Player Wives & Girlfriends

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With the influx of social media and the unconfirmed rumors that come along with it, the new trend in sports is to see insane rumors fly about a player once he leaves town. While the most realistic explanation for James Harden's surprising deal out of OKC comes down to a potential contract extension, a new and much more entertaining rumor has hit the internet version of the airwaves recently.

According to one theory, James Harden has a difficult time adhering to the time honored code of "Thou shall not chase a teammate's girl." Now granted, we've see it violated from time to time, but it's still one of those rules that you just don't see violated. In this case, Harden is rumored to have been chasing Serge Ibaka's girlfriend Keri Hilson. This rumor was actually the first we'd heard about Serge Ibaka dating Keri Hilson. However, after deeper digging, we're fairly confident that the two are dating at this time, but found nothing in regards to official word of the two being together.

The rumor persists that Harden had been openly hitting on Hilson, which obviously caught Ibaka's attention. One could speculate that if this were true, it would surely cause disharmony inside the otherwise harmonious Thunder locker room. Consider that Harden wouldn't sign the team friendly extension, and that he may be upsetting locker room chemistry, and suddenly this rumor doesn't seem quite so impossible to believe. While we doubt the Thunder would ever make personnel decisions on a couple guys fighting, we can believe that if this were true, it certainly didn't make it harder for the Thunder to trade him.

For those (like us) that needed a quick reminder of who Keri Hilson is, she is an R&B singer/songwriter who has been in the mainstream public eye since 2007 when she appeared on Timbaland's "The Way I Are," song (THAT'S where I remember her from). Her 2009 debut album hit #4 on the Billboard top 200, though future albums have seen significantly less success.

We are going to keep a close eye on this one to see if anything else comes out about Serge and Keri as a couple. If anything comes out, we'll keep you posted.

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Man, what a difference a year makes.

It was just over a year ago that we wrote a long opinion piece on the Oklahoma City Thunder's surprising rise in the Western Conference, and wondered how much of an impact a team of young Thunder players without girlfriends bonding off the court made an impact off the court. Well,... I think our theory was wrong.

In the past 14 months, it appears the young Thunder have all grown up, as they all seem to have grown off the court. We've seen James Harden attached to rapper Trina, we've learned about Serge Ibaka's past fling off the court, we found out that Nick Collison got married, and most recently heard that Russell Westbrook is dating a girl from UCLA. All the while their best player and leader Kevin Durant has kept his romantic life out of the public eye and left us all assuming he was a single kid loving life as one of the top 2 or 3 players in the entire Association. KD has stayed off the radar, and if it were not for one of the most incredibly astute readers we've ever seen, the riddle of Who is Kevin Durant's girlfriend may have never been solved.

Chelsea from Ohio University has figured it all out. In a detailed observation of his Twitter account, she remembered that a few months ago, a fan asked Kevin which celebrity he date if ever presented the chance. He offhandedly mentioned Letoya Luckett of Destiny's Child fame(A quick bio on Luckett: She is best known for her work in Destiny's Child, but has also done quite a bit of solo work on her own. She has delved into acting a little bit, though nothing of major national prominence.). Later, after Durant and his Thunder teammates advanced to the NBA Finals, Luckett tweeted congratulations to the Thunder for conquering the Western Conference. After the Finals, on June 24, 2012, Luckett tweeted that she headed for Washington DC, which also just so happens to be Kevin Durant's hometown where he was also landing on the same day.

Advance two days and on June 26, 2012, Luckett tweeted pictures of her being at the Martin Luther King meorial in DC. That day, a fan posted a picture on Twitter of his wife posing with Durant at the MLK memorial (the fan's wife and KD to be precise.

She also points out that the two have frequently liked one anothers pictures on Instagram. We rarely hand over the reins, but in this case, our sleuthing reader surmised it best: Coincidence? I think not. To be fair, yes it may very well be coincidence, but man, there's a hell of a lot of coincidences going on here. This is all circumstantial, and it's unlikely that the squeaky clean Durant would ever publicly announce a girlfriend unless it was incredibly serious. If that ever does happen, we'll be sure to keep you posted

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Despite being the mirror image of Marty McFly, Scott Brooks' Wife Sherry Silvey Brooks still married him. Or maybe it was because he looked like Marty McFly that Sherry Silvey decided to become Sherry Brooks. After all, Marty was a dreamboat and that movie did come out when Scott and Sherry were sophmores in college - so the timing is right.

Either way, the former high school sweethearts (at East Union High School in Monterey, CA) were married in 1993 in Monterey, CA. At Pebble Beach. On the 18th hole. Yep, you read that right. The couple honeymooned in Europe and then Scott returned to the Houston Rockets for their 1993-94 championship season. That's a pretty amazing year huh?

Scott and Sherry have a son, Chance, and a daughter, Lexi. Since Chance was born, Scott Brooks has worn a woven bracelet on his right wrist to signify him. Scott now wears three bracelets, one for Sherry, Chance and Lexi. The bracelets eventually wear out after about nine months of constant wear, at which point Chance and Lexi make new bracelets for him to wear. The bracelets are a constant reminder for Scott of his kids and he says it helps him to keep his temper in check, especially with the refs. He's going to need a few extra bracelets for this year's NBA Finals though, as the refs treat LeBron like he's incapable of fouling.