There’s the traditional jersey burning when a team’s superstar leaves and then there’s over-the-top psychotic rages.
One Thunder fan, along with a couple of his rifle-ready pals, dumped what seems to be gasoline on a Kevin Durant Supersonics T-shirt on a stake while AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” plays over speakers. Then they peppered the jersey with bullets as their rounds skimmed into a lake and the T-shirt caught fire.
Other fans stuck to the more traditional way of letting a superstar know their decision hurt them so badly, simply striking a flame to a jersey lying on the ground or pinned against a pole or a fence. That was the common method taken when LeBron James bolted Cleveland for Miami in 2010, and Durant’s departure for Golden State elicited similar fury and then some.
Another Kevin Durant #Thunder shirsey being burned.
(via @jumbl0)pic.twitter.com/PrJFVaEcMN
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) July 4, 2016
I wish Durant would have stuck around like the plastic this jersey was made out of pic.twitter.com/jhl7iLuy4e
— Jacob DeLaughter (@JacobDelaughter) July 4, 2016
Durant’s move to the Warriors creates an undeniable favorite to win next year’s NBA championship. Eighty percent of the starting lineup was on either the All-NBA first or second team from this past season. Still, the consolidation of some of the game’s best, even when it’s jump-started by a former MVP who stunned the city he spent nine years in, probably doesn’t warrant an execution-style ritual to show people how you feel.
