durant_barons_big.JPGNote: This post is by Todd Dybas

Must be weird being Kevin Durant.

Take Tuesday. Durant was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, as was teammate Jeff Green. No news there.

But Durant was not an unanimous selection. Only Atlanta strongman Al Horford received 29 first-team votes from the NBA’s 30 coaches (coaches could not vote for their own players). Horford, 29 first-team votes. Durant? He received 28 first team, one second team.

This means some coach in the NBA does not think Durant, the rookie of the year, superior to five others from the rookie class. It’s a staggering level of shaft, enough to channel Walter Sobchack and ask, “Has the whole world gone crazy?!”

Who could be a guilty of such a transgression? Seems Atlanta coach Mike Woodson is a candidate. When asked two weeks ago about Durant being named rookie of the year, Woodson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “It’s a travesty and it’s not right.” The coach went on to say Horford should, at the very least, receive a share of the award.

Woodson’s outrage seemed out of character. In person, the coach is amicable and cooperative with media types. During the Hawks’ 2006 visit, he talked in his office about the development of Marvin Williams, the expectations on Joe Johnson and the lack of enforcers in the league. He didn’t twitch when a tactless radio announcer barged in, disrupting the entire conversation.

His hyperbolic statements following Durant’s win appeared, at the time, as a coach trumpeting his guy. Now, he is the only logical choice as the coach who didn’t think the rookie of the year was qualified to be on the all-rookie first team.

That wasn’t all for Durant and the Sonics Tuesday. The Oklahoman, the state’s largest newspaper (owned by the family of Clay Bennett’s wife), is conducting an unofficial NBA Team Name Contest. It’s down to four: Thunderbirds, Thunder, Outlaws, or, and we’re not making this up, the Barons. You know, baron … which the dictionary defines as, “a member of the lowest grade of nobility.”

A would-be Oklahoma City Barons fan even used Photoshop trickeration to put Durant in his new uniform.

The NBA keeps telling us it’s the league where amazing happens. Turns out, they’re right.