[Bill Simmons Pod] Have the Thunder officially become villains?
Villains as in everyone and their moms probably hate them right now for a number of factors.
I don’t agree that they are necessarily leaning into it though. They’ve kept that AAU power of friendship vibe that they have had since when they were tanking.
Lu dort would like to have a conversation
He’s definitely leaning into it
Then falling backward without being touched
And kicking you in the nuts on the way down
leaning into it, stepping on it, falling on top of it, etc
Basically the power of friendship and Lu dort on his villainy
It’s not just the players that dictate the villain status. It doesn’t help their cause that Sam Presti is pulling a Greg-Abbott and trying to remove tanking as a viable option after using it for his own success, and Dagneault acting like Dort’s flagrant-2 on Jokic being outrageous, that also contribute to it
The Thunder missed the playoffs for two years and were never even the worst record in the NBA. They’re really low on the list of teams benefitting from tanking. If you don’t like the team, that’s fine, but don’t make shit up.
Spot on. Presti trying to keep the competitive advantage of having half the leagues picks whilst stopping any other team from accumulating picks. This after crying small market for the entirety of his time as OKC GM
It was confirmed that Presti said nothing - it was gambling companies pushing them to change the draft, you fell for a fake article from a jazz reporter. Congrats!
Presti 100% ran his mouth, just like he was running his mouth and crying and complaining about small markets until he accumulated half of the leagues picks. Fuck Presti
Delusion blinded by Hate and Jealousy of an actual successful franchise! Wouldn’t expect anything else from a Lakers fan :) I’m sure it’s y’all’s year again right?
Genuinely what are you guys on about, talking about grasping for straws
Re-read it
I think you need to reevaluate some things here, idk why you are trying to make a GM into a bad guy for trying to do the job to the best of his ability.
Everyone sees through that bullshit though. That AAU “power of friendship” doesn’t mean much when you’re not condemning the dirtiest player in the league who happens to be on your team and you’re #1 option is the leagues leading FT merchant/Flopper.
As far as villains go they are pretty tame. Humble superstar who stays out of the limelight. Dort is such a mild version of draymond. They built their team through the draft and smart trades. I think people are desperate to make them this hated Goliath like Miami with LeBron or Golden state but they just aren’t like that
And mind you, they just straight up out-smarted anyone and everyone gathering assets for the past decade. I can’t be mad at Presti for being too good at his job, he’s just embarrassing half the league constantly.
As players, they’re all pretty mild and humble, unless I’m missing something. No smoke here.
Dort is immensely unlikeable as a player, and Chet is weapons-grade cringe off the court. Other than that they all seem fine though.
Chet is amazing. How dare you diss his hilarious love of ox tail and durags.
Sure but like Draymond was just next level so comparing to that he’s pretty tame for a dirty player
I mean, they were very smart, but the CBA made their decisions even better after the fact.
This is only Dorts first form
Honestly, he had way dumber plays last year.
He shot a lot better last year too. Went from 40%+ the last 2 seasons to 34% from 3 this year. Although he’s over 40% from 3 on the road this year. For whatever that’s worth.
You’re underrating how their play is damaging competitive integrity. A defence based on the premise that if you foul most possessions the refs won’t call them all, and an offence based on flopping. It’s horrible to watch unless you’re an OKC fan. Chris Finch nailed it.
Just wow. Never ceases to amaze me how little some nba fans use their brain.
…but enough about the Thunder subreddit ;)
The thunder subreddit hasn’t been great lately but there are morons inside and out.
Did you really write okc has an offense based on flopping? Do you not see how ridiculous you sound?
Chris Finch saved the NBA by getting ejected in that first quarter in December or whenever it was. The OKC bullshit needed to be toned down quite a bit
It took all week for the Thunder Floppers to put together this stupid foul baiting dirty cheating flopping paragraph. You try to injure Wemby and now Jokic? Go back to r/ThunderFloppers.
Imagine thinking you had a chance at beating the Ethical Warriors win streak. Just because you stick out a leg on your jump shots doesn’t make you are great players.
Humble superstar? Humble foul baiting flopper who hides in the shadows scheming with Dirty Dort to take out the best players.
Dirty Dort kicks someone on his jumpshot, what do Thudner Flopper fans say and do? “Thunder Flopper fan: “LooK (drooling) LoOk… DoRt…..ELITE… agrghhh…… We betin WARioRS WIn STreAK”.
Thunder Flopper fans are the DUMBEST fans in the history of sports.
Being against tanking after building your roster through tanking is big pull the ladder up behind you energy
I actually don’t consider them hypocrites given their specific example. Utah was sitting their starters the entire 4th quarter. From what I remember, OKC never did that. I remember Toronto doing it and I think this is the type of tanking that should get punished first.
I think the fact that they’re motivated by wanting Utah to be good so they get their draft pick doesn’t help the optics.
Nah just fix the fucking NBA. Tanking and the teams who must tank to ever be competitive are not the problem with the league.
The unfair competitive advantage set up for a handful of teams is the real problem. Fix that. Otherwise we are all just watching WWE.
I still don’t understand this logic. Why is clearing out your roster and giving your fans nothing to watch the entire season more “ethical” than putting up 3 quarters of actual basketball every night?
One has the players on the court giving a shit.
They didnt need to sit players, they just pretended Poku was a player they believed in.
They tanked for 2 years and got their 3rd best player and a decent asset they traded for Caruso (which they probably could have gotten if they had picked 9th of 10th too). They specifically didn’t tank the year after they traded away their two best players, and stopped tanking after 2 years even though they only got the 10th seed. To compare them to what Utah has done now for years is crazy. Even Boston tanked for one year to get Marcus Smart.
Yeah what is he talking about lol.
The Thunder never finished bottom 3 during their rebuild, and it only lasted two years.
They only picked top 5 once.
Their entire rebuild was done through highly competent management, trades, signings and player development, not tanking.
Sure, but to play the devils advocate here, this is kind of a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” situation. Teams tank because they get rewarded for it. Players foul bait because they get rewarded for it. You can be against these things and still partake in them because if you’re not doing it someone else will.
The OKC tanked narrative is hilarious to me. Jazz literally sat their best in a game they could win. OKC traded out and reset its roster. These are not the same.
I agree these are not the same but how do you prevent that? Make a rule you have to play your best players in q4? Not sure that’s the answer but maybe there’s a way
It’s definitely something to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis because “best” is subjective to some degree.
I would say an independent probe should be made to evaluate all factors of the situation and make the distinction between cases like Horford and Jackson. As far as preventing it, I’m not sure.
Lauri sat in the 4th quarter in a game where he was on medically restricted minutes (load management) that they were winning handedly.
Stop being a fucking hypocrite. There is no such thing as an ethical tank. You got played by Utah and you won’t get a pick from then. GS did the exact same thing to Utah to build their dynasty. They tanked to get Barnes so the pick didn’t relegate to Utah. You know what Utah didn’t do? Go crying to the media and league. OKC is officially out of the small market club. They think they are LA or Boston so they can feel the wrath that those fan bases do.
No there’s no such thing as ethically tanking, but OKC didn’t tank. They reset their roster to rebuild, as soon as they got playoff viable they went with their roster.
The person who was sat in the 4th was Jackson, btw. Lauri was a much lesser factor when it came to the fine.
At least get your facts straight if you’re going to be “confident” lol
Edit:
Go crying to the media and league. OKC is officially out of the small market club. They think they are LA or Boston so they can feel the wrath that those fan bases do.
LMAO I only skimmed this and caught up to this unhinged dipshittery. I don’t give a shit about the Jazz tanking. it’s just funny how many people get bent out of shape at the OKC FO being demonstrably better than their own team’s. We rebuilt well, and you have to rely on throwing games.
If anyone’s crying it’s you. You sound insane.
I think there’s a difference when it’s to maximize your draft vs screw another team on a pick protection.
You cannot blame the jazz at all but I think there is some element of honor in a business agreement that was done in good faith.
Also to be fair, OKC has missed out on I think it’s like 5 lottery picks because the teams all tanked and the lottery never punished them. I think it’s been like 9 tries for 5 picks and they went 0/9 on lottery pulls.
Rockets tanked and won the lottery every time. Jazz tanked to keep their pick and succeeded every time. Sixers just tanked and surprise won the lottery. There’s a world where OKC has 5 more top 10 draft picks on the team right now.
What’s the evidence that the Jazz are doing anything but trying to maximize their own draft? They don’t care about screwing OKC they’re trying to keep their own pick
And maybe OKC should have made better trades with more favorable protections if those picks conveying is a concern
The fact that they haven’t tried to win in like 8 years.
I think we can all agree that the spirit of these trades wasn’t to set a floor on a team’s tank.
Utah is just doing the same thing OKC did to build their dynasty. Thunder fans need to stop being hypocrites.
OKC made the play-in when they were close to the play-in.
To be fair they did acquire first round draft picks from like 47 different teams, and they got SGA through the PG trade. It’s not like they just tanked, got a super star and turned the entire team around.
Thats on you for expecting anyone in professional sports to have any morals beside “win at all costs”
lol fair I guess
Villains in a “Don Fanucci” type of way, not Vito Corleone type of way
This comment insists upon itself
ROBERT DUUUVALLLLL
I love the smell of foul baiting in the morning!
We just want to wet our beaks
They were villains last year, the actual fuck are we talking about
This isn’t some new phenomenon
Yeah the entire country outside of okc was rooting for the pacers lol. Damn Hali injury
Respectfully I disagree
Maybe this is online fans. Most people i knew were indifferent about that series
Cap. The whole of NYC was not rooting for the pacers.
Hali’s injury wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. But, we wanted him to play so people that didn’t watch them without him wouldn’t say things like this. They have the depth to do it on their own.
I mean they weren’t really villains until the Finals and even then there was a lot of respect, even if people thought they had a soft whistle. There were a lot of things in the moment like Caruso fouling the fuck outta Jokic, that was praised as “what an incredible defensive adjustment,” which now people will criticize. It wasn’t until this season that people really started treating them like villains
The secret to being a hot take artist is taking cold takes and pretending they’re hot.
That way you get the engagement but you never say anything too controversial.
They got what wrasslin fans like to call “go away heat”
X-Pac Heat was the old term, right?
Yessir lmao
Dort has Ryback levels of heat rn lol
he called him “the OKC coach”.
Yeah I’d say so.
I’m with ya bro 💚
If the Thunder are suppose to be an example in the modern NBA of what it means to be the villain than the league is even more soft than I’ve ever thought it had became.
Has bill Simmons regressed?
Is Bill having the opposite of a moment?
Past his apex mountain?
He’s a lot like Shannen Doherty in Scream these days.
Dunno about regressed but Bill Simmons is definitely bloated.
This isnt some revelation, its been established
How do you deal with rooting for a guy like Dort? A real piece of shit trying to hurt people.
By having watched Dort more than the non thunder fans, we know how he plays- and that can be reckless and physical but not intentional trying to injure players.
He covered topics other than Celtics? Turned it off after minute 30 of Queta talk
lmao he’s a Boston guy, why were you expecting him to move past that on his own show?
Bills homerism has gotten worse of the past few years, it just has.
Probably because he’s watching less non-Celtics games. He still needs to pod 3x per week. So naturally more Boston talk.
Feel like I need some non-Knick fans to corroborate this.
Check out /r/billsimmons
Bunch of miserable human beings on there
No it hasn’t - go back and read any of his old ESPN articles from 20 years ago. They’re all dripping with Boston homer-ism. It’s just who he is.
A while back I tuned into one of his podcasts where he was covering either top young cores or top contenders by tier. Just wanted to see where he ranked the Pistons and I swear he didn’t even cover them because he spent 15 minutes on the Celtics then for every team after he spent half their time talking about the Celtics and tying it back to them somehow. I fast forwarded and rewinded many times and never found it. I like the guy but it’s outta control now.
Boston is also having an unexpectedly awesome season and they have a TON of fun storylines to talk about. Honestly most seasons I feel like he overdose it with the Boston homer stuff but its very justified this year. Hell I feel like aside from the weird Jaylen Brown mvp push I dont hear much about Boston from the non ringer national media guys.
I have no problem with it.
I want a guy who is actually passionate about basketball. I can’t ask a guy to do that and then say “But you aren’t allowed to have a favorite team or any bias.”
He covers non-Celtics topics all the goddamn time wtf are you talking about
Were terrorists against ethical basketball
Now that the Thunder are done rebuilding . Now tanking is unethical lololol. Thunder fans you all deserve everything you and your franchise gets.
Yall keep trying these death by 1000 criticisms tactics but cant handle any facts based on the topics themselves. Its adorable.
There is no such thing as an “unethical” tank. The league has a competitive advantage set up for a handful of teams. Utah certainly isn’t one of those teams and the only way they can ever become a dynasty is through drafting generational talent. When the deck is stacked that heavily against you constantly there is no such thing as tanking “unethically” that’s just some bullshit that lil bitch Presti puts out in the media because he wants Utah’s pick. It’s hypocritical and that karma is coming for your franchise. SGA going to have a DRose injury.
Y’all are deranged
Nah. They’ve built that team the right way.
The warriors from 10 years ago were villains.
Bc Warriors didn’t built their team the right way?
If yall didnt just pick up KD yall would’ve been loved for generations. Then Kd and Draymond turned heel and soured the image people had of them.
I don’t remember us being loved after that 3-1 finals loss and we didn’t have KD.
No you guys were hated by very specific fans who didnt want you to break the record due to MJ and bulls love. Alot of people were still very fond of yall. I genuinely liked watching curry back then but your playstyle changed the league literally same way OKCs defense is doing that today. Not everyone wants to see it but the hate became real after KD.
People hate the Warriors more for Draymond and KD. Which are both perfectly valid reasons.
KD
I mean, a guy who commits war crimes and a guy who mugs people are both villains, one just happens to be several magnitudes worse than the other.
And the warriors didn’t? Those warriors teams were far more homegrown than the cavs but everyone wanted the cavs to win
I’m sure people would’ve felt the same way about the cavs if they had added the 2nd best player in the league on top of their core
Meh it’s the natural state of things. They’re beloved, then hated, then as they fade seen fondly by some. Wash rinse repeat. Every competitive team goes through this
You either die a loser, or you win enough to see yourself become the villain
Found the millennial
Is water wet?
Nope, it isn’t.
That’s funny. Ngl, villains are good for the league. Makes for more storylines and viewership. More people are tuned in to thunder games in hopes that they lose $$$$
Dort hip checked piggyback man and now the Thunder are villains!
He also stuck his foot out to trip him on a dead ball, let’s be honest
They’re “Villains” because they won a championship, SGA won MVP over everyone’s golden boy and well…. Dort.
Everyone loved the Thunder when their success was theoretical.
The 65 games rules only mattered when it came to one player, and now the Thunder are villains just because of that same player,(despite the fact that that player is as dirty as Dort and as floppy as SGA), same for Embiid a few years back, everything comes down to one player
Have some Balls and just say you think its because of a White Jokic bias lol
Oh I don’t think it has anything to do with being white, Luka is white and his PR is terrible
Yes, obviously.
I’m convinced this entire segment was a plan to get posted to reddit to farm comments for laughs.
It’s all part of the plan. OKC become the villains and the hero (Hector Banana Bread) vanquishes them to become the face of the league.
We literally saw fist fights this season and dort was the dirtiest play this season? Yeah nahh not biased at all.
They’re villains with “go away heat” imo. I don’t want to watch them play basketball and I don’t think I’m alone.
You literally have the option of not watching them play basketball… whos torturing you?
no one has ever forced you to watch a thunder game💀
You can choose to not watch us, it’s easy
Dort should be suspended and any teammate or coach defending him is a defacto villain.
Why can’t people understand that not everyone in the NBA is like Doc Rivers. Throwing teammates under the bus is not thr norm no matter how shitty they are. Even Greg Popovich defended Bowen.
They’ve been villians if you frequent the NBA reddit.
Their commercials have been pretty annoying. Hoping for something better these playoffs.
I think GSW of the KD era had waaay more of a villains vibe than the kids in Oklahoma, that’s just a Gen Z team that literally don’t give a fuck about the millennials they’re up against, the boomer media personalities don’t even factor.
Yall still listen to bill simmons?
Can I filter my r/nba feed to exclude anything with Bill Simmons in the title.
Dude is insufferable
They’re not villains because they have interesting personalities. They are villains because their play style sucks to watch.
Can we focus on the real important thing here and how fire Lowe’s Prince themed Wolves hoody is?
I need that hoodie Zach has
Yes, but they always have been because of the original sin from stealing a team. How they play just makes it worse.
I guess NBA is now so bad they have to make up villain roles just to get people talking.
Why does bill look like hes wearing a mask of his own face?
If you live in the PNW, they’ve always been villains.
His cheeks are getting bigger
I just hate their jerseys/team colors :/
This is their third season being the villains. Its been this way since they were matched up against the NBA’s golden boy Luka in the playoffs, and then the modern manufactured “GOAT” in Jokic. The NBA has spent 5+ years worth of resources in promoting those two with the NBA’s European push so of course fans would be upset when a nobody like Shai comes out of nowhere and starts dominating them on a small market team.
Not villains, just annoying whinging bitches
I don’t think they’re villains to anyone in the East outside Indiana honestly.
It’s the natural progression of things
What Dort did was inexcusable, but Draymond has the dirtiest player in the league belt and has for about a decade. Put some disrespect on his name.
If okc are villains they’re the softest term of villain ever lol
The Heatles, kd warriors, those were actual villain teams in the league
I feel that OKC doesn’t have a personality to them. Or maybe we just don’t know enough about them. Like we get the talent but they are kinda bland-ish
Some of these opinions are kinda funny. The Thunder are either super corny because of the group antics and close-knit culture or bland with zero personality.
I think as individuals, sure they are pretty corny, but as a team they are talented and hardworking but it’s hard to distinguish a team identity that would warrant a name to give them. Maybe I’m off base but maybe the media doesn’t cover enough of them.
I think that goes for any team outside of LA if you’re not a local.
Baksetball fans are the funniest sheep to observe. It’s like going to a zoo every time I come to Reddit.
This is really forcing some narratives, but I understand that podcasts need things to talk about and rank. By far, the average thunder game is unremarkable aside from the fact that we win by double digit points. And therein lies the real gripe. When it comes down to it, every team that is on top become a villain. For whatever the popular reason is at the time. people wouldn’t care if they weren’t winning most of their games. So I suppose the answer to Bill‘s question is yes. We are both on top and we skipped a bunch of other would be contenders. It rubs people were the wrong way.
People always become nostalgic for the villains after their run is over, even if it’s just because “they were fun or proper villains.”
Last guy in NBA media to realize it
Every team that has ever been great for multiple years become villains. Unless you’re a fan of them.
We welcome it if that’s the case, but we were built the right way
Right now I guess so, but if they don’t win another chip this year people will probably stop caring about them as much.
Foul baiting isn’t unique to Shai. Dort isn’t outspoken enough to become like Draymond
Any comments from the Dirty Thunder Flopper fans? You just flop and foul bait on offence and try to injure players on defence? You think that makes you special? You think that makes you some great team?
You honestly thought you could beat the ethical Warriors streak? Wemby and the Spurs stopped you. Then you decided that ALL five starters were “injured” when you matched up against Wemby again.
Thunder Flopper fans are the dumbest fans in the history of all sports and their team are just dirty cheaters.
Last year and Y
Yes
We’ve always been a villain according to Bill Simmons. Even when we sucked in the early days
I gotta get me that hoodie
I mean atleast his basketball takes are better Than his football ones (not a high bar to clear) wonder if he still thinks Henderson is Gibbs on steroids
villains as in villains towards tv ratings, who tf wants to watch sga for 4 quarters and maybe extra
I mean when you have someone who’s notorious for doing slick shit, what do you expect?
I wonder if I comment something random not related to the post if the Thunder fans will still come in and downvote me?
poor you 😭
I’ll upvote you so you can escape the evil villain thunder fans
Finally??
They absolutely are, and have been for a while. They aren’t fun to watch and Dort’s annoying as fuck.
And the last horse crosses the finish line
Just? Lmao they have been for a min.
Im not sure if they are at villain status yet. But having a foul chaser in SGA and a certified fake goon in Dort doesn’t help.
lol is Bill keeping up with the league? We were villains last season. But we are NOT trying to embrace it at all.
Dort is a dick and Mark is gonna stick up for him because that’s his leadership style. I don’t think and if it is an intentional effort for media and fans to hate us, they already do and have for over a year.
Power of villainy is all that sustains the Thunder right now, somehow they went from lovable underdogs to a walking embodiment of a Karen
They always have been
I disagree the title “villains of the league” because if you watch OKC they are all about having fun and supporting each other! Bill simmons probably hasn’t seen more than 5 full OKC games this year.
Not even close, its the Pistons that should be labeled that.
Well Dort certainly is helping this case.
Why is Zach talking about a “hit”?
I don’t like watching them play! Also don’t like the Brunson Knicks. I’ll flip the channel and root against them always!
“It was clearly, ‘I’m going out of my way to hit you..’”
right on your recently-injured left knee.
“I think villains are great for the NBA.” Fuck off you apologist for dirty players.
Dort didn’t get a flagrant for undercutting Morant.
Dort didn’t get suspended for trying to injure the 3X MVP.
Dort didn’t get suspended for injuring Paul George, or trying to injure Luka or KD.
You see, Loogey Dirt has few flagrants and no suspensions so he must not be a dirty player!
Villains are good! …says the podcast clown.
You want him to get a flagrant for slipping on a fast break and accidentally undercutting a guy that was trying to jump over the top of him? You want him suspended for trying to get a rebound…? Goddamn you have a raging illogical hate boner dude, go outside.
The Thunder have likeable players on their team. But Dort and some of the Thunder fans make the Thunder quite unlikable. Granted how a particular fanbase act is no fault of the team and they can’t control how toxic some of their fans act.
Hitler: “They just badmouth us because we won the war against Poland and France.”
SGA is a bitch. It’s not even basketball when he plays.
Dort is a bitch. It’s not even basketball when he plays.
You’re a bitch
did you enjoy watching Luka play?