Kevin Durant’s return gives Thunder fans one more chance to yell about his decision

We know how this ends. Kevin Durant will likely win a championship with the Golden State Warriors. The team’s talent base is too strong with two MVPs and two additional All-Stars all in their prime, along with a top-flight front office and a smart coach.

Russell Westbrook will probably not win a title with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team is still set to make the playoffs as a low seed, and the front office has shown an ability to win trades and make smart draft picks. So it is likely the Thunder will hang around so long as Westbrook does.

But that doesn’t make a champion. Stars do. The Thunder have one. It’s extremely difficult — impossible in this era, perhaps — to win a title without three. Oklahoma City would have to pull off multiple coups to be in the championship conversation within the next four or five years.

We know how this ends: The Warriors will succeed at the highest level with Durant leading the way, and the Thunder will fall short.

We knew it on July 4 when Durant announced his decision. We knew it when the Warriors beat the Thunder by 26 in November and 21 in January, and we know it now as Durant prepares for his first game in Oklahoma City in a Golden State jersey (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, ABC).

Nothing Westbrook, the Thunder, or the people of Oklahoma do will change that. But they can all express their anger at their new reality. That’s what they’ll do Saturday night: offer up a final primal scream at Durant and his new reality.

This is what the people of Cleveland did on Dec. 2, 2010, when LeBron James first returned as a member of the Miami Heat. They screamed. They shared their anger and their pain. It didn’t change anything.

The Heat won by 28. LeBron outscored the entire Cleveland starting five by himself. He went on to win two championships in the next three years in Miami. The Cavaliers finished dead last in their division for three straight years.

OKC now is much, much better than Cleveland was then. That means that the Thunder could beat the Warriors on Saturday, especially with an ultrahyped Westbrook and a potentially distracted Durant. It means the Thunder won’t be finishing last in the division. It means we may even get a Warriors-Thunder playoff series down the line — wouldn’t that be something?

But in the grand scheme of it all, Saturday will be a blip. A loud, memorable blip just as LeBron’s return to Cleveland was a loud, memorable blip, but a blip nonetheless. After the dust settles, the Warriors will continue their journey to a third straight NBA Finals, and the Thunder will chase a triple-double season and a midlevel playoff seed.

Westbrook could lose the MVP chase to a third member of the extended Thunder family, James Harden. (The final MVP balloting could very well read Harden-Westbrook-Durant. Wouldn’t that be something?)

This isn’t to say that the people of Oklahoma cannot or should not remain hurt by Durant’s decision, or preoccupied with the Warriors. That is entirely personal.

But for the rest of us — the neutral parties, the liberated fans, the impartial observers — there’s no reason to remain in thrall to the angry passions of one city toward one player. There’s no reason for us to elevate Durant to the pedestal of the universal villain for making a reasonable if difficult decision about his life’s path. You can disagree with Durant for his decision, but demonizing him is useless.

It happened. It’s over. Now we see what becomes of it.

Pro athletes are forced to be mercenaries by a system that makes them into assets. If you don’t watch out for yourself, then no one is watching out for you. Careers are short, life is chaos, and players should have the freedom to use their freedom however they see fit.

Oscar Robertson didn’t take the NBA to court so that players could appease fans by staying in the city that drafted him through the luck of the lottery. Free agency is just that: freedom to have the agency to play where you want. Durant embraced the opportunity.

And lest Oklahomans get too enamored of Westbrook, he might embrace freedom in another 18 months. His decision to extend his contract with the Thunder in the wake of Durant’s departure was read as a renewal of vows with Oklahoma City. But it was in actuality a financial windfall for Westbrook that happened to keep him in town one additional year.

While the NBA has new contract rules to incentivize players to stay with the teams that drafted them, there’s no guarantee Westbrook will commit, especially if the Thunder get ejected early and Durant hoists an O’Brien in June. The allure of a ring has proved to sway many players in the past, even when piles of money are at stake.

This all sounds pessimistic and it should. Caterwauling at Durant and his new coastal clique will feel good, but then it’s Sunday morning and reality comes back into focus. This is sports fandom: a lifetime of anxious disappointment punctuated by brief moments of exhilaration.

Saturday night should offer the latter to the Thunder faithful. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it doesn’t last.