Thank you. I'm glad sensible posters like you are around to stem the misdirected hatred. Lebron has changed teams twice to have his super team in chasing a ring but the 2014 MVP can't be afforded the same? The man has been loyal since 2007! Give him his chance to get a ring like Lebron did!
Yes, he probably will. He's the thing, though: is it better to be known as the guy who couldn't get it done without joining a super team...and just as the guy who couldn't get it done? His agent will certainly tell him the former. Bad for the NBA...if the NBA cared about 'true' fans. But, they don't. They care more about the casual fans, because they are what drive their numbers. True fans tend to watch anyway...we are our own worse enemy. I won't pay much attention to the Warriors next year, and will get sick before the season even starts of all the coverage they get...but those games will have huge numbers. And will grow even more if that team appraoches the 73 win plateau again. I don't like it, but I think that's what will happen.
being the CIO at google is obviously a big step down from founder and leader of facebook. in my example, google is already the best as the largest publicly traded company in the world. maybe zuckerberg makes them a little better, but brin and page are still the guys getting the credit. why take that over the chance to be the leader and founder of the best company yourself? would they, though? just basing it on the things that we as fans know about, would you go to golden state? i wouldn't. if i was as talented as kevin durant is to where i could swing who wins the title, to where i could be the best player on a championship team and one day be talked about as one of the 10 best players ever, i would stay in okc for one more year. not for any noble purpose or for the greater good of competitive balance or because that's how we did things back in the day. but to see if i could do it. to see how great i can be. to see how highly i could be spoken of in terms of the nba. to see if i could actually win the title in okc and have people say "remember when he got that small market team he had always played with a title?" or "remember when he had 43 in that conference finals game?" or "remember when he put that team on his shoulders and won the title?". why wouldn't you want to see how great you could be instead of just cruising around winning because everyone else around you on the team is also so great. and what's crazier is that he actually had that chance in okc. this is probably the best team they've ever assembled. i'm not asking him to come back to a 45 win team and just hope that one day their gm figures it out. he has figured it out. and what makes it even worse is that he had the perfect out. he was only going to sign a one year contract. if he had to sign a 5 year contract, then sure i could see him thinking that he's already put in 9 years with this team and he might be reluctant to commit to 5 more and just see if this team has what it takes, especially long term. but here he gets to only commit to 1 year, and it's 1 year with the best team he's played on, and he gets what i can only assume a guy who said he was tired of being second has always wanted, to be the true leader of a championship team. he could have his cake and eat it, too. based on the current state of things, he's voluntarily forfeiting that chance next year.
That is fine, but I Am not comparing anyone to players in the 80's or 90's at the moment. I Am not asking anyone to have any moral high ground either, it is just an opinion about how I think about the situation, possibly not a fact or anything. I Am not telling Durant or any other person to think any differently, they make the choices they make in their life.
Miami wasn't a title contender without Lebron. Golden State was NBA champion and nearly back-to-back champions without Durant. Durant was in the Finals and had a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals the last 2 seasons his team was healthy.
Nor is there necessarily in the sports world either. Fans have it...but do the players? Doesn't seem much like it. Again, do the athletes have this emotional attachment? If you are getting paid millions of dollars a year, you better believe everyone cares about how well you help your company perform in the most recent quarter. No, an athlete is trying to maximize his personal reward...just like the rest of us. Did anyone on the Rockets this year really seem like they were 'essentially trying to achieve team success'? Why not? Pretty much the job of any employee. The impact is different at different levels, but you are paid to help your company succeed. And isn't that what Durant just did? Why all the ire at somebody behaving...just like us? They might if they'd been paying you millions of dollars a year. Big difference, in that Durant didn't found or own the Thunder. He just worked there. And then decided he'd rather work for the Warriors.
This is exactly the reason this decision was so weak. Golden State was the favorite to win the title next year without Durant. It's a much different situation than Lebron going to Miami. That team wasn't close to winning a title without him.
well i was responding to htownb4lla. he asked "if you were" and then even brought up being a waiter, so i assumed he was just talking about any random worker at a company, not a guy making millions, which would practically be the CEO or founder. the perception of what a CEO does and what joe shmoe, the accountant on the 3rd floor, does is just different.
I agree with the sentiment that players like Durant seem to value winning over "overcoming" - championships over pushing themselves to be the best. That's what this decision means to me. ...if anyone has ever played a lot of pickup basketball, this is exactly like those jokers you run across from time to time who are really tall and athletic, show up by themselves but refuse to play until they can get a team of their other tall/athletic friends showing up later+the best player on the losing team. Then they proceed to easily win every game for the next hour with no real competition. No one gets better. It's not competitive and it's not really fun or exciting. It's just a few assholes who would rather win than compete or push themselves to overcome. The other thing that kills me about this decision is that the little rich boys Klay & Steph get their way again. Rich kids who have always got their way, continuing to get their way. That's why they act like spoiled children when things don't go their way in the Finals because they feel entitled to have the best roster, to win all the games, to win all the titles. Rememeber it was Draymond on the court congratulating Lebron and team NOT the rich kids. Eff those guys and eff Durant for being dumb enough to not see that.
Agreed. This is purely a business decision and he chose what was best for him. No other sport has this concept of superstars joining a strong team makes them weak minded. I find it amusing listening to basketball fans b**** and moan about it. There are posters in the Texans forum that complained that AJ80 was wasted in Houston on inept coaches and managers and should have been traded or left sooner so he had a chance to compete for a ring somewhere else. They have made similar concepts about Watt being on his way to a similar fate. Baseball you never hear this type of nonsense about strong teams picking up top of the line players during free agency. God forbid a superstar free agent in basketball sign with a different top tier team though. Even then it's subjective... why wasn't Lamarcus Aldridge called out when he left Portland for SA?
Basketball players have a significantly higher impact on a team than a football or basketball player though. NBA rosters/rotations much smaller.
absolutely. Great post. We also as importantly have the right to NOT buy any NIKE KD product. Since Nike was so involved and pushed him to make this decision for sales let's see how it helps them having a coward to represent them.
I do not have a problem with you guys calling him out or criticizing him but you guys should know that there are fans still backing Durant. I am still rooting for Durant.
I think from a legacy perspective, he wants a title asap and decided that GS represented a better opportunity to win a title now. He has plenty of coin and accolades, just missing a chip to complete the hardware. Good for him even though he will cop flak for it, just like LBJ and Miami. This could become the trend for superstars.
LOL. I'm sure Nike is really concerned about that. It's also amusing that you would choose to buy or not buy a product based on whether some dude signed a basketball contract somewhere instead of, you know, based on whether you think it's a product you like and want.
eh to hell with it. Look at all the extra time I will have to clean the garage or spend with the kids. Not much point in watching the NBA this year. How exciting is it to simply be another notch in the GSW steamroller? "woohoo we only lost by 18. First team to do that in 10 games" Tom, yea. I will criticize. You didn't see Bird or Magic or Isiah do this in their primes. Did Patrick Ewing roll on over to the Rox before the 94/95 season?
