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"FacebookPinterestGetty Images\n\nWhen people die, we say that everybody dies eventually, and that is supposed to make us feel better. Rationalizations are always rational\u2014to a fault, which is why they are stupid and never work. I realized this morning that the reason I am perilously driven to explain away the Oklahoma City Thunder losing James Harden is that it pains me to the very bottom of my soul.\n\nIt started early in the season with \"Durant has really come into his own; Westbrook has found the right balance between mayhem and responsibility, and the Thunder are probably a better, if more orthodox, team.\" The preceding statements contained no lies. KD refined and expanded his game, becoming a versatile monster who could legitimately go toe-to-toe with LeBron James. Westbrook, bonkers as ever, nevertheless had learned restraint, or even good taste. His chaos-sowing drives and profane interjections of athleticism were, increasingly, employed for effect. Russ still couldn't help himself and yet the NBA's least self-conscious players now had learned the value of self-awareness. You could say all the exact same things about his rise as a fashion icon.\n\nThe Thunder, indeed, were no longer an exhilarating patchwork of a system. Last season, Durant's discipline and Westbrook's sprees operated in separate orbits. Harden mediated between them, both by literally facilitating within the offense and, in his precisely flamboyant game, bridging the stylistic gap. In 2012-13, the two big dudes got along just fine. They also learned a thing or two from each other: Durant had more edge than before; Westbrook understood the flow of the game.\n\nNone of it lies, but only part of the truth. All of the above is, I believe, decent basketball analysis. But it's also masking the larger emotional truth: I miss seeing James Harden on the Thunder. I miss what that team could have become. Not in a dynasty or efficiency or advanced metrics kind of way. They made me happy, and now they are gone. Anything I say to the contrary is a distraction, an attempt to feel better about the world we're stuck with instead. Granted, had Harden not left, we might never have seen the omni-directional terror he's unleashed as the Rockets' leading man. Again, though, that's consolation.\n\nThese days I find myself saying things about the salary cap and the inability of KD and Westbrook to evolve in Harden's presence (and vice-versa) as if I might beat myself into submission. I am pretty sure that last night, I stated that a one-year rental of Kevin Martin was \"no-risk, medium-reward\" while keeping Harden would have put off a total retooling of the team. I suppose there is a solid idea there, even if it only took the Thunder one season to be just fine without Harden as is. I've certainly seen people stop drinking to avoid a hangover; relationships end if one party decides it's a dead end. But only in French literature is suicide a plausible reaction to the fear of death. The truth is, any sane basketball fan should be mourning for the Thunder and for themselves. Not because they look shaky without Westbrook; what team doesn't lose a bona fide superstar and then experience some aches and pains? Instead, we should allow ourselves to admit that Durant/Harden/Westbrook was a glorious thing and miss it profoundly.\n\nImagine Harden developing as he has, Durant getting better like he has (he would've) and Westbrook making room for both. How would that not have been the most enjoyable team in the known universe? Everybody's in a better place now. We should be happy they've found that more settled place. But the Thunder were a dynamic unit with Harden, full of possibility, tension, and a million ways to make you drop your jaw. At the same time, it would be great to see them play together, the three of them, as the players they've grown into this season. We owe it to ourselves to grieve. We owe it to ourselves to put aside sound explanations and wish it hadn't happen. That's the best we're going to do. And while it's not comfort, at least it's honest about why that team moved us\u2014and why a lot of us enjoy the NBA in the first place.\n\nGranted, sports are inherently rational. Teams want to win. They win by scoring more points. While, in my opinion, the NBA is at its best when one unexpected moment of transcendence is matched by another until the clock runs out, most basketball consists of well-tested hunches and reasonable reactions. For every J.R. Smith, who plays as if probability were a bad dream, there's a Derek Fisher, who spins miracles out of common sense. OKC general manager Sam Presti reasoned that some legitimate size (Serge Ibaka) was more essential to the team than another explosive scorer.\n\nSports are also a business, which means they can be exceedingly, dislikable rational. The decision to trade Harden was forced by the cap; of course the front office would've preferred to keep Durant, Harden, and Westbrook AND Ibaka. It was also forced by the market. What the Thunder got for Harden has ended up being fairly unremarkable. But really, how well would it have it gone to abruptly devalue Westbrook's brand-new max deal by putting him on the trading block?\n\nWe can gauge whether, according to these criteria, the Thunder made a redeemable choice or a foolhardy one. But picking apart basketball in this light isn't, at least to me, the be-all-end-all of observing the sport. I get that, increasingly, everyone is an expert and an insider.\n\nI wonder, though, if this isn't just the more dignified side of rationalization. The rational as an end in itself blunts a lot of what made Durant/Harden/Westbrook (or the Heat, for that matter) fantastic in the first place. My cries for help over Twitter could have been one half of a conversation; the other half, I'm guessing, would've been the scalpel-like dissections of how badly Presti screwed up. It comes down to a fairly simple truth, though: this team made us happy. They are more impressive together than they will ever be apart. To call it a good or bad decision is to overlook the obvious: all of us wish it hadn't gone down this way. Empty as this may sound, and as little as there is to say about it, it's at least close to being honest about how we watch the NBA.\n\nWe don't own teams. We don't run front offices. Even if we have a particular rooting interest, we aren't moved by rationality. The NBA markets itself in terms of amazing moments and unforgettable performances. Harden's exit wasn't rational or irrational. It was just plain sad."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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