The New Season Begins: A Showdown Between Losers on Opening Night

One thing worth feeling relieved about was that Oklahoma had picked a promising rookie in this year's Draft. Grimes had been impressive in both the Summer League and the Pre-season.

During that stretch, he averaged 19.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists.

He shot 57% from the field and 39% from three-point range.

That was a very efficient performance.

At the very least, based on what they'd seen so far, the 25th pick in the first round hadn't gone to waste...

Of course, whether Grimes could truly develop and earn the team's trust would ultimately depend on how he performed once the Regular season began.

If he played well, he might shoot straight into the team's inner circle, just like Chen.

If he didn't, he might end up as a throw-in in some trade, like Diallo and Bazley...

That was the harsh reality.

Only once you had enough ability could you afford to talk about loyalty with the team.

Even Collison, the Thunder's mascot back in the day, and Haslem, the Heat's mascot who still hadn't retired, had some real ability to back them up throughout their careers, in addition to being lucky.

Los Angeles, October 20.

The NBA's 2021–2022 Regular season officially tipped off today.

The League had scheduled two blockbuster opening-night games to welcome the new season.

The matchups were the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets, against last season's "biggest losers," the Brooklyn Nets; and the Eastern Conference Finals losers, the Milwaukee Bucks, against the Western Conference Finals losers, the Oklahoma Thunder~~

All four teams remained major contenders for the championship this season, so these games would help the League grab plenty of attention right from the start.

The Thunder were also returning to Milwaukee for their first game of the new season, opening the year on