Electric word, life
It means forever and that’s a mighty long time.
What I know for sure is Prince was wrong about the last part. As it turns out, it isn’t such a long time after all.
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In the wake of a loss like Prince, we dive into the greatness — the man, the music, the lyrics. And we mourn not simply what is gone but what might have been, the concerts, the guitar solos, the possibility.
Electric word, life, when applied to an athletic career as well.
COLLINS: In appreciation of Prince
Because a player has two lives; the one we all get and the time spent on the court or field or ice or pool. And this, too, will feel like a mighty long time.
Until it isn’t.
Kevin Durant (Getty Images)
And so I thought of Prince, this little tiny piece of his genius, as I watched Kevin Durant and his Thunder dismantle Dirk Nowitzki and his Mavericks on Thursday. Because there is never enough time, and what little there is flies.
When KD came into this league nine years ago all limbs and baby face, everything was in front of him. Everything still is, just on a shorter porch. And that ring, that championship that felt so inevitable, has a little doubt cloud overhead.
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It is not huge. He is still young. Still amazing. He has free agency looming. He has a chance to organize a Miami 2.0 in Golden State, D.C., OKC.
To pretend his window has not shrunk is to ignore reality. I remember covering that Heat-Thunder Finals; the fight put up by Durant and Westbrook and Harden, LeBron’s eventual coronation and the prevailing feeling that OKC had next. The Heat would win one or two or six and then the baton would be wrested away by this young group that would win one or two or six.
But way leads to way, as the poem goes.
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And Harden is gone and this little wunderkind named Steph Curry has the baton in his hot little hand. This is the West now. It is brutal sledding with Golden State and Steph, San Antonio and Pop, and then there is The LeBron Project on the other side if the Thunder get that far.
They have as good a chance as anybody against Golden State, which is not exactly great. But the only way they do is if Durant goes all Prince at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He owned his talent that day. He always did, if we are being honest. This is what greatness does and what Durant needs to show. If OKC is going to win a championship, Durant has to be the best player on the floor. He maybe has to be better than that, and that means scoring and leading and being coachable. It is one of the best qualities a pro athlete needs, one of the biggest indicators of how that short athletic life goes.
And if they do not do it this year, he has to want — no, demand — a coach capable of doing that, of pushing him and his teammates, of making him great.
So when this little sliver of electric is over, and it’s a mighty short time, he can walk away knowing he had given the performance of a lifetime.