Kevin Durant To San Antonio Spurs? Say No Go
The Way of the Spur
"“I feel like I am the best basketball player in the world.”"
KD: "No disrespect to anyone else but I feel like I'm the best player in the world."
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) August 12, 2015
So said Durant after coming back from his lost, injury-ridden 2014-15 season to practice with Team USA.
There’s nothing wrong with believing in oneself and at the professional level a player has to believe that s/he’s the best in order to gain superstar status. S/he also has to have the talent to back up that claim; but, as the late baseball Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean once said, “It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.”
As the 2013-14 league MVP, Durant can walk his talk. And that’s great. But telling the world about it is not part of the program in the Alamo City. Popovich prefers to let talent do the talking, and the players from one to 15 are all of a similar mindset. This is the closest a Spurs player has ever come to bragging in public:
Durant has a significant ego, as all athletes do (even the Spurs). But his ego currently resides in a team culture that glorifies ego and the overt demonstration of dominance (hello, Westbrook!). Surpressing that for a place in the Spurs Mind Meld may be too much for Durant, even if the price of admission is a more legitimate shot at a championship.
Next: Conclusion: Say No Go