I have to tell you on here it’s taken me great restraint to wait this long to comment on the Kevin Durant-Draymond Green breakup. As a heterosexual man it’s somewhat awkward and uncomfortable to write about even on a small obscure underground blog. I know they play in San Francisco and I know I encouraged Kevin Durant to get out of then red dirt dumb Oklahoma before Kendra Horn got elected, but my how things have changed in two years.
Ostensibly back during those 2016 Western Conference Finals we found out Kevie was cheating on us as the games were still being played. Texting his heart out to his then soulmate Dray. We heard things like growth as a man, exploring one’s inner self, expanding one’s intellectual and spiritual horizons. Really? It was almost Bill Russellesque like in a version of Second Wind II.
At what point did any of us confuse Draymond Green with Gandhi?
When I now view Kevin Durant as a basketball player… I put him probably still where he was before he won these two token rings with Steph, Klay, and Draymond. That being, the second best player in the world still behind LeBron. Still second. He hasn’t proven anything to me beyond for the simple reason he still hasn’t had the grit and balls to lead a legitimate team to a title. He still hasn’t done what D Wade did with the Heat in 2006, or what Dirk did with the Mavs in 2011, or what LeBron did with the Cavs in 2016.
From my view as an astute fan of the NBA game… Kevie has won the same number of NBA championships as Russell Westbrook. As in zero. Nada.
The only difference is Durant and his leach handlers jobbed the system and put Kevie in a pretty much no fail situation as far as his basketball legacy. What’s next…Aaron Rodgers joining Tom Brady in New England next season? Tell me how that would be different?
My view of this has never changed. If Durant wanted to leave red dirt dumb Oklahoma I had absolutely no problem with it whatsoever. The word ‘free’ agent is what it implies. A condition of freedom of choice.
And I’ll say this for Durant if he had only stayed at Golden State for one season to get his token ring I’d be okay with that as well. Raymond Bourque, my second favorite hockey player of all-time behind Bobby Orr did this by leaving the Boston Bruins for the Colorado Avs at the end of his glorious non-ring career in Boston. But that’s not what this dude was doing with his handlers. He thought with multiple rings in a somewhat fixed situation he’d cement his legacy as someone above most of the greats who have ever have played the game. Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Durant is a generational player. Perhaps the most multi-faceted scorer to have ever played the game. Steph is the greatest shooter to have played the game, but Durant can score in more ways and to his credit has become a solid defensive player with Ron Adams at his side once again. And with Draymond, Andre Iguodala, and Klay Thompson cementing a formidable defense around him.
But here’s the thing with me as a purist who like Bill Simmons puts a great deal of emphasis on a player’s place in the Pantheon in accordance with what they accomplished in post season play—I still haven’t seen Kevin Durant win a legitimate ring. He still hasn’t shown me he has the same stuff as D Wade, Dirk, and LeBron. Those three are in my Pantheon at various levels.
I certainly think from a skill standpoint Durant is better than both Wade and Dirk, but from a historical standpoint of taking a team which wasn’t loaded to the point where it created the view the entire NBA was fixed—I need to see this from Kevin Durant in some other city.
Even though we’ve become ‘liberal’ in the 5th District with Kendra Horn’s election in no way should Kevie ever come back to Oklahoma. No way.
Where I think Kevin should go is Toronto. He grew up as a Raptor fan. The place is genuinely a city where he could find a girl and maybe find himself. Go to Toronto and play with Serge, Kawhi, and maybe a different young point guard other than Kyle Lowery and see if he could win a championship without Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
I mean—do you really think Peyton Manning would be considered one of football’s greatest quarterback’s if he hadn’t stuck it out in Indy and finally beat Tom Brady to advance to a legit Super Bowl ring?
Of course not. He be viewed in the same prism as say Dan Marino and Dan Fouts. Or in hoops as with Charles Barkley, Carmelo Anthony, or Russell Westbrook (if he doesn’t get it together). Great regular season players with gaudy regular season accomplishments.
Steph, Klay, and Draymond have nothing to prove. They won a ring without Durant and then won 73 regular season games the next season. They know what they are as players and young men.
Trouble is…I’m not sure Kevin Durant can say the same.
Dray and Kevie need a breakup song. Been here with Russell and Kevie, done this already.
Kevin Durant, go find yourself. Only this time don’t do it on a team which is fixed to win a ring.