Good For You, Kevin Durant

If you have a problem with Kevin Durant joining the Golden State Warriors, get over it.

With the news that Kevin Durant has joined the Golden State Warriors, many people don’t know what to think about the NBA anymore. Here is a top five talent in the league today, joining forces with the best regular season team of all time.

Even scarier, the Warriors are coming off back to back NBA Finals appearances, where they went 1-1 against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. It certainly seems like the rich have gotten richer this summer.

Many fans are confused as well, because Durant is a good guy in the league, easily likeable by everybody because of his talent and demeanor. He was a part of the small market Oklahoma City Thunder for nine seasons, and along with Russell Westbrook, brought sustained excellence to that franchise.

More from Golden State Warriors

• Grade the Trade: Warriors become title-favs in proposed deal with Raptors
• 5 NBA players everyone should be keeping a close eye on in 2023-24
• New detail about title-costing mistake reopens old wounds for Warriors
• 5 NBA players facing do-or-die 2023–2024 seasons
• 7 Harsh realities of the Golden State Warriors offseason

He was never in the news for the wrong reasons, seemed as humble as a superstar athlete can and was universally celebrated when he took home MVP honors in 2014. Put simply, he was the kind of player both the league itself and fans could get behind.

But now people’s perception of him is messed up. By running off to the Warriors, he’s gone and done something even worse than James did by joining the Miami Heat in 2010. James always has been a divisive figure, from his days as the self-appointed chosen one right up until his Finals heroics this year.

But Durant? No, he was the guy who was going to flip the script and help a team like OKC to its first championship, and he was going to do it the right way. Organically, with the help of star players also drafted by the team.

Now though, people are burning Durant’s jersey and posting it online, with the general consensus being that he is public enemy No. 1 in the NBA now. Really though, what’s the big deal here? Somebody needs to seriously break this down for me, because I must be missing something. Durant isn’t doing anything wrong.

In fact, I commend him for what he’s doing for a number of reasons. Firstly, it displays a selflessness you don’t really see in the NBA. Everybody wants to be the franchise player, the highest paid guy on the team, reaping in all the perks of the job off the court as a result.

Durant? Well he just wants to win, and in an era when Mike Conley can sign $153 million deals to stay with a team that isn’t contending whether or not he’s on the team, it’s kind of refreshing.

Instead of bemoaning the fact your team couldn’t sign Durant and skip the queue to title contention, why not consider it took a special player like Stephen Curry to make it possible. He too is only interested in winning, and by telling Durant as much, it swayed his decision to sign there.

Neither of them cares whose name shines brightest or whether or not they can be MVP, they just want to win. This is also the reason why the Warriors as a whole are mega successful and were able to snag Durant in the first place.

Live Feed

Valley of the Suns

Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson would be the best player on a lot of other teams. Instead of fighting among themselves about who gets the most money/shots/endorsement deals, they just care about playing basketball as well as they can.

If you’re Kevin Durant, doesn’t that seem appealing to you? It’s not like the Thunder did anything wrong (save for maybe being tough in their stance of not paying luxury tax in the past), it’s just the Warriors do so much right.

The bitterness displayed by retired players is even more laughable, especially when you consider who is talking the loudest about this. Reggie Miller is one of my favorite players ever, a guy who was before his time in terms of his three-point shooting ability.

He was the best player on an Indiana Pacers team in an era when the big man still reigned supreme and dumping the ball into the paint happened during many possessions. If he played today, he’d be the cornerstone of a franchise the way he was then, although he’d likely be more successful.

So for Miller to question what is more important to Durant, rings or legacy, is kind of crazy. I’d love to ask Miller that same question, because his answer would likely come tinged with regret.

Miller never got a chance to win it all, and while he’s revered in Indiana, I’m betting he’d rather have a ring on his finger than the love of one organization. If you’re Durant, would you rather stay in Oklahoma your whole career, possibly not win a ring and be loved there forever?

Or would you rather go elsewhere, having given all you can to a franchise for close to a decade, join a more complete team and give yourself a better chance of writing yourself into the history books? I know what route I’m taking.

Charles Barkley is another ringless former player (see the trend here?) to chime in, claiming Durant is cheating his way to a title. Nothing Durant is doing is illegal, and it seems obvious to me to want to play with the best players you can. You only get one career after all.

The way I remember it, Barkley wasn’t exactly joining rebuilding rosters when he signed on to play for the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets. So it’s a bit rich for a guy like him who moved from contender to contender (albeit through trade) to have this view.

Once again this feels like bitterness because Durant had the balls to make a move that others wouldn’t. It looks like he doesn’t care who is the highest paid, takes the most shots and gets interviewed at the end of each game. If only more stars of yesterday had the same mentality.

Then perhaps a few of them could have come together to take down that Michael Jordan guy, and break his vicelike grip on the league.

If you take Allen Iverson as a final example, it becomes even easier to see why Durant made the move when he did. Iverson did not win a ring with the Philadelphia 76ers, and spent much of his career there carrying weak rosters.

Getting to the 2001 NBA Finals with the team he did was miraculous, but by the time he moved on, it was because both parties needed a fresh start, and Iverson’s prime was over. Now, Durant had much the better supporting case in Oklahoma.

But like Durant, Iverson was adored by his fanbase, as well as league wide. He deserved a ring, and if you talk to most fans about his career, the fact he never got one usually comes up sooner rather than later.

Durant might have been the next great to not do so had he stayed, and I’m glad he took the best course of action to ensure that hopefully won’t be the case for him. Carmelo Anthony is another star who chose money and location over winning, and when his career is done we’ll ask him how he feels about that.

Finally, it’s not like the desire to want to play with the best players you can is unique to basketball. If you work in an office with four other guys who do their job well, everybody profits. If you share that space with one super worker (Russell Westbrook) and some other decent people, it becomes harder to excel.

More hoops habit: The Many Ripple Effects Of Kevin Durant's Warriors Decision

But yeah you’re right, wanting to put yourself in the best position to succeed in your given career is wrong. It’s not like super talented guys in other sports like Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar would ever team up together to try and win everything they could…