KD’s First Chip: A Defense in the Vault

(This article was originally written on June 13th, 2017, just after KD’s first title. Small changes have been made to correct for grammatical errors)

Last night’s victory triggered a Kevin Durant hate fest and not a moment of appreciation for one of the greatest teams that has ever been formed. The talk about Durant bothers me to no end. The prevailing narrative paints Durant as weak, soft and afraid of a ‘real challenge’. People feel that Durant joined his bullies, rather than sticking with his rag tag crew of misfits who stood a small chance at glory. This narrative is simple minded and a down right double standard.

The NBA is incredible because the players actually have the ability to determine their fate. While players in other leagues, like the NFL, are treated like tools who can get tossed aside at any point and for any reason. You don’t have to look further than the fact that NFL players don’t have guaranteed contracts to understand this. The power players have come from contractual things, like the CBA, but their power also arises from the nature of basketball as a sport. The team with the best player on the court usually wins the game, which can’t be said for most other sports. The most influential people in the NBA are not the coaches, the scouts, the GMs or even the owners, it’s the players.

When LeBron took his talents to South Beach people were outraged by the way he did it but what really shocked them was that he could do it. LeBron saw how much power he could have and ran with it. After championships were won and the dust settled, the narrative on LeBron changed. He went from a villain who didn’t want a ‘real challenge’ to a savvy businessman with the profound foresight to realize he was being held back by the Cavaliers’ front office. If LeBron had stayed with Cleveland in 2010, the chances are that he would have become yet another disgruntled superstar looking for a trade. LeBron would have joined the ranks of mid 2000s Kobe, the Dwightmare, Raptors Vince Carter, and Carmelo Anthony.

Carmelo actually stands out as the shining example of this double standard. Fans blame Carmelo for sticking around with the Knicks, that it is his fault he isn’t on a winning team. As a result, fans lack sympathy for Carmelo and view him as whiny and his own worst enemy. Fans look at the power that Melo had and point to the fact that he could have been smarter with it, he could have become a part of a winning situation.

How the hell can we burn Carmelo because he didn’t join a winning situation but also hate Durant because he did join a winning situation?

I can already see the response to this argument:

“It’s different because Durant joined the team that beat him”

“It’s different because Durant joined one of the greatest teams ever”

“It’s different because The Thunder were up 3-1 in the conference finals against a 73 win team”

“It’s different because…”

But you know what? It’s really not different. To begin, let’s talk about winning. Anyone who has ever played a game can tell you the best part about playing games—its winning. Losing can be fun too but you know what’s better than losing and having fun? Winning and having fun. We allowed ourselves to rewrite LeBron’s narrative because we realized that players should have 2 things in mind when making career decisions—money and wins. LeBron only took a slight pay cut to go to Miami which made his move defensible, it’s not like the whole banana boat crew signed vet mins to play with each other. Durant didn’t join the Warriors because they had beaten him the previous year or because he wanted to shy away from a challenge.

The prevailing reason Durant joined the Warriors was that he could get a lot more wins without sacrificing much dough. If there was another 60+ win team with excellent team chemistry, a wonderful coach, a cohesive front office, a roster that he perfectly fit into, and the cap space to sign him you bet your ass he would have signed there last summer. Durant made the obvious choice for his career and anyone who thinks of him as afraid of a challenge clearly didn’t watch the finals because he was absolutely magnificent. Stop hating on Durant for doing the very thing we tell Carmelo he should have done. Stop hating on Durant for enjoying the one thing we all love about sports, winning. We should appreciate the fact that Durant made the obvious decision; he maximized wins without sacrificing his financial situation.