Sounds of Thunder: NBA Playoffs, tis the season to be trolling...

Maybe it’s my age, or maybe it’s the way I was brought up, but I don’t get internet trolling.

I don’t understand where the thrill comes from, hiding behind a keyboard and upsetting complete strangers. The last time I checked, games were still decided on the court and not by impudent blowhards ranting on the internet, so what exactly is the point? I honestly see more value in the ridiculous sport of cow chip throwing than the time wasted by trolls.

Webster’s definition of internet trolling:

4. a : to antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content.

b : to act as a troll on (a forum, site, etc.)

I told myself going into this playoff season that I was going to avoid the trolls in the comment section at Welcome to Loud City at all cost, but unfortunately, and again, maybe it’s my age showing, I forgot. Right on cue, the site is overrun with flame-baiters, haters, and the passive-aggressive know-it-all trolls, or PATs as I call them.

PATs are the worst. They watch all the tabloid sportscasters occasional rants on ESPN and FoxSports and thus know more than those that have followed a team on a daily basis for years. Invariably, one of the Rocket PATs brought up the tired narrative of the long-past James Harden trade and claimed unequivocally that the Thunder gave away multiple championships when they traded the Bearded One:

basketballreference.com

Not sure how, when all of Harden’s shooting numbers went down while his turnovers went up after going to Houston and could no longer hide behind Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. In fact, it was 2015 before Harden got his play-off shooting legs back under him and that was the year Durant was out. Sorry troll, not happening.

I suppose someone would have to be old enough to own a home and making hard budget decisions of real consequence to understand why the Thunder were forced to part with Harden before George Kaiser’s billions joined the Thunder ownership group 7 months later, but either way a championship sure wasn’t in the cards in 2013 when Westbrook went down after Patrick Beverley butchered Russ’ meniscus, an incident the Rocket PATs have conveniently spun to their liking.

They say it was an “unfortunate” accident, I say it was a dirty cheap shot. Let’s go to the video and see who is right:

By his own admission, Beverley knew the Thunder were going to call timeout, both times:

Here’s where the “unfortunate” crashes and burns. I assume that Patrick Beverly has played this game long enough to know that once the whistle blows, play stops, so if he was trying to “steal the ball” before the time-out, why did he wait almost a full second AFTER the whistle blew to go for said ball in the initial incident and well over a second after before acting in the second? Further, when the whistle blew, why is there no attempt by Beverley to pull back or indication he was trying to stop himself?

That is “if” the ball was in fact Beverley’s target.

As difficult as it was at the time of the injury, I tried to give Beverley the benefit of the doubt, but the incident that followed in March left him no out. In Beverley’s second “unfortunate” encounter with Westbrook, he waited longer to make his move AND deliberately kicked the leg he himself had injured. Why kick Westbrook’s leg anyway? To steal the ball? smh

Well.... that’s what Rocket Trolls will tell you.

For me, the most damning piece of evidence against Beverley are the delays, especially since Beverley knew the whistle was coming. If Beverley wanted to steal the ball before the whistle blew, then why not go for the ball BEFORE the whistle? Why wait a full second until Russell is relaxing, standing up straight, and at his most vulnerable before attacking? Still want to stick by that stealing the ball BS? Meh! The whistle had blown long before he made his move, the ball couldn’t be stolen at that point and he had more than ample time to back off. Beverly wanted the knee and he got it. Twice.

Old Bev is not unlike the trolls invading Welcome to Loud City that claim to be here for sincere conversation and to cheer on their team when all they are really doing is sticking their nose where it isn’t wanted and making trouble.

Tell it to the dog troll...