Jun. 17 — OSU football will open its 2021 season on September 4 against Missouri State. Sept. 4 is a Saturday. That qualifies as news.

Before the pandemic, the Cowboys had created a new tradition — opening at home on a Thursday night. In back-to-back seasons, 2017 and 2018, OSU kicked off the season on a Thursday.

Mike Gundy liked the idea of an extra couple of days between Week 1 and Week 2, and fans could have the entire Labor Day weekend without a ballgame right in the middle.

So OSU hosted Tulsa in 2017 and Missouri State in 2018 on season-opening Thursday nights. Even in 2015 (at Central Michigan, on a Thursday) and 2019 (at Oregon State, on a Friday), the Cowboys opened on a day other than Saturday.

But the pandemic changed that thinking.

OSU officials talked about opening with Missouri State on a Thursday but quickly settled on Saturday. Come Sept. 4, it will have been more than 21 months since Stillwater hosted a full game day, and OSU is ready to blow the lid off all the pandemic frustrations. “We felt like this was a way

“We felt like this was a way to welcome people back to campus on Saturday,” said OSU associate athletic director Kevin Klintworth.

“We kind of had gotten into a groove. Thursday night on Labor Day weekend. Systems in place. It had gotten to working pretty smoothly. But still not the same as a Saturday game.”

Cristy Morrison, president and chief executive officer of Visit Stillwater, said she senses a pent-up desire for the return of OSU’s traditional game-day experience.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of first-time fans and those who really understand the entire game-day experience and embrace what a college town becomes on those college weekends,” Morrison said.

The Cowboys played with a 25 percent capacity limit last season, and tailgating was banned on university property. The parking lots that surround Boone Pickens Stadium had become Tailgating Heaven in the last couple of decades.

With full capacity and the 6 p.m. Saturday kickoff, tailgating figures to be back to bonkers.

“Tailgating adds a whole other level of excitement for visitors and residents,” Morrison said. “I already have friends who are having those canopies custom made, some crazy-cool barbeque grills. I hear people going crazy; they’re setting menus for each home game. It’s already a thing.”

OSU has accommodated the Big 12 over the years by moving some games to Thursday nights for television purposes. But that wasn’t the case with the Thursday night openers. Those games were totally in OSU’s control.

But the chance to celebrate a return to normalcy trumped whatever advantages a Thursday opener brought.

“It’s really about having the first full Saturday, the first real Saturday, in two years,” Klintworth said.

Klintworth said season-ticket sales are tracking slightly ahead of 2019 and “all indications are, things will be pretty darn normal.” Or even better than normal.

Or even better than normal. The lid has been on Stillwater since November 30, 2019, the most recent game at Boone Pickens without Covid restrictions. The lid is about to come off.

In related news, Kevin Durant played well, too.

The Thunder expatriate played one of the best games of his career, just when the Brooklyn Netropolitans needed it, perhaps saving the season for the Nets.

Durant, of course, had a game for the ages Tuesday night as Brooklyn rallied to beat Milwaukee 114-108 to take a 3-2 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Durant’s numbers belong in a video game — 49 points, 17 rebounds, 10 assists, 16-of-23 shooting. That wasn’t just Durant’s greatest playoff performance ever, it was one of the NBA’s greatest playoff performances ever.

Durant’s night overshadowed Jeff Green’s game. Nothing new there. Green spent the first 3 1/2 seasons of his career in Durant’s shadow.

But Tuesday night, Green produced his greatest playoff performance, with an astounding game: 27 points, on 8-of-11 shooting and 7-of- 8 3-point shooting, in 34 1/2 minutes. Green had just one rebound but three assists and no turnovers.

Green kept Brooklyn alive in the first half, when Milwaukee was hot and threatening to blow out the crippled Nets, who played without Kyrie Irving and with the ghost of James Harden, whose injured hamstring relegated Harden to decoy status.

Then Durant’s game began barreling to historic status, the Nets caught the Bucks and now Milwaukee is on the brink of elimination.

But don’t forget Green, though it’s easy to in Oklahoma City.

It’s been 10 years since the Thunder traded Green to Boston in the Kendrick Perkins deal, which jettisoned OKC to contender status. The Thunder went to three Western Conference Finals in the first four playoffs after that trade.

Green was an undersized power forward whose departure made way for Serge Ibaka in the starting lineup, and Ibaka was up to the task. The trade was great in every way for the Thunder.

But that doesn’t diminish Green’s contribution to the Thunder development or Green’s career since.

Green was taken fifth overall in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Celtics, then immediately was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in the Ray Allen deal. That was Sam Presti’s first major move in retooling the Sonics, who the next summer moved to Oklahoma City.

With Durant as the building block, but Green as his sidekick, Presti went about the business of turning the franchise into a winner.

Green, now 34 and two years older than Durant, became a team leader. His youngish teammates affectionately called him “Uncle Jeff.”

The last season in Seattle and the first year in OKC were struggles on the court, but by Green’s and Durant’s Year 3, the Thunder was more than competitive.

Green was a good player. He averaged 15.1 points and 6.0 rebounds in 2009-10, the season the Thunder won 50 games and took the mighty Lakers to six games in a memorable playoff series.

I said that season that if the Thunder was to reach elite status, Green would have to be the sixth man. He was an offensive asset but a defensive liability at power forward; Ibaka was almost as good on offense and much better defensively.

Presti changed the narrative by making the trade. Russell Westbrook and James Harden bloomed into stardom, and you know the rest.

Green then started a nomadic part of his career. Parts of four seasons with the Celtics, not counting a year in which Green sat out because of an enlarged valve to his aorta, a heart condition that could have endangered his life, much less his career. But Green returned in

But Green returned in 2012-13 and has played 723 games since, counting playoffs. He never returned to budding-star status and only started about half those games.

But Green remained and remains a valuable player. He was traded to Memphis in January 2015 and traded to the Clippers in February 2016. Then Green entered the free-agency period of his career. One-year contracts, with a new franchise every season.

Orlando in 2016-17. Cleveland in 2017-18. Washington in 2018-19. Utah in 2019-20, then waived and signed by Houston. Finally by Brooklyn last November.

Green always has been a solid scorer. He averaged 14.7 points per 36 minutes for these Nets; that’s his exact figure per 36 minutes for the 2009-10 Thunder. He averaged 19.5 per 36 minutes a year ago for the Rockets, and the Thunder knows that well. Green twice scored 22 points (Games 1 and 3) against OKC in their playoff series in September.

Green’s 3-point shooting was never terrible and often good. Long before the deep-ball explosion in the NBA, Green was a 3-point threat despite playing a front-court position. In 2008-09, that first season in Oklahoma City, Green attempted 3.2 3-point shots a game and made 38.9 percent. That’s good shooting.

Green was hit and miss over his career from deep, even while shooting much more. He made just 27.5 percent that year in Orlando and 31.2 percent that year in Cleveland. But in Houston, Green made 35.4 percent, and this season with the Nets, Green made 41.2 percent from deep.

Green has been injured during the playoffs. He played only twice in the Nets’ first-round advancement past Boston and has played just two games against Milwaukee. But he’s made nine of 14 3-pointers in these playoffs.

And Green was ready in Game 5, when Durant needed help, and Uncle Jeff was on the call.

The NBA news came fast and furious Wednesday morning. Scotty Brooks and Stan Van Gundy out as coaches. Kawhi Leonard and Chris Paul sidelined, for who knows how long?

No sooner had the playoffs found clarity — a Clippers-Nets Finals seemed quite likely — had the post-season been turned on its ear, and the coaching carousel went into overdrive.