Loyalty in Sports? Really?

Where do sports fans get the idea about loyalty? There has never been, let me repeat, never been loyalty in sports. Not between owners and players, owners and their host cities, players and their owners, players and their teammates, and players and the cities they play for.

Owners have always moved their teams for the sake of the bottom line. (the facts are there on the Internet) Players, once they got their legal rights, jumped from one team to another at the siren call of more bucks. Back in 1972 when I was coaching the Carolina Cougars in the ABA, the Seattle Sonics signed away my star center, Jim McDaniels in mid season. The Sonics felt no disloyalty stealing from me, one of their ex-players who'd broken his butt for them, and McDaniels felt no remorse leaving behind his teammates, trying to make a playoff run. Personal example. There are hundreds more.

So here we are, 2016, watching OKC fans go ballistic over  Kenin Durant leaving a team he played his heart out for, for eight seasons, and I mean his heart out for. I've witnessed very few players that played with such passion, intelligence, and grit as KD. during his tenure with the Thunder. One might ask Thunder fans, quoting Shakespeare, "Have you no eyes to see?" KD. is a big-time-pro! And those soft ice cream signs, where did they come from? Those were made by OKC management and approved by management and ownership. Can there be any doubt of that? KD made the owner, a lot of money. How did he express his loyalty? Like a bush-leaguer.

Speaking of loyalty (and ethical behavior) I wonder if the owner of the Thunder felt any remorse, moving the Sonics from Seattle (which he said he'd never do when he bought the team) to Oklahoma City, his home town? No way.

All that should matter to fans and ownership is what an athlete does for his city, his team, and his ownership on the court in whatever time span it happens. Based on what he did for the Thunder, the fans, administration, and ownership should have given KD a standing ovation.

So, KD, welcome to the Bay Area where fans have class. You play your heart out for the Warriors, and I guarantee the fans will give you a standing ovation no matter how long you play for us, one year or ten years.

On another subject:

Let's hear it for Steph Curry who sees Donald Trump for what he is an, Ass, not an asset. It is time for liberals to stop being so nice. We need to be on the Conservatives like Draymond Green is on his opponents.

Another poem honoring a black athlete in Black History Month.

On Hurricane Jackson   by Alan Dugan

Now his nose's bridge is broken, one eye
will not focus and the other is astray;
trainers whisper in his mouth while one ear
listens to itself, clenched like a fist;
generally shadow-boxing in a smoky room,
his mind hides like the aching boys
who lost a contest in the Pan-Hellenic games
and had to take the back roads home
but someone else, his perfect youth,
laureled in newsprint and dollar bill,
triumphs forever on the great white way
to the statistical Sparta of the Champs.