NBA Playoffs 2011: The Oklahoma City Thunder Losing Was the Best Thing for Them

The paradox of success is necessary failure.

For the Oklahoma City Thunder, that necessary failure happened last night. Losing to the Mavericks 100-96—the Thunder lost the series, 4-1.

But not all is lost.

The Thunder is going through the normal trials and tribulations that all great teams go through prior to winning a championship.

Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls had to beat the Detroit Pistons in order to win their first title, along with several other great teams in the history of the NBA.

If the Miami Heat goes on to win the NBA championship, they will look back and say they had to beat the Celtics in order to do so, even though they beat the Celtics in the second round.

Oklahoma City does not need to be discouraged about this past season. It was a great season for them going 55-27 and earning the fourth seed in the West.

Even though the “young” teams were beating the veteran teams this year, it still wasn’t their time to win. They needed to get this close and fail. Learn how hard it is to get there and continue to strive to get better.

Get better as a team and as individuals.

Kevin Durant needs to learn that he is the best player on this team and needs to start acting like it. That’s what Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant did and they have 11 rings between them.

In Jordan’s Hall of Fame speech he told a story about how an assistant coach blasted him after a game for being selfish saying, “There’s no "I" in team.” Michael’s response: “There’s an "I" in win. So which way do you want it?”

Durant needs to learn when to take up this philosophy. Most of the game, he does great and is the ultimate team player. Which could easily be the reason why the Thunder was up late in so many games in the Western Conference Finals.

Because he didn’t take over the game, the way Michael and Kobe did, Dirk Nowitzki did take over the game, like Jordan and Bryant, and won the series.

I don’t blame Russell Westbrook, like so many ESPN analysts do, I think he was taking the shots because Durant didn’t take the shots himself.

If you were to say, “But he took the last shots of the closing seconds in both Games 4 and 5,” You would be right. But I’m not talking about the last seconds, I’m talking about the last five minutes of the game.

Also, if you remember, those shots were terrible shots forced up from around 30 feet with a defender in his face. Hopefully Durant learned that if he is ever going to make a last-second shot he needs to get a better look than that.

Nike released a commercial featuring Michael Jordan narrating that he has missed 9,000 shots in his career, lost 300 games and missed 26 game-winning shots. Jordan concluded, “I’ve failed over, and over, and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”

The Thunder may have failed this year, but that is why they will succeed in the years to come.