The Thunder and ‘The Secret’

It has become pretty obvious that Kevin Durant and the Thunder have figured out 'The Secret'. So what's 'The Secret' you ask?

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:50 am

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Jul 6, 2010 10:9 PM CDT

Kyle Dierking
Oklahoma Sports Mobile Journalist

Kevin Durant was in Orlando on Monday visiting a place he’s rarely been to in his basketball career.

The bench.

Durant sat on the sideline as he watched his teammates come from behind to beat the Boston Celtics by five points.

The NBA Summer League isn’t for superstars, it’s reserved for rookies and role players. Durant was there, wearing a team-issued blue polo and long shorts, supporting his teammates. He was even in the huddle during timeouts with his guys, his friends, his boys.

It has become pretty obvious that Durant and the Thunder have figured out the secret.

What’s The Secret you ask?

The Secret has existed for a long time but the first spoken explanation dates back to the Detroit Pistons teams of the mid-to-late 1980’s, more specifically Isiah Thomas.

Keep in mind this is the player Isiah Thomas, not the coach Isiah Thomas.

Thomas tells the story of how the Pistons were consistently able to contend for championships, despite not always having the best pool of talent.

Bill Simmons brilliantly outlines this theory in his encyclopedia-sized book titled The Book of Basketball.

The philosophy begins in the front office by building around one star player (Durant), two sidekicks who know their roles (Russell Westbrook & Jeff Green) and the rest of the team is filled out with high character role players (Serge Ibaka & Nick Collison).

It sounds simple, but to assemble a team of that caliber has league general managers and coaches playing part talent evaluator with a pinch of psychology.

That’s why it was so surprising to hear that Pat Riley wanted LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade all to take less money to play for the Miami Heat.

James and Wade are both basketball alpha males, which is inevitably why they won’t end up playing together.

“It’s hard not to be selfish. The art of winning is complicated by statistics, which for us becomes money,” Thomas says in the book The Franchise. “Well, you gotta fight that, find a way around it.”

The Secret, as Simmons notes, has made dynasties and tore apart potential ones.

“Year after year, at least one contender fell short for reasons that had nothing to do with basketball,” he writes. “And year after year the championship team prevailed because it got along with everyone committed themselves to their roles.”

This all leads us back to Durant. Him spending the week in Orlando with his team isn’t going to make or break the Thunder’s season, but it’s a strong statement from the NBA’s scoring champ about his commitment to winning.

“I think that’s the reason why we’ve gotten so much better as a team – we’re always together,” Durant told NBA TV during on Monday. “Chemistry is a big part of our success. That’s the reason why I think we’re going to keep growing as a team.”

It’s also the reason why Oklahoma City orchestrated such a big turnaround and nearly forced a game seven in the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.

The team’s young talent developing also played a role in turning the Thunder into a 50-win team this past season.

While OKC may be a few years away from making a push to the NBA Finals, Durant and his teammates have made it a priority to develop a bond that goes beyond basketball.

“So that’s the secret,” Thomas said to Simmons, “It’s not about basketball.”

So it really shouldn’t be surprising that Durant showed up to sit on the bench at the summer league.