The Warriors Were Upset That The Thunder Didn't Go Out Of Their Way To Fluff Kevin Durant's Pillow Before His Return To OKC

​ESPN-

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I guess my main question here is what makes an entity a villain? Is it merely the fact that they are easy to despise, or do they have to actually have an evil, malicious quality to them? 

If it's the former then the Golden State Warriors are actually the best villains because the fact that they suck so goddamn bad at playing the villain makes them exponentially more unlikable. Imagine if the Joker's role in 'Batman' wasn't to be a psychopath who embraced anarchy, but instead to be an upstanding, church-going citizen that was a strong adversary to vigilante justice and considered having three beers at dinner to be an unforgivable act of rebellion. That's what the preeminent "superteam" is to the dramatic action movie that is this NBA season. A bunch of morality police sitting atop their high horses acting like they didn't bring this backlash upon themselves. Perhaps it's easier for me to say this as someone that thinks organized religion is a crock of shit, but being holier than thou without justification is easily just as infuriating as having no conscience whatsoever and I think the Warriors are somehow both. 

What are we even talking about here? Furious? Bewildered? I suppose those emotions fall in line with what I would expect from a team that asked us to say hello to the bad guy by throwing a children's party for themselves, but that doesn't make it any less ridiculous. Imagine unexpectedly breaking up with someone and then being offended that said person didn't dedicate an Instagram collage to all your good times together while they were still trying to recover and you were already happily engaged. That's basically what the Warriors are asking of the Thunder. The Oklahoma City fanbase is a scorned lover, and the initial face-to-face interactions that scorned lovers have with those that scorned them have never been - and will never be - welcoming. A professional basketball team that has gone to back-to-back finals was upset about walking into a hostile environment? Guess they have never had to stare at an ex from across their favorite bar, because if they did then they would know that a loud chorus of boos and tens of thousands of cupcake references are on the low end of unsettling. 

One day the Thunder fans will appreciate Kevin Durant for what he brought to their team and their city, but that day is not the first, second, third, fourth, or tenth time they run into each other in a competitive, emotional environment. His credit will eventually be due, but it won't be because his new team bitched and moaned for him to get it.