Kevin Durant wasn’t lying when he said his future would be determined on a basketball decision.
As the most coveted free agent this summer, the 2014 MVP had the option to handpick his next team. He could have prioritised loyalty while also maximising his earnings by staying at Oklahoma City, chose to blaze his own trail with the up-and-coming Boston Celtics, or take the chance to win titles immediately with the Golden State Warriors.
Clearly, what he values most at this moment in time is the opportunity to win, and win now. It’s hard to blame him.
Basketball fans may be getting deja vu of LeBron James’ infamous decision in 2010 to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to team-up with stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.
LeBron’s situation and Durant’s are different, but the vitriol that was directed at the former is unfortunately now going to be thrown in the latter’s direction also.
In a perfect world, everyone would respect Durant’s desire to move on to bigger and better things, but the court of public opinion delivers far from ideal verdicts.
So people are going to call Durant a coward, a traitor, burn his jersey, claim he sold out, criticise him for joining what was already a championship roster, so on and so on. Is Durant joining a bandwagon instead of creating his own? Yes. There’s no doubt about that. But so what?
We’re so quick to hold a candle to the feet of athletes, but any of us would choose a job which made our lives easier and gave us more fulfilment, which is what winning the title will do for Durant.
We, NBA fans, the media and anyone with a voice or decision making powers in basketball, are also to blame. Those who loathe the idea of ‘super teams’ should have first considered not making “ringz” the be-all and end-all for determining success. But many of those same people only count trophies that have been won without the help of other star names. You can’t have it both ways.
And, by the way, not one single player has hung a banner on his own. Different players have needed different levels of help, with winning a title extremely hard and requiring a collective effort. Hell, what LeBron just accomplished may be the best argument against that notion, but even he needed Kyrie Irving to come through in critical moments.
Speaking of LeBron, legacy sure is a fickle thing.
Again, it shouldn’t be the case but many will suggest Durant’s legacy, no matter how many times he hoists the Larry O’Brien trophy with Golden State, will come with an asterisk. Remember when we said that about LeBron in Miami?
Instead, what happened was LeBron won two championships with the Heat and then returned to the Cavaliers to deliver one of the most iconic titles ever. Even if Cleveland’s curse was still looming, the perception of LeBron had already softened since 2010.
Durant doesn’t need to come back to OKC and win them a championship for the same to happen to him.
So the prospect of winning, and winning a lot, is one part of that “basketball decision”, but the other is the chance to play with unselfish, talented team-mates.
Anyone who’s ever played sport will understand how much more fun it is when action and outcome is shared. In professional sport, this can be a liberating approach. Especially when you’re coming from the opposite end of the spectrum, like maybe playing on an isolation-heavy team with a volatile point guard who’s prone to jacking shots, for example.
Durant is going to raise the Warriors’ offence to levels we’ve likely never seen before. The thought is enough to turn NBA fans into nihilists ready to accept the coming basketball apocalypse.
Undoubtedly, his stats will suffer as a result of playing in such a loaded attack, but let’s not go so far as labelling Durant’s decision as unselfish just because he’s sacrificing shot attempts and points.
It is telling, however, of how much he values winning. At the end of the day, when you’re an athlete who’s made as much money as possible and racked up individual accolade after individual accolade, winning is the only motivation.
Let’s not begrudge Durant for that.
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