WHAT a 71st National Basketball Association renewal it was! “This is why we play” was the season’s slogan and it resulted in several league records broken, including one that had stood for more than half a century.
Hard-hat star Russell Westbrook, the meal ticket of the Oklahoma City Thunder, took the American pro league by storm during the 2016-17 regular season, shattering a pair of 55-year-old league records of “The Big O” Oscar Robertson in chalking up 42 triple-double games and also registering a T-D average of an NBA-high 31.6 points (a nine-year career high), 10.7 rebounds and a league third-best 10.4 assists in 81 appearances. Westbrook captured his second NBA scoring crown but unlike the first that came in 2014-15, the Thunder made the playoffs this time.
In 1961-62, Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals (the forerunners of the Sacramento Kings) garnered 41 triple-double games and averaged 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists in 79 games as a sophomore pro out of the University of Cincinnati.
Westbrook’s co-finalist in the 2017 NBA Most Valuable player derby, silky-smooth operator James Harden of Houston, propelled his Rockets to a 14-game turnaround – from 41-41 to 55-27. “The Beard” ranked first in the majors in assists (11.2 apg) and second in point production (29.1 ppg) and averaged 8.1 rebounds in 81 outings – for an eight-year career high in all three categories.
Harden topped the NBA in double-double games at 64 (to the second-place 62s of Westbrook and Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns) and trailed only Westbrook in triple-double performances at 22. The Rockets beat the Thunder, 4-1, in the first-round playoffs before dropping a 4-2 decision to the Texas rival San Antonio Spurs in the West semifinals.
Meanwhile, LeBron James of the 2016 titlist Cleveland Cavaliers was not among the top three finalists for this year’s Maurice Podoloff (MVP) hardware to be contested by Westbrook, Harden and San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard during the NBA’s first-ever Awards Night on June 26 (June 27, Manila time).
The snub served as a motivation for The King, a four-time league MVP (2009 and 2010 in his first tour of duty with Cleveland and 2012 and 2013 when he powered Miami to a pair of championships).
During the 2017 NBA playoffs, James, who reached the NBA Finals for a seventh consecutive season (including the last three with the Cavs), elevated his numbers in minutes played, scoring, rebounding (career-high 8.6 rpg during the regulars), steals, shot blocks, field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage from the regular campaign.
A 14-year pro out of high school, the 6-foot-8, 32-year-old native of Akron, Ohio averaged 41.3 minutes, 32.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.3 blocks in 18 games (13-5) with shooting clips of .565 (playoff career-tying) from the field, including .411 (an all-time postseason best) from three-ball country, and .698 from the free-throw line.
James was even better in the NBA Finals, posting the first-ever triple-double average in NBA championship-round history with 33.6 points, 12.0 rebounds and 10 assists with a .564 (66-of-117) field goal percentage.
However, James fell to his fifth defeat in eight Finals trips as the Cavs were beaten by the Golden State Warriors in five games.
And that’s because of Kevin Durant, a big fella who left Oklahoma City last summer following nine title-less seasons, including a 4-1 loss to James’ Heat in the 2012 Finals despite the Thunder owning the home-court advantage and a 1-0 series lead, to go west with the Warriors in search for a championship ring.
Success finally found the 6-foot-9, 28-year-old forward this year but it was not easy. Durant overcame injuries in the second half of the regular season – he missed 19 consecutive regular games (March 2-April 5) due to a strained MCL and a bone bruise in his left leg and even into the early part of the playoffs – he sat out Games 2 and 3 of the first-round, 4-0 sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers due to a strained left calf) – to turn in a memorable Finals effort.
In the Finals, Durant averaged 35.2 points – going 38, 33, 31, 35 and 39 in the five-game series – 8.4 boards and 5.0 handouts and became the first player in NBA history to shoot at least 50 percent from the field (.556), 40 percent from beyond the arc (.474) and 90 percent from the charity stripes (.927) with that high a scoring average in the Finals.
For the entire 2017 postseason, he posted averages of 28.5 points (on .556 FG, .442 3-FG, .893 FT shooting), 8.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.33 blocks in 15 games.
In the end, it was the star of Durant that shone brightest in helping the Warriors secure the Larry O’Brien hardware for the second time in three years and in his inaugural season with the Bay Area outfit.
Hail to KD, the new kid on the Warriors block!
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