The Oklahoman's "Mr. Unreliable" headline

Or a pissed Sonics fan still looking to avenge the move. ;D

 

At a quick initial glance, I thought the guy on the bottom left was giving the finger to the camera.

 

It's not really that bad. But the dynamic here is the notion that Kevin Durant has done the whole state a gigantic favor by playing his pro ball there instead of playing for lesser teams in bigger cities. That what makes OKC unique is its undying support. If the local rag were to, you know, expect anything from this team, that erodes some of the undying adoration.

 

It's not the worst hed I've ever seen, but the fact that Durant is one the most reliable players in the league is the reason for the anger. Maybe it does go with the column, and Durant is not immune to criticism, but the readers only see the screaming hedline. And a main news headline shouldn't really be editorializing that much, if at all.

 

I totally agree that the notion of Durant as unreliable is silly. He's been an absolute stud the past several seasons. I was just surprised this headline brought so much wailing and angst. Oh well.

 

A couple of opinions I found interesting:

 

Who's the blonde cougar?

 

Mike Gundy is a man and he's 40! Well, at least he was back then.

 

Pretty strong rebound by Oklahoman paginator(s) for cover of special section commemorating Durant's MVP.

The only nit to pick is the subhed. You went too far with the "redefined" thing. He didn't redefine MVP. He had a career year and won the MVP so let's not go nuts with the extra verbiage to make up for the original blunder. People see right through that.

But the presentation is nice.

 

There is no rebound from that. Also, I hear the Mr. Unreliable headline was not a "snap deadline" decision, despite the effort to spin things in that direction.

So we have a bad decision, followed by a lack of a quick, significant apology, and then some lying.

 

There's no rebounding from that? Really? It wasn't that damn bad. And who might you have heard this from?

 

It was. Calling the MVP Mr. Unreliable? Seriously -- take a position you have some hope of defending. I realize the tack of many here is to go 180 degrees against the grain and then try to keep making an argument.

More than one person with knowledge of that shift has said that was not a deadline decision. Sorry -- not naming any of those people. Do your own homework.