Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had an altercation on the sideline during Wednesday’s game after Westbrook got upset when Thabo Sefolosha passed up a wide-open shot in the second quarter, according to reports. Despite the win, it was an all-around difficult night for Westbrook, who on top of the altercation with Durant, shot 0-13 from the field.

Given the humble nature of Durant, the reigning scoring champ downplayed the issue. After all, this isn’t the first time he and Westbrook have faced questions about their cohesion
on the court. During last spring’s postseason, Westbrook was often criticized for both his shot selection and shot quantity, which had some wishing the young point guard would get the ball into the hands of Durant a little more frequently.

But before everyone starts accusing Westbrook of trying to steal Durant’s thunder (no pun intended) or wants the former UCLA Bruin traded for more of a “pass first” point guard, let’s address the two big elephants in the room. And that’s the inexperience and squeaky clean image of the two players.

Despite their incredibly fast emergence as one of the top teams in the NBA, it’s easy to forget how young and subsequently inexperienced the Thunder really are. Yes, they made it to the conference finals last season, but they are still very much finding out how to win. If Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo had the same altercation Westbrook and Durant had last night, it would have been a non-issue, or possibly not even mentioned at all for that matter. If Kobe Bryant or Dirk Nowitzki were seen being a little tough on Pau Gasol or Jason Terry respectively on the sidelines, who cares, after all they are all proven champions. So, until the Thunder establish themselves as champions, small, and likely overblown growing pains on the sidelines will continue to be hot topics of discussion.

Also, given the aforementioned rapid rise of the Thunder, and the gentlemanly persona Durant and Westbrook exhibit, the Thunder are essentially that perfect straight A student we all went to school with, who other students try exhaustively to find faults with. If a disagreement on the sidelines is the only fault we can currently can find with the young duo, then it will naturally be highlighted more than it should be.

Until the Thunder take the proverbial ‘next step’, any sideline dispute between the two will continue to be an issue. But given their bright future and possible decline of some of their conference foes (Dallas, San Antonio and Los Angeles , I am looking at you), the Thunder should be the class of the Western Conference for years to come, altercations or no altercations.

We reported back in October the rumor that Michael Jordan popped the question to longtime girlfriend Yvette Prieto. It turned out not to be true. But just two short month later, PR representatives for Michael Jordan are confirming that on Christmas Day Jordan proposed to Prieto.

(H/T to WCNC.com for the Video)

Nike LeBron 9 – “Dunkman”

The Dunkman colorway has become a staple in the signature sneaker series for LeBron James since the Zoom LeBron 2 was the first to put an official name on the color combination. No sneaker given the Dunkman name would be complete without bright green and the ‘Dunkman’ LeBron 9 is no different.

An Electric Green sole with exposed Max Air 190 sits below a black speckled midsole. Black is seen on the majority of the sneaker being used in the mesh and Flywire harness. This pair very lowkey compared to the last few Dunkman installments and is outright bland when looking at the Dunkman LeBron 8 PS from last year.

Nike LeBron 9 – “Griffey”

When pictures of this sneaker first hit the internet, many believed this to be the All-Star edition because of the blue hue. However the Dunkman logo mixed with the Swing graphic used on Ken Griffey’s signature line with Nike leads me to believe this is part of the LeBron James Heroes Pack which began two sneakers ago with the LeBron 7.

Some of the more talented youngsters we’ve come across in recent years have been 2nd grade standout Seth Wilson, 6th grade human dribbling machine Jaylin Fleming, and 6 year old baby baller KJ Karfan.

But as it turns out, the best of the bunch may turn out to be 6th grader Damon Harge, who averaged an unreal 35 ppg last season playing against middle school competition in Modesto, California. He decided to relocate across the country this year to North Carolina and immediately got bumped up to playing on the HS level. To everyone’s surprise, he currently is blowing up any and all competition in the Tarheel State and has even caught the eye of some NBA stars like John Wall and Kyrie Irving, who were in attendance at one of his games.

Harge has burst onto the national scene over the past year, constantly being showcased on sites like Middle School Elite but it wasn’t until he more than held his own at the Scouts Focus Elite 80 Showcase, an annual event where a number of the top Division I HS prospects compete, that bigger media outlets like ESPN, and now TheHoopDoctors.com, took notice.

He more than held his own, averaging 11 ppg at the Scouts Focus, and seems poised for big things going forward. He reportedly wakes up as early as 430 every morning to work on his game and puts up an average of 6,000 jumpers per week. Surely we will keep our eye on this 12 year old phenom in the future.

Check out Damon Harge’s Official 2011 Mixtape: