Every year seems to be a repeat of the last for both the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA and Arsenal in the Premier League. As the Thunder stare down the barrel of another playoff defeat, it makes one wonder whether they will ever get a better chance to win the NBA championship. Having made the NBA Finals in 2012 with a bunch of young stars, many believed that they would build a dynasty over the next decade. Yet, four years on and there has been nothing aside from frustration and disappointment. Arsenal are in a similar situation, having not won the Premier League since 2004, despite finishing in the top four in every season since. For the fans of both sides, the frustration lies in the fact that so little progress has been made, and at times the heart-breaking defeats mirror those from previous seasons.
In the 2003-04 Premier League season, Arsenal went all 38 games undefeated, the first time that had ever happened in the top tier of English football since the 19th century. An FA cup victory and Champions League final followed in the next two seasons, before the building of a new stadium meant funds were short and consolidation was needed. Long-time manager Arsene Wenger did well to keep his team of kids in the top four during this period, especially considering the financial struggles of other large clubs like Portsmouth and Leeds. But in 2013 a signal of intent was made with the signing of one of Europe’s best playmakers in Mesut Ozil, for £42.5 million, proving that the tough times were behind them. The signing of winger Alexis Sanchez the following year saw most supporters start to believe that the glory days were returning once more. However, even with these great players, nothing has changed, and year after year Arsenal continue to throw away the title through a combination of bad form and injuries. Fans are frustrated at the similarly stagnated progression of the club.
So in what ways are these sides similar? They are two very different teams playing two very different sports, yet they are eerily comparable. Let’s break it down.
Two star players
Both teams have two players that stand out from the rest. Sanchez and Ozil are easily the best in the Arsenal squad, as are Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for the Thunder. All four determine the performance of their side week in week out. If they do not perform, the chances of losing greatly increase. Disappointment and failure has seen all of them become frustrated and disillusioned at their respective franchises as well. Durant has seen his contract run down in order to enter free agency this offseason, while Westbrook is likely to do the same next year. Whether either will stay is still up in the air, as Durant has not committed to anything just yet, but chances are that both will be gone by the start of the 2017-18 season if things do not improve.
Sanchez has shown in recent weeks that he is growing increasingly frustrated at the poor performances and lack of ambition shown by his club. In a game against Norwich a couple of weeks ago, he became vividly upset at being substituted and walked straight down the tunnel and out of the stadium. For Ozil, a lack of a genuinely world-class striker playing in front of him has often left his brilliant passing go to waste. Both players have been linked to moves away from the club, and neither player has committed to a contract extension at this point.
Expectation & subsequent failure
Obviously having such talented individuals means that both teams are always going to be expected to, at the very least, challenge for the title. Pundits usually consider them to be one of the favourites going into every season, yet neither side has delivered on the promise it has shown. Both have struggled with injuries – the Thunder have lost both Durant and Westbrook in the last two playoff runs, while Sanchez missed a large chunk of the season around Christmas time. Besides that, the two sides have gone through periods of poor form. The Thunder lost an incredible thirteen games that they led going into the fourth quarter, worse than even the woeful Philadelphia 76ers. As they battle it out in the playoffs, most are wondering when, not if, they disappoint and get knocked out.
Arsenal are no strangers to throwing it away, having led the league at the turn of the year, before going through a poor run of form, dropping out of the title race, and gifting it to Leicester. It was another typical Arsenal season, bottling it just when people started to actually believe they could finally win. A joke has emerged over the last decade regarding Arsenal’s consistent, yet underwhelming performances every year, with the belief that the London side are trying to win the battle for fourth-place rather than actually challenging for the title.
For both sides there has been too much of the same old mistakes and not enough consistency to push over the line and win the championship they have been craving.
“One piece away”
It seems that every year we see people talk about how both teams are missing that one player that would take them to the top. Since the Thunder traded James Harden in 2012, they have struggled to replace him with a reliable third-scoring option. Many shooting guards have come and gone, none of whom have succeeded in nailing down the role that Harden made his own. Watching Harden score over 25 points per game every season must make the Thunder hierarchy regret their decision to let him go for peanuts. Just to rub it in, the man they chose over Harden, Serge Ibaka, has been on a downward spiral ever since. Now fans can only imagine what could have been had Harden stayed.
Arsenal, until the last three seasons, were regarded by many as a feeder club for their rivals, as they consistently sold their best players to the best sides in England and Europe. Now financially stable, they are one step away from the top, something everyone can see it seems, except Wenger. The aging manager has stuck by the “lamppost” Olivier Giroud, who until last weekend, had not scored in fifteen Premier League games. For the third summer running fans will be pleading for Wenger to go and buy a world-class striker to finish the chances that the likes of Ozil and Sanchez create on an everyday basis. Whether it will happen is a totally different story.
To conclude, both these sides have an abundance of potential and should be winning titles with relative ease. Yet, whether it be a lack of ambition, or an ability to crumble under pressure, both have failed to even come close. Despite playing completely different sports, the two franchises are surprisingly similar in the way they are run both on and off the field. If anything, it shows how powerful a winning culture and mentality is in the world of sport, and how talented teams that don’t have the drive and heart to be the best, usually won’t. It really is a shame to see these sides not fulfil their potential, but there is still time to turn things around. Hopefully for our sake it will happen sooner rather than later.