All those still bashing Durant, please make an attempt to address the points I make below. If he wanted to leave OKC, was he supposed to have stayed? Was he supposed to have gone somewhere else? There is just so little reasoned discussion about this. And this statement he made about taking the harder road ... Could the "harder" part be all the criticism that he knew would come with the choice, or the challenge of leaving a known environment. In many respects, it would have been the cowardly/easy route to just stay in OKC and take no criticism. He had the guts to do what he thought was right for him. There are plenty of people in this world that would have decided to stay to avoid the criticism. Just ask Dwight about his tortured departure from Orlando. So please answer my questions.
From a basketball standpoint, if you're KD and you're playing 3,500+ minutes a year, it just sounds so much more fun to play in that offense, with those players... everything comes easy on offense. You have players shooting and immediately running back on defense without even looking at the shot! Everyone is always smiling and laughing. Every player is willing to make the extra pass. The ball moves. They break the opponent with little effort and rattle off 10-0 runs regularly. In OKC you have to kill yourself to get a clean look. Playing with Westbrook looks about as fun as trying to ask the Tasmanian Devil to pass you the ball, run a play or stay on task. And he always has a butthurt look on his face. KD is going to have fun and ball out, instead of just standing around 30% of the time while Westbrook runs around in circles dribbling into oblivion with a sour look on his face, yelling at everyone.
If he stays in OKC, he may win one rings, or none because he has to pass the GS, then plays the Cavs, it is much hard to win a ring in OKC, then everyone will say he is a loser. In GS, he is likely to win at least one rings, the city is nicer, money is not less. For the other NBA teams, of course it is not good, but for Durant, he has a better life. Lots of people do not like the move, specially the James's fans just do not like this move at all because they want to see the Cavs to win it every year. Clearly it is a sad news for the James and Cavs fans, but it is ok for me, I do not care.
Any basketball aficionado would prefer to play in the Warriors' system than the Thunder's. Winning aside, it's probably a blast to play in.
I think there are plenty of posts that address your points directly or indirectly. You just do not think they are good answers. What more do you want people to say? There are of course good reasons for his decision. He is not a total idiot. But there are also a ton of good reasons why his decision is bad. Basically, the vast majority of people think that it hurts his legacy as one of the greatest players in history. If he doesn't care about his legacy (doubtful) or he takes those other benefits of playing for the Warriors as more important, then that's his choice. But taking that choice means he decides to sacrifice his legacy, which by definition includes being criticized as not being a true winner. So, in essence, people aren't disagreeing that he has a choice or disagreeing that he has the freedom to choose what he deems most important. What people criticize is his tarnishing his own legacy which is what he chooses to do. Thus criticizing the criticisms does not really make sense because legacy is not an objective thing. It resides in people's mind.
Brilliant post. The rationale among us aren't bashing KD, his choice relative to personal decisions, etc. We're just taking his choice and framing it the context of legacy discussions. KD has no ability now to be considered in that super super super VIP premium of players that he might have otherwise gotten too. On the other hand he's likely guaranteed he's in that next group of great great great players with at least one ring.
This is a very reasonable and intelligent position. My problem rests with the people who criticize Durante decision and attack his legacy without any recognition of the factors I mentioned. With no context or respect for reason, it just sounds like the gas bags on Tv.
Again a reasonable position. Personally I don't think durant could crack the top 15 or 20 all time, even if he had won a ring in OKC.
We actually have no idea how this will affect KD's legacy because we don't know (1) how he will perform with the Warriors or (2) what he would have done staying at OKC. IMO, the legacy part of this discussion is silly. If KD ends up being the best player on GS the next 5-6 years and they win 3 more championships, his legacy will be stellar. If he stayed at OKC and never went to the Finals again his legacy wouldn't be so good.
Because he chose to play with great help?? Bird has 3 rings. He played with 4 other HOF'ers, with 3 of them in their prime. So if Durant wins 3 titles and goes to 5 Finals with GS, he can't be considered as good as Bird because he chose to be there as opposed to Bird just being lucky enough to land on the right team? You realize guys have won titles on squads more stacked than GS, right?
This. Like I said 30 pages or so ago, the people declaring over and over again about how this decision will definitely tarnish his legacy can apparently see the future or are deluded in the value of their opinion.
A lot of people believe that what they feel is what the majority of people feel. And always will feel. Hot take narratives of the day disappear over time. No one's going to give a **** about this argument over whether Durant took the easy way out in five or ten years, let alone twenty. From what I can tell, most people have already stopped caring about LeBron James "joining forces" with Wade and Bosh.
Bird had McHale, Parish, and who was the 4th? Those two were great players but if you take Bird off those teams how good would they be? Golden State was in a game 7 finals this year...minutes from winning it all. They won a record 73 games this past season.
I mostly agree with you here, but I don't think the bolded is set in stone. What if he absolutely goes bonkers in the playoffs (or finals), including a few all-time buzzer beaters?
