Tramel's ScissorTales: What if Kevin Durant doesn't know what he wants?

Kevin Durant’s reputation continues to take a hit. 

The Athletic reported that Durant issued an ultimatum to Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai: trade Durant or get rid of general manager Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash.

Tsai resorted to the same path that Durant used to promote his wishes: the public marketplace.

“Our front office and coaching staff have my support,” Tsai tweeted. “We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”

Durant chose the Nets in free agency during summer 2019, then re-signed with Brooklyn on June 30, 2021, a four-year contract extension that kicks in this coming season and guarantees Durant $194 million.

But Durant’s discontent, which eventually surfaced after eight Thunder seasons and three Warrior seasons, has done the same in Brooklyn. Five weeks ago, Durant requested a trade from the Nets.

His restlessness, his failure to find a haven, is becoming the norm.

More:OKC Thunder 2022-23 depth chart projection: Who starts? Who sits? What about Poku?

In OKC, Durant had a franchise (and an entire state) that was devoted to him. He didn’t want it. Which is fine. Lots of NBA stars would have taken the opportunity to move on.

In Oakland, Durant had a superteam in which he didn’t have to shoulder the responsibility of leadership. He grew weary of that. Which is fine. Lots of NBA stars move around.

In Brooklyn, Durant had a franchise made in his likeness. He and Kyrie Irving had inordinate say in the roster makeup and the coaching, on the latter preferring fellow superstar Steve Nash to the successful Kenny Atkinson.

But now Durant wants out of Brooklyn, and nobody much believes it’s fine.

Durant’s act has gotten old and fast. This-porridge-is-too-hot, this-porridge-is-too-cold, this-porridge-stinks-too doesn’t fly in nursery rhymes or real life.

Durant has the sidekick he chose in Irving. Durant has the fallouts from the trades and signings he wanted, from James Harden to DeAndre Jordan. Durant has the coach he wanted.

Now Durant wants something else.

Irving famously said he and Durant would help run the franchise. Irving was castigated for such imprudence, but it was the truth. The Netropolitans have capitulated to Durant and Irving.

NBA franchises often have to massage such superstars.

Thunder mailbag: Can OKC make the NBA play-in tournament next season in loaded West?

The Thunder did it to a certain degree with Durant and Russell Westbrook, but not to the degree the Nets have with Durant and Irving.

When Durant was a Warrior, he occasionally ripped the Thunder’s roster-building from his days in OKC, as a retort to criticism.

But now Durant is a Net, without Jarrett Allen and Caris Lavert and Spencer Dinwiddie, jettisoned in the name of keeping Durant and Irving appeased. In the process, Brooklyn mortgaged its draft future.

Now Durant wants out. Oh brother.

Perhaps Brooklyn is through capitulating. Perhaps Tsai is ready to play hardball with two superstars who never seem happy.

Durant has become the NBA’s troubled soul. The man without a country. Rudderless.

Think of it this way. Durant remains a wonderful player. Among the league’s best. Maybe the best.

But that’s no longer the Durant narrative. The Durant story is his discontentedness, no matter the circumstances, no matter if he himself created the circumstances for Brooklyn’s lack of success.

Durant always has said he just likes to play basketball, and I tend to think he’s shooting straight on that. But he’s either listening to the wrong voices or it’s time we realized a simple truth.

Kevin Durant doesn’t know what he wants.

More:OKC Blue, NBA G League affiliate of Thunder, to remain at Paycom Center for 2022-23 season

Mailbag: Cale Gundy

The Cale Gundy news that broke Sunday night has readers asking all kinds of questions.

Gary: “I was sad to hear about the resignation of Cale Gundy. It was a shocking development, but one where I could see problems in the future in regards to other schools using the incident during recruiting.”

Tramel: And now we come to the crux of the matter.

Gundy was forced to resign after reading “multiple” racial slurs directly from a player’s iPad. Was OU’s decision to part ways with Gundy based on principle or pragmatism or a combination of both?

Is anyone on staff — or in the entire university — headed for the same outcome given the same actions, regardless of how it affects their job performance? Or did Gundy’s actions impede his ability to do his job – harm his recruiting, for example.

See the difference? I’m writing about this later, but it’s an important distinction. What Gundy did was wrong, but we should seek to understand why it was wrong, and what steps are needed going forward.

Did Gundy lose his job became he no longer could effectively do that job, or did he lose his job as a form of public shaming?

I’ll be writing about this for the Wednesday Oklahoman.

Carlson: Cale Gundy's resignation wasn't a leap. It was a necessary step for OU football.

How Chuck Bowman’s career changed

Chuck Bowman had left coaching and was in a new career. Bowman was so excited about working for the Hill Companies, he met with his old pal Billy Krisher in hopes of recruiting Krisher to join the company.

Sure enough, some recruiting ensued. But the other direction. And Oklahoma history was changed.

Bowman, the longtime director of the Oklahoma Fellowship of Christian Athletes, will be inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on Monday night. Bowman turned FCA into a major force in Oklahoma, impacting the lives of young athletes for decades. Even in retirement, Bowman remains instrumental in FCA, organizing events for retired and sometimes-forgotten coaches.

And it all might never have happened, without that Krisher lunch. We continue our series on Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame inductees by looking at a most important breakfast about 50 years ago.

Bowman and Krisher were OU football teammates in the 1950s. Bowman, beset by injuries, never played much as a Sooner. Krisher was a star lineman who went on to play three years in the National Football League.

Bowman went into coaching, first at Tulsa Central, then at Northeastern A&M Junior College, where he spent five years as head coach, with a record of 41-8 and two national JUCO championships.

But in 1972, Bowman was enticed to the Dallas-based Hill Companies; owner Tom Hill wanted Bowman to inspire employees the way Bowman inspired football players.

More:Five things to know about OU football's interim wide receivers coach, L'Damian Washington

Bowman tripled his salary. He had a company Cadillac, complete with a car phone (in 1972!).

Bowman wanted Krisher on board. Krisher was a regional FCA director. Bowman himself had been heavily involved with FCA. He was first exposed to the organization as a Sooner in 1956, when Wilkinson brought in the likes of Otto Graham, Pepper Martin and Doak Walker as speakers. Bowman was so enthused, he attended the FCA’s first camp, at Estes Park, Colorado, that year.

As a Tulsa Central coach, Bowman would drive all over Greater Tulsa, picking up kids for FCA. The organization was a strong part of his NEO program.

But with Krisher, Bowman wanted to pluck from FCA. Instead, FCA plucked Bowman.

According to Bowman’s biography, Godly Influence On and Off the Field, Krisher stunned Bowman when he said, “Chuck, I have been talking to some men in Oklahoma, and they asked me if you would come home and head up FCA there.”

Bowman’s wife, Betty, encouraged her husband to look into the job, and a few days later, Bowman drove to Oklahoma City and met with a group of OKC businessmen, led by Jim Daniel, president of Friendly National Bank. The group agreed to raise money to fund a full-time Oklahoma staff member for FCA.

Two months later, the Bowmans moved to Edmond, and Oklahoma’s FCA took off.

These days, Oklahoma FCA has more than a dozen staff members and a robust budget and reaches every corner of the state. Bowman’s name is synonymous with FCA, and he’s headed to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.

More:Why Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy feels Dominic Richardson can 'give us 18 carries a game'

Kirkland sees hope at Southwestern

Josh Kirkland had a job. Head football coach at New Mexico Highlands, an NCAA Division II school that is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Kirkland traded in that job for another, Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford.

Kirkland’s New Mexico Highlands team went 5-6 last season. He’s taking over a Southwestern State program that went 0-11 last season.

We continue our series of state-college football previews by checking in on Southwestern State. What made Kirkland jump jobs?

“Weatherford was a big part of it,” Kirkland said. “I grew up in West Texas. I knew a lot about this area, the people here, that was really intriguing to us.

“The tradition that Southwestern’s had, maybe not in the recent past, has always been good. Being a Texas guy, I knew a lot of kids here. The ability to recruit Texas and OK made me really interested in it.”

Kirkland grew up in Levelland, 30 miles straight west of Lubbock, and in 2010 graduated from West Texas A&M in Canyon, 15 miles south of Amarillo. He went into high school coaching, then jumped into the college game by joining the staff at Incarnate Word in 2019. A year later, he was head coach at New Mexico Highlands.

Kirkland has implemented an uptempo, Art Briles-style offense. South Alabama transfer quarterback Tylan Morton (Griffin, Georgia) “had a great spring,” Kirkland said.

New Mexico Highlands transfers Austin Herring (New Orleans), an offensive lineman, and Israel Watson (Kansas City, Kansas), a wide receiver, also figure to help immediately.

“Our kids did a great job of buying in,” Kirkland said. “We had to go in and recruit some kids that (are) … going to come and help us.

“We had some kids on the (Southwestern) team that could play. From the day I got here, they were hungry. We have worked our butts off.”

Kirkland knows it’s a tough assignment. SWOSU went 3-8 three straight seasons, 2017-19, before the pandemic hit. Then the winless season of 2021. That’s a 9-35 record since 2016.

For their trouble, the Bulldogs open the season on the road, against Great American Conference powerhouse Henderson State.

“Henderson State’s a heck of a football team,” Kirkland said. “The biggest thing is, those kids have been used to winning and know how to win. That’s a trait you have to practice and learn.”

2022 Southwestern football schedule

Sept. 1 at Henderson State 7 p.m.

Sept. 10 Southern Arkansas 6 p.m.

Sept. 17 Southeastern Oklahoma State 6 p.m.

Sept. 24 at Oklahoma Baptist 6 p.m.

Oct. 1 Arkansas-Monticello 2 p.m.

Oct. 8 at Ouachita Baptist noon

Oct. 15 Southern Nazarene 5:30 p.m.

Oct. 22 at East Central 2 p.m.

Oct. 29 at Arkansas Tech 2 p.m.

Nov. 5 Harding 2 p.m.

Nov. 12 Northwestern Oklahoma State 3 p.m.

More:Filling linebacker void key since Oklahoma State is 'not gonna replace' Malcolm Rodriguez

The List: OU passing record progression

Gundy’s resignation Sunday after 23½ years as an OU assistant coach ends a remarkable Sooner career. Gundy has played or coached OU in 27 of the last 32 football years.

Gundy’s coaching legacy became so impressive, it overshadowed a remarkable playing career. Gundy was a pioneer OU quarterback; he ushered in the Sooner passing era, seven years before Mike Leach’s Air Raid arrive.

Gundy was a 3½-year starter, 1990-93, and in 1992 set the OU career passing yards record, which was broken eight years later by Josh Heupel.

It got me to thinking. Who has held the OU career record for passing yards the longest?

The OU yardage history goes back to 1937. Before that, statistical information is sketchy. Here’s the list:

1. Bobby Warmack, 25 years: Warmack threw for 3,734 yards from 1966-68 and in 1967 bested Claude Arnold’s record of 1,593. Warmack’s record stood until Gundy. The wishbone era sort of stymied the record progression.

2. Claude Arnold, 18 years: Arnold was a one-year starter, 1950, but had a huge season, throwing for 1,048 yards in leading OU to the national championship. Arnold broke the record set by Jack Jacobs in 1941.

3. Landry Jones, 10 years & counting: Jones’ record of 16,646 likely will stand for awhile. To break the record, a QB would need four seasons averaging 4,162 yards a year. OU has had six 4,000-yard passing seasons in its history. Jones has three of them.

4. Jack Jacobs, nine years: The great Jacobs threw for 1,379 yards from 1939-41, breaking McCullough’s record of 837 set in 1938.

5. Cale Gundy, eight years: Gundy broke Warmack’s record in 1992, Gundy’s junior season. Gundy finished with 6,686 yards, which stood until Heupel’s Air Raid.

6. Jason White, five years: White threw for 7,922 yards from 1999-04, with most of that production coming in 2003 and 2004, when he finished first and third in Heisman Trophy voting. He was bested by Sam Bradford in 2009.

7. Josh Heupel, four years: Heupel threw for 7,456 yards in two seasons, 1999-2000.

8. Hugh McCullough, three years: McCullough threw for 837 yards in 1937-38 (might be more; some of McCullough’s totals could be lost in history).

9. Sam Bradford, two years: Bradford threw for 8,403 yards from 2007-09; he broke White’s record in his shortened final season. Then Bradford’s record was broken by his successor, Jones.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Does Kevin Durant know what he wants from NBA team, Brooklyn Nets?