Chet: “Some teams that aren’t as good, guys get to the point where they’re like, ‘We’re not winning. OK, I’m gonna just make sure I get my averages.’ I get my averages, but it’s not helping us win. But I got my averages, so now the blame goes on everybody else. That’s one fucked up message.”
As much as the Thunder have zeroed in on an on-court style — playing defense is a requirement in Oklahoma City, as is thriving inside an offense overridden with quick decision-making, screening and cutting — the team has bound itself to a personality profile.
Team over ego. Team over All-NBA. Team over scoring titles. Team over MVPs. Team over All-Star appearances.
No matter what the devil on the shoulder argues.
“The ego in me is like, I can accomplish those things,” Holmgren said. “But at the end of the day, I can’t let my ego get in the way and try to rush it to the point where it’s detrimental to where we are now. … I feel like it’s very shortsighted to chase the wrong things, and then you end up miserable, because it’s like, ‘Well, f—, now everything else that was going great is all f—-d up because I chased this.’
“The other thing that’s f—-d up, too, is some teams that aren’t as good, some guys get to the point where they’re like, ‘We’re not winning. OK, I’m gonna just make sure I get my averages.’ So, it’s like, I get my averages, but it’s not helping us win. But I got my averages, so now the blame goes on everybody else. That’s one f—-d up message.”