Renaming the City of Durant in Oklahoma is a really bad idea

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Aug 26, 2016, 12:54 PM UTC

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Good morning. Let’s basketball.

REACHING ACROSS THE AISLE: This week John Wall and Bradley Beal told the world how tough it is to play with each other, giving Wizards fans some level of heartburn. Jesus Gomez writes that Beal can become a legit star in the NBA ... if Wall helps him. Jake Whitacre considers the news a Rohrscach test for the Wizards faithful.

IT’S TRUE: Stephen Curry has been mostly good facing elite point guards in the playoffs ... except that one time when the Warriors were up 3-1 in the NBA Finals and lost.

PERFECT: DeMarcus Cousins goes undercover as a referee, calls a ton of technical fouls.

SUMMER OF MELO: Carmelo Anthony went shopping in a monogrammed bathrobe with a big stack of cash.

THE POP ERA: We don’t know which players will star on the USA men’s basketball team in 2020, but we know Gregg Popovich will be in place, and that excites me a great deal.

THE WESTBROOK WAY: Kevin O’Connor on how Russell Westbrook can get even better.

SPEAKING OF WHICH ... There is a city in southeastern Oklahoma named Durant. There is a petition to change the name of the city to Westbrook. The petition claims that “the evil Kevin Durant ” betrayed the great state of Oklahoma,” necessitating the name change.

Meanwhile, the city of Durant is named after Dixon Durant, who was a Choctaw who founded the town 140 years ago. Durant is actually the home of the Choctaw Nation headquarters. There are about 230,000 members of the Choctaw Nation, which makes the city of Durant sort of a big deal. The Choctaw, of course, came to settle southeastern Oklahoma as the first victims of Andrew Jackson’s heinous Trail of Tears program.

So ... yeah, maybe chill on demanding the city lose its Choctaw-honoring name over a man’s decision to seek employment elsewhere, alright?

TAX CUTS: Prashob Menon has a really interesting deep dive on the impact of the NBA luxury tax with lots of charts.

COOKIN’ WITH THE SAUCE: Drake hits a halfcourt shot lying down, shrugs it off. He’s come such a long way from airballing a three in front of thousands of Kentucky fans!

PODCAST WORLD TOUR: The latest Limited Upside talks Knicks. Specifically, are the Knicks good?

RON-RON-RON: Ron Artest III didn’t start playing basketball until ninth grade, because he wanted to do his own thing. Now he’s a senior at Beverly Hills High and a two-star recruit hoping his natural gifts can be molded into a scholarship.

YES! Jordan Brand made some excellent shoes to honor Craig Sager.

REMEMBER THE BRAVES: Nice Johnette Howard piece on the Buffalo Braves, still beloved as the Clippers by some faithful. I don’t wear jerseys but if I did a Bob McAdoo Braves joint would be in heavy rotation (along with a Big O Cincinnati Royals throwback and this incredible Ray Allen piece).

OH NO: It’s NBA 2K rating release season, and rookies cannot even handle it.

BEAUTIFUL: There’s a corn maze in Ohio celebrating the Cavaliers’ championship.

TALKING: The Undefeated held a town hall on athletes, violence, guns and responsibility on Thursday night. Here’s Jabari Parker talking about Chicago. Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo participated as well. Kudos to The Undefeated, Jemele Hill, ESPN and all of the participants for putting it together.

WAIT: Kobe Bryant is basically claiming TWO retired numbers. The gall.

Happy Friday. See you next week. Be excellent to each other.