Stiles Points: Ring Night Should Focus on OKC Thunder, Not Kevin Durant Subplot

The NBA made a smart move on multiple levels, tabbing the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder as the league's first game of the season.

Oklahoma City was granted the right to open up the NBA's 2025-26 campaign via its NBA Finals win over the Indiana Pacers. Oct. 21 will represent ring night in Bricktown as the Thunder dish out jewelry to members of its championship squad and drop down an NBA Championship banner for the first time in franchise history.

On the other side? The Houston Rockets and Kevin Durant.

While this can be shoved aside as just a basketball decision with two of the best teams in the West facing off, like it or not, the storylines run deeper than that.

Durant was the first love of Oklahoma City. He put the city on the map with his play on the hardwood, a beloved franchise icon up until July 4, 2016. After taking the Thunder to its first NBA Finals appearance and multiple Conference Finals trips, Durant skipped town for the Bay Area via free agency just weeks after blowing a 3-1 lead to those Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

That fractured the relationship with Durant and OKC and harmed the NBA legend's legacy. He turned into somewhat of a journeyman now suiting up for his fifth team in his all-time great career.

Each return trip for Durant to Oklahoma City was met with a chorus of boos that has hardly waned in intensity since his first appearance back in the Paycom Center as a visitor, even all these years later. A stark contrast to Russell Westbrook, who was given a standing ovation as a visitor every trip to Oklahoma City, even in the 2025 postseason.

Now, he has to watch superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company prance around with rings and stare up at a banner that eluded Durant during his Thunder tenure. A reminder he was never able to carry a team to the same heights as Gilgeous-Alexander and a realization that in the hearts of the Bricktown faithful, he has been passed over once again.

There is no love lost between the Fans and Durant, but the all-time great scorer has seemingly made peace with the shocking end to his Thunder career.

However, even if Durant says all the right things before and after the ceremony, this will be a massive story. If the future Hall of Famer stays on the court to see the presentations, you better believe NBC, in its first game back as a League partner, will have a camera locked in on the Former Thunder forward. If he stays out of the spotlight and waits in the locker room, that will be fodder, too.

This creates a unique sideshow for what should be a day of jubilation, not mixed feelings.

While this scribe will never tell a reader how to be a fan, I can merely say what I think should happen.

Oct. 21 should be exclusively about the Championship core. Meet Durant with the indifference he wants and deserves. Move on.

Yes, it is hard. I get it, it is complicated. But no one is pleading for forgiveness just closure.

As the Oklahoma City Thunder are NBA Champions, don't boo Durant every time he touches the rock. Do not distract from the celebration by shouting at him during introductions. Silence is the best shunner.

This would be a win-win move for the Thunder faithful. Not only would the current Bricktown ballers get the reception and celebration they deserve, but if you truly care about some hypothetical harm to Durant's feelings, his feeling the weight of indifference for the first time back in OKC would be more stunning than various pockets of vitriol from observers.

Oct. 21 should simply be an all-night party to enjoy the thrills of winning a title one last time and great basketball between two contenders. That is what this night and the 18 members of the Thunder's roster deserve. Nothing more or less. Avoid the sideshow soap opera that stokes the flames of the NBA.

It is time to stop boo'ing Durant.

Song of the Day: Movin' Out by Billy Joel