Three MVPs and nine scoring champions, but because of only 6 million, the dream team completely came to nothing!

Recently, when Kevin Durant, who has been transferred to the Rockets, was interviewed, the reporter asked him what was his most regrettable moment? Durant thought about it carefully and gave an unexpected answer. Some fans may think it was an unexpected serious injury in 2019 and missed three consecutive championships. Some fans may think it was the Nets disintegrating midway through the 22-23 season and he was forced to go to the Suns. But in Durant's heart, what he was most unhappy with was the deal in 2012. Because of the $6 million, James Harden failed to complete the contract extension with the Thunder and eventually left Houston.

You must know that the Thunder in the 11-12 season is definitely the most talented team in NBA history. Led by Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Harden, this team became second in the Western Conference under their leadership. And in the playoffs, they defeated three traditional strong teams, the Mavericks, Lakers and Spurs, and made a historic trip to the NBA Finals. Although they failed to win the championship in the end, they gave fans countless hopes. Unfortunately, this pairing only lasted for 3 seasons before disbanding, which was extremely disappointing. Let’s go back to that summer and see why we were disbanded!

In order to save the luxury tax, the team had no choice but to let Harden go.

Although the Thunder unfortunately lost to the Heat in the finals of the 11-12 season, in the eyes of the outside world, as long as this team works well, it will definitely achieve great things in the future. But what was unexpected was that the team had trouble with Harden's contract extension. Since Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP in NBA history in 2011, in order to reward players for their top performance within their rookie contracts, the NBA introduced a "Rose Clause" that allows players to receive a maximum salary contract that accounts for 30% of the team's salary cap when renewing their contract.

But the embarrassing thing is that Durant had already completed his contract extension in 2010, which led to an increase in his contract due to his performance in being selected to the All-NBA First Team in 2010 under uncontrollable circumstances. In addition, Serge Ibaka also completed his contract extension that summer and received a four-year, $48 million contract, which caused the team's salary space to suddenly become tight.

Since Harden had not yet produced his top performance at the time and only won a Best Sixth Man trophy in the 11-12 season, when it came time to renew his contract, his requirements were not too high. He only needed a four-year, $60 million contract. From now on, this was just a bargain-priced contract, and it was not too high even at the time. But if this contract is signed, the Thunder's overall salary will exceed the salary cap, and the team must pay a luxury tax of $13 million.

Not only that, in the following seasons, the team conservatively estimated that they would have to pay more than $50 million in luxury taxes. At that time, the team owner Clay Bennett's company was in an economic crisis, so in order to avoid paying taxes, they hoped that Harden could lower the requirements and only give him a four-year, $54 million contract, but Harden was unwilling to accept it. In fact, at the time, Westbrook and Durant both hoped to reduce their salary to keep Harden, but the mandatory Rose clause left them with little choice. In the end, the team had no choice but to let Harden go, laying a huge foreshadowing.

A series of butterfly reactions, the Thunder lost the chance to win the championship.

After being traded to the Rockets, the Thunder got Kevin Martin. Although Martin was also a good player at the time, he obviously could not replace Harden. But even under this situation, the Thunder still won the first place in the Western Conference in the 12-13 season. But bad events happened one after another. First, Westbrook was severely fouled by Patrick Beverley in the first round of the playoffs against the Rockets, directly injuring his knee. He had to undergo surgery and was reimbursed for the season early. The Thunder, which lacked Westbrook, was also eliminated from the playoffs early.

Although Kevin Durant won the regular season MVP in 2014, he and Westbrook missed a large number of games due to injuries in the following season. Jones' fracture injury continued to bother him until later. Before Durant left in 2016, although the Thunder reached the Western Conference Finals twice, they were defeated by the Spurs and Warriors one after another due to the lack of core scorers on the bench. In the end, they regretfully accepted the defeat. With Durant's departure, the team system completely collapsed.

After Harden came to the Rockets, he quickly became an All-Star player, and his condition became even better, becoming the number one shooting guard in the NBA after Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. But here, he also lacks enough helpers. Except for helping the team reach the Western Conference finals in 2015, the rest of the years either fell in the first round or were sniped in the Western Conference semifinals.

It wasn't until Chris Paul joined later that he reached his peak performance again, but he was still suppressed by the Warriors in the Western Conference. What's dramatic is that these three brothers have met many times in the playoffs. First, the Thunder played the Rockets in 2013, then the Thunder played the Warriors, and then the Rockets played the Warriors. Watching the good brothers who once fought side by side stand in the opponent's camp, they also had mixed feelings.

The three brothers took turns winning the MVP, a regrettable combination.

Finally, let’s talk about how terrifying this pairing is. After the disintegration of the three young combinations, the three became regular season MVPs and won a total of 9 scoring titles. Westbrook became the historical triple-double king. Harden averaged more than 30 points per game for many consecutive seasons, matching or even surpassing the performance of Kobe Bryant in the 05-06 season. Durant won the scoring title 4 times and was a member of the best first team all year round..

If the three of them had not disbanded, they would have had a chance to win the championship. After all, they had already reached the finals in 2012 when the three of them had not fully grown up. Moreover, judging from the current development, the combination of the three is very suitable. What is even more regrettable is that after the NBA entered the era of Adam Silver, the salary space of each team has increased. Judging from the future situation, they can fully absorb the contracts of the Big Three, and even make reinforcements under this situation. So this is why Durant has repeatedly lamented this. Maybe in another parallel world, they have already won their own championships and honors.

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