year extension with the Thunder on his Twitter account -- a 140-words-or-less burst that has to send joy throughout the Sooner state.
Durant wrote:
"Exstension for 5 more years wit the #thunder....God Is Great, me and my family came a long way...I love yall man forreal, this a blessing!"Okay, so it's not exactly poetry, but it still reveals the class act that Durant has shown himself to be during his rise to superstardom. The move by the Thunder means they avoid the circus that a half-dozen teams have faced this season with every day another a question about when and if Durant will re-sign. He's the franchise, and they've built a young, talented core around him without sacrificing an inch of flexibility to be able to improve their roster as their young guys develop and evolve.
Reports have the extension at $85 million for five years, near the max for a player at Durant's extension level. Durant averaged 30 points and 7.6 rebounds last season for the Thunder, and did so at an incredibly efficient clip, hitting 61 percent True Shooting percentage with a 26.2 PER. He led the Thunder to the playoffs for the first time in OKC and pushed the Lakers to a fierce Game 6 before falling to the eventual champs. With Durant locked up, the Thunder will now turn their attention to building not just a contender, but also a championship-level team around Durant, who is starting to enter his prime. The first order of business will be deciding if Jeff Green is a significant part of that future or not.
Durant and Green are close friends, have been since they were drafted together, but recent trades and draft picks have led many to believe that GM Sam Presti may be looking for another option at power forward. Meanwhile, the next question will be when the Thunder will elect to bring on a veteran power to help the team. That's the assumption, since that has always been the model.
But Presti's shown what he can do with a stable roster that just keeps gelling together, and seems in no hurry to disrupt things. With Durant firmly in place under this new extension, the other Western Conference teams better be prepared for the Thunder to keep rising for the next five years.
And it all started on Twitter....SMH.
