Kevin Durant Came Back

A fun video from my friends at Sonicsgate came across social media today.

Watching that moment again brought a smile to my face and reminded me how cool it was that Kevin Durant came back to Seattle this summer.

I was in the building (in fact got as far as the door of the locker room!)  but it happened really fast and in some ways was not nearly as grandiose as I expected Kevin's return to be.  Keven was a guy who showed up in a college gym and was casual and easy about it.  We had no moment of silence or huge ceremony acknowledging the significance of his return, Instead he just came and played basketball.  His speech at the end was brief and while heartfelt did not have a huge amount of fanfare.

What was the significance of this moment to you ?

Could it have been more or less if somehow put on differently?

I try to imagine how much harder it would have been to get through the summer if McGinn had lost in the primary and the Jamal Crawford Pro Am had not happened.  It would have been substantially darker, mired between the loss of the Kings and Hansen's bust without any good moments to break the monotony.  I would have turned my attention 100% to football.

The impact of the Crawford Pro Am, and of Kevin Durants amazing return was really subtle but for me it was substantial.  We really, really needed a few good moments like that one.   I also think it felt really appropriate that Durants return was understated.  Given what we have gone through it would have seemed fake if he came back here in some big ceremony with lots of publicity.  It would have been too much and I prefer the way he did it.

For those of you who went to, or just had any comments on the pro-am this is a feedback request. Tell us what you thought of Kevins return and of the tourney in general.  Their goal is to be bigger, better and make s substantial impact on the youth and community around them.  This is the spot for any productive input about  how they could improve for the future or how we can help them next year.

I think it will be great if fans develop a greater sense of history behind the Pro Am that builds from year to year.  "I was there the year Kevin Durant came back." or "I can't believe that last year it was Durant and now they bring in XXX!  What are they going to do next."  We can help with that next year by having some historical summaries.

I'm excited to see how Sonics fans can support the Pro Am going forward.  Personally I hope to enroll more early involvement from the music and broader philanthropic community so that they have a set group of 50-100 top local influencers already lined up to participate via attendance and social media distribution.  I'm going to talk to a lot of those difference makers about scope of impact the Pro Am hopes to make and what a RIDICULOUSLY good partner they would make for organizations that wanted to team up and support each others effort.

I for one am very thankful to @KDTrey5 for coming back and @JCrossover for hosting him.  Thinking back on the summer it made a really big difference.

This is still a basketball town.