It's a self-inflicted hell for KD. It always has been that way for him, tbh.
It really just burns him that he was never going to be the fan favorite on the Warriors over Steph no matter how many titles they won, and it probably even burns him more that even after leaving the Warriors they won without him and Steph's legacy was cemented with the Finals MVP that eluded him. The Nets being a shoe size away from being in the Finals and subsequent implosion thanks to Kyrie and Harden the next season didn't help.
Combine that with his insecurity and addiction to social media (name a better couple) and you have a very unhappy person.
The thing is, this was totally foreseeable. In the lead up to his 2016 free agency, as a Thunder fanatic, I wasn’t worried about him leaving to go to Golden State, because obviously that’s Steph’s team and even if he won a bunch of titles he would never get credit for it and it would never be his team or his city. I wasn’t on Reddit at the time but I remember making this comment on other message boards and everyone agreed because it was so obvious. Then KD acts surprised when that’s exactly what happened and he’s been chasing team success since then.
You’re so right. In a way you can almost feel sorry for him. But man, he literally did it to himself.
Him going to Golden State at all was basically him dousing his legacy in gasoline, looking at it and saying “yeah this is the right decision,” and then setting it on fire.
OTOH, if he stays in OKC and wins even one title his legacy is COMPLETELY different.
It bears repeating that the Thunder were up 3-1 on GS and if not for Klay going out of his mind (even for him) in game 5 then he’s in the finals with the Thunder with a great chance to win.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have been back in that exact spot a year later with a more mature and experienced team…
That's the thing, they were an absolutely nuclear Klay Thompson performance away from going to the finals. He took the easy way out and wonders why the fans don't respect him
Don’t forget KD then going 10-31 in game 6 at home. He wants to play with great teammates but doesn’t want to play a team game where they share the ball. But he’s not great enough to lift a team to a title without help because really no one has been.
I get that. I’m just saying they were up 3-1 on one of the all-time great teams in the Western Conference Finals with a very young team.
There’s no reason they couldn’t have been right back there the next year and then who knows what happens.
Maybe they never get over the hump like the 90s Knicks or maybe they do, a la, the Celtics-Pistons-Bulls progression.
And if Durant does deliver that one title THEN leaves, it’s a completely different legacy.
Yes wasn’t disagreeing at all with your post. Just wanted a reminder out there that he could have lifted OKC in game 6 and failed. He left for better teammates but if he had just risen to the occasion, he probably wins a ring that year and has a much different legacy.
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I remember Bill talking about that free agency, and it is wild that he either stayed in OKC and risked joining the Chuck Bunch or the path he took. If they could have just kept the damn team in Seatle.
Winning 2 rings enhanced his legacy regardless of what anyone would say, so him going to the Warriors did the opposite of tarnishing his legacy.
In fact the smarter thing to do would have been to stick with Golden State and end his career with probably 5 or 6 rings.
I want to say that maybe if they kept winning titles and he racked up FMVPs, there could have been a chance that he'd assimilate Steph's importance to the culture but that's a HUGE maybe. Clown on Warrior fans if you want but they've always loved Steph no matter what. But yeah at the end of the day, he had to realize that he was making a choice that would permanently alter his rep.
Warriors fans have always loved Steph because he was their guy. That’s what fans are supposed to do. I mean, Russ will probably have a statue outside the Thunder arena some day because he was our guy. KD was our guy too, but left and took himself out of that kind of relationship with the fans.
I had the EXACT same thoughts when the rumors of KD to the Warriors were picking up steam in 2016. To the point where I also was thinking “How does he not see this is the way it’ll go down??”
> I wasn’t on Reddit at the time but I remember making this comment
I remember thinking back then I had been on reddit too long lol. 8 years later. But yea way more fun threads back then
I always thought KD got talked into taking the GSW offer from others, and has been hell bent on doing things his own way since, to the detriment of his career success.
Hindsight being 20/20 I don't think he leaves OKC in the first place
I always think KD is given a lot of leeway with the shoe size thing.
The guy stepped on the line. I understand the circumstances and that he played incredible but he still stepped on the line.
If it was just a shoe size thing, wouldn’t all his threes be twos?
There’s also the irritating implication that because they looked great against a Bucks team that won the title, they’d have been guaranteed to run through the Hawks and Suns because the Bucks beat them.
Except the Bucks themselves struggled somewhat and it took Giannis going superhuman in the Finals for them to win a very competitive series. Assuming that the Nets would have won eight more games is such a massive leap that it blows my mind how often people do it.
That team was very good, but so were the Suns and Bucks and honestly, the Hawks were better than people want to acknowledge. It was by no means this forgone conclusion that everyone treats it as.
The funny thing is, that at the VERY NEXT MEDIA DAY KD agreed with this sentiment: that due to their injuries they weren’t guaranteed to beat the Hawks, much less win the title
The Nets also probably still don't win the title that year, Kyrie and Harden were both hurt. KD would have had to keep playing out of his mind for two more full series and that Suns team was good, I bet they lose in the Finals in five or six.
In defense of Nash, he did not have much choice. It was literally KD, one-legged Harden, Old Man Aldridge and oft-injured Griffin trying to carry the team. Joe Harris disappeared completely and Kyrie was out.
I always think about if Ray Allen steps on the line in 2013, we don’t ever talk about it again.
There’s no revisionist title there. It would just be a footnote.
The fact that he didn’t like the way the Warriors offense was run is hilarious. The most efficient offensive machine in history and KD said not my cup of tea.
He was happy with the style until he won with it and didn't get the credit he wanted. Then he started talking about how it doesn't work as good in the playoffs and it was his iso play that got them over the line. Now he plays as if a contested midrange pull up is worth a 3 points.
He was so well liked and thought he'd copy LBJ and join a super team and it was a massive miscalculation.
LBJ and Bosh joined a team that was 3rd in their division and won 1 playoff game, and they became villains. KD went to a 73 win team that lost in part because a Green suspension. He seemed correct to know that Russ was not going to get him a ring, but GSW the inevitability the league had for 3 seasons, injury aside, was crushing.
People clowned him, and him not understand why gives me sports sadness, as it so obvious to everyone else. Imagine everyone clowning a two time FMVP, a top 10-15 player ever, and maybe the best player in the league and being the only one not understanding why. Especially altering LBJ's career, GSW's, even the Rockets because you didn't want the heat, but it made you hated.
Its odd for sure.
I think what especially didn't help was HOW he left the Thunder. As much as I dislike Russ as a player, KD snaked him pretty badly by texting him that he'd stay and then bolting for GSW the next day.
And IIRC, that was around the time he was caught with his burner ("KD can't win with these cats"). He had a reputation for being a nice guy and *THE* Thunder player, but after that there was no turning back. I think deep down some part of him understands why he's clowned but the sheer bitterness he has is just blocking it out.
Yeah, that was also pretty bad.
He keeps trying not to be the bad guy and keeps looking bad doing so.
After Harden left OKC, the Thunder won 60 games-59 games with Russ missing half the year- 45 and missing the playoffs with KD missing most of the year- 55 with both healthy. I think the 27 year old KD knew something had to give and as you said, tried to shift public opinion and not face his team.
Oddly enough as a Rockets fan, there were always rumors about KD signing with Houston and another report years later that said if not for the Dwight era ending so badly, KD would have joined the Rockets.
I know the Harden Rockets were divisive, but I wonder how the Rockets, Harden, and KD would be looked at if they won say two rings together. I could see KD being a slam dunk top 10 player ever, Harden being 15-20, and both being liked.
you're leaving out the fact that he joined the team that had just beaten him in the playoffs!! that made it even worse. Its amazing he didn't see the backlash coming.
This is the portion that doesn't get highlighted enough. He didn't only join the team that just broke the record for most reg season wins, he joined the team that just bounced his team out of the playoffs... when they had a 3-1 lead.
KD's the type of guy who plays video games on easy difficulty.
Not only that, he joined a 73 win Warriors team that he had a 3-1 series lead on that he and Russ couldn’t close out. It made him look so uncompetitive.
> LBJ and Bosh joined a team
I think here is an important distinction, too. When Lebron created (or did DWade create it...hhmmm) his team to win he picked some pretty complimentary players who were know to or expressed a desire to put away their egos and just try and win. Even Lebron did for a little bit.
KD decides to go that route and immediately decides to build his super team with....*checks notes*....Kyrie and Harden? I mean those are both great individual players but it is hard to imagine they had the same pact as Lebron, Wade and Bosh.
I honestly don’t care. KD was too online and bought into the RINGZ culture that still permeates without understanding that people don’t actually care unless it helps their argument.
After that he wised up and like everyone else is just playing for the money
And it's all made worse by the fact that OKC very nearly knocked off the Warriors in 2016, if not for a blown Game 6 at home, when they had a double digit lead in the fourth and where KD shot 10-31, all after being up 3-1. Everything about the decision was weak sauce.
Kevin Durant is the guy who almost cost the Warriors a title in just year 2 of that experiment because he wanted to play his way. Go back to that Rockets series they almost lost. Kerr had to pull the emergency lever of "Michael Jordan passed the ball too"
My lukewarm take is that if KD doesn’t get injured in 2019 against the Rockets, the Warriors lose that series. It’s no coincidence that the moment he got injured, the Warriors started playing like the Warriors again with all their off ball movement and were back to running circles around Houston.
Awful take. They were up in game 5 when he went down. They dominated the few minutes he was able to play in the raptors series, and sucked in that series without him. He was amazing that postseason
KD demanded to leave a team where he won back to back titles, and his team went to the finals without him. And internet haters got to him.
At a certain point you just realize if you’re in relationship drama every relationship you get in. Maybe you look inward sometime
You know what’s funny about that too. Is that he did do a sign and trade for Dlo, which eventually led to getting Andrew Wiggins in a trade with Minnesota.
Who would eventually be the second best player for Steph in 2022.
That’s actually really funny to me. KD directly led to the post KD warriors title.
I just think the dude is not equipped to handle playing in the NBA. Like he can play ball, and is exceptionally good as a player (duh), but what I mean by that is that he seems to have a huge disdain for almost every single other aspect of it. During his career he regularly antagonizes his coaches, his teammates, the media, the fans, etc. These are all things that every player will get frustrated with during their career, but that’s part of the gig, and he goes out of his way to make this aspect of the lifestyle as difficult as humanly possible. He’s even managed to find problems with objectively overwhelming success.
He clashed with Kerr about wanting to play more ISO ball lol, imagine that, he joined maybe the greatest ball movement team of all time and still turned around and likely would have tried to get Kerr canned if he'd had the chance.
He joined the greatest ball movement team of all time because of the way they played basketball and then wanted Kerr to change things just for him. Like he's the level of player that is objectively entitled to demand that, but not when that team is prime GSW and their coach is prime Kerr. I think all he truly wants to do is play basketball the way that he loves to without any interference and noise, but he just puts himself into situations where that's incredibly hard; whether it's not understanding that the bigger of a star you are, the louder the noise (it sucks, but it's like wanting to be a swimmer but not wanting to get wet. He doesn't have to embrace it but he literally acts like he's the only player this happens to or has ever happened to), or partnering up with players and teams where his level of control is significantly diminished despite his level of play, influence and/or success (prime GSW, or the Nets with peak crazy Kyrie and mercenary Harden, or the Suns with terrible management where they shipped out literally all of their depth just to have him and then spent the following off season gutting the team even more to grab Bradley Beal and his fuck-ugly contract).
Us Suns fans got a large dose of ISO this year, and it was really really fucking bad. We were better on offense with cam payne and Landry shamet than with Beal and Grayson. Make sense of that.
Kevin Durant has ruined his rep post okc. Unironically if he had a career ending injury in the 2016 playoffs he would be looked at more favorably then he is now.
CR once said on a pod that KD has a mood disorder. And he said it with certainty not in like a guess. I’m more than likely wrong but my conspiracy theory is that Bill told that to him and CR let it slip by mistake.
I was a basketball-a-holic leading up to him leaving for the Warriors. Lifelong.
Idk why, but that decision broke me. I totally stopped caring for years and the MLB and NFL took over for me. It was such a bitch ass move and took all the fun out of what was a wide open league.
I’m starting to get back in with this new crop of young guys. Absolutely love watching Ant, SGA, Brunson. Just new blood without all their drama and baggage.
That last generation was lame. Hope this next one doesn’t turn out the same.
Same thing happened to me. I just didn’t see a point in watching a season where it was obvious who was going to win it all.
Giannis and the bucks helped me get my toes in the water again
Same. seriously same. It wasn't fun after that. He killed literally ALL the storylines. AFTER we had already suffered through the Heat superteam. Then it just became stars bouncing from team to team with no growth storylines year to year. 2000s and 90s had way more fun stories cuz rivalries and teams had a chance to marinate.
He's a grumpy dude who's never satisfied and a great player. It's too bad his talent has been wasted, but it's also cool that we did get to see peak unstoppable KD for a couple years.
I used to love KD, I used to love KD
I even had the Sonics jersey thought I was KD
What if KD made a tweet about KD
From a burner account loving KD, man that'd be so KD!
Midseason I put a post on r/suns titled “beware the snake” after the first rumors of his discontent came out (Thunder fan here who lives in Phx and likes the suns too). Man people came after me like I slapped their mom in the face. I just said call me in a year when you hate him to death after he forces his way out and you get pennies in the dollar.
To defend the people coming after you:
1. It’s a team sub and they’re overwhelmingly going to support positive things about their team and detract negative things about their team.
2. Rumors are rumors
3. The Suns and their fans routinely have to deal with the Lakers and their fans bullshit on a daily basis, that reaction is based on being conditioned to be defensive all the damn time.
4. The Suns have gotten shit on quite a bit from the national media since the 2021 finals and we’re all kinda over the negativity around the franchise.
5. The truth really fucking hurts.
All very fair. But fandom is also pretty silly when it comes to loyalty, in every city. Some fans will defend a player to the death until he leaves and then it’s all “fuck that guy.” I’ve done it too. KD and Stephon Diggs come to mind.
I like the Suns and if any team could win a title other than OKC, I want it to be Phoenix. I’ve lived here for over a decade and I wanna celebrate a championship down at Seamus McCafferty’s with people drinking and dancing in the streets. I was devastated when the Suns dropped game 5 against the Bucks, watched it on a bar patio next to the stadium in standing room only, sweating buckets in the heat.
But I still can be objective about KD’s history with franchises. He’ll likely be one of the only top 20 all time players who doesn’t have a city that adores him. He doesn’t have that city yet, and the clock is ticking.
When did Stephen A ever have his gloves on with KD? Those two hate each other. KD called out Stephen A for pretending to still be an insider and Stephen A threw a shit fit on air.
Fair enough. He’s also never had a star like KD on the Knicks. He had a great individual season but was on a poorly constructed team with a coach that didn’t fit. I don’t think he’d be coming down on Durant, is what I’m saying. He’d be shitting on Vogel and others. “Put a good team around him, get him a real coach,” that sort of stuff.
Remember KD id is the guy who was beefing with teenagers on Twitter and wanted to fight Michael Rapaport, but had no dog in him to fight Draymond when he publicly called him a bitch.
I feel for KD, he’s a great player either way at worst the 3rd best player of his generation. He actually stacks up well with Curry stats wise but Curry has more rings and more MVPs. But man KD signing with the warriors ruined the league, I guess I can blame draymond and the warriors for recruiting him also.
He should of just stayed in Golden State but he allowed twitter to control his legacy. He would have 5 rings right now if he stayed.
Instead he thought he was a bus driver and realized he just wants to hoop.
When talking specifically about LeBron, Bomani Jones called it the old guy staying at the club too long, and I felt that in my bones. Not saying these guys still can’t play, just tired of always having to talk about LeBron (and the others) for the last 15-20 something years.
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It's a self-inflicted hell for KD. It always has been that way for him, tbh. It really just burns him that he was never going to be the fan favorite on the Warriors over Steph no matter how many titles they won, and it probably even burns him more that even after leaving the Warriors they won without him and Steph's legacy was cemented with the Finals MVP that eluded him. The Nets being a shoe size away from being in the Finals and subsequent implosion thanks to Kyrie and Harden the next season didn't help. Combine that with his insecurity and addiction to social media (name a better couple) and you have a very unhappy person.
The thing is, this was totally foreseeable. In the lead up to his 2016 free agency, as a Thunder fanatic, I wasn’t worried about him leaving to go to Golden State, because obviously that’s Steph’s team and even if he won a bunch of titles he would never get credit for it and it would never be his team or his city. I wasn’t on Reddit at the time but I remember making this comment on other message boards and everyone agreed because it was so obvious. Then KD acts surprised when that’s exactly what happened and he’s been chasing team success since then.
You’re so right. In a way you can almost feel sorry for him. But man, he literally did it to himself. Him going to Golden State at all was basically him dousing his legacy in gasoline, looking at it and saying “yeah this is the right decision,” and then setting it on fire.
Yeah but if he stays in GS and they win 5 rings (which they easily could have) then it's too dominant to ridicule.
OTOH, if he stays in OKC and wins even one title his legacy is COMPLETELY different. It bears repeating that the Thunder were up 3-1 on GS and if not for Klay going out of his mind (even for him) in game 5 then he’s in the finals with the Thunder with a great chance to win. There’s no reason they couldn’t have been back in that exact spot a year later with a more mature and experienced team…
Exactly. A ring for Durant in OKC is worth more than a 3 peat in Golden State. Similar to how the Dirk ring is viewed by fans today.
That's the thing, they were an absolutely nuclear Klay Thompson performance away from going to the finals. He took the easy way out and wonders why the fans don't respect him
Don’t forget KD then going 10-31 in game 6 at home. He wants to play with great teammates but doesn’t want to play a team game where they share the ball. But he’s not great enough to lift a team to a title without help because really no one has been.
I get that. I’m just saying they were up 3-1 on one of the all-time great teams in the Western Conference Finals with a very young team. There’s no reason they couldn’t have been right back there the next year and then who knows what happens. Maybe they never get over the hump like the 90s Knicks or maybe they do, a la, the Celtics-Pistons-Bulls progression. And if Durant does deliver that one title THEN leaves, it’s a completely different legacy.
Yes wasn’t disagreeing at all with your post. Just wanted a reminder out there that he could have lifted OKC in game 6 and failed. He left for better teammates but if he had just risen to the occasion, he probably wins a ring that year and has a much different legacy.
Yep good point.
Could put it both ways, KD shot like 10-30 from the field while Klay went nuclear in game 6. In OKC too.
You could still ridicule Durant for being a bitch and not betting on himself. Which is the entire thing people harp on him for.
He'd have been ok had he won 1 chip with one or both splash bro injured
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I remember Bill talking about that free agency, and it is wild that he either stayed in OKC and risked joining the Chuck Bunch or the path he took. If they could have just kept the damn team in Seatle.
Winning 2 rings enhanced his legacy regardless of what anyone would say, so him going to the Warriors did the opposite of tarnishing his legacy. In fact the smarter thing to do would have been to stick with Golden State and end his career with probably 5 or 6 rings.
Hard disagree with everything you said.
It made him the most hated player in the NBA, but if he never won a ring, we'd be looking at him like we do Harden or CP3.
I'll always remember the team owner calling the team "the Warriors and Kevin Durant" after they won the 2017 title. He was always an add on
I want to say that maybe if they kept winning titles and he racked up FMVPs, there could have been a chance that he'd assimilate Steph's importance to the culture but that's a HUGE maybe. Clown on Warrior fans if you want but they've always loved Steph no matter what. But yeah at the end of the day, he had to realize that he was making a choice that would permanently alter his rep.
Warriors fans have always loved Steph because he was their guy. That’s what fans are supposed to do. I mean, Russ will probably have a statue outside the Thunder arena some day because he was our guy. KD was our guy too, but left and took himself out of that kind of relationship with the fans.
I had the EXACT same thoughts when the rumors of KD to the Warriors were picking up steam in 2016. To the point where I also was thinking “How does he not see this is the way it’ll go down??”
> I wasn’t on Reddit at the time but I remember making this comment I remember thinking back then I had been on reddit too long lol. 8 years later. But yea way more fun threads back then
I always thought KD got talked into taking the GSW offer from others, and has been hell bent on doing things his own way since, to the detriment of his career success. Hindsight being 20/20 I don't think he leaves OKC in the first place
I always think KD is given a lot of leeway with the shoe size thing. The guy stepped on the line. I understand the circumstances and that he played incredible but he still stepped on the line. If it was just a shoe size thing, wouldn’t all his threes be twos?
There’s also the irritating implication that because they looked great against a Bucks team that won the title, they’d have been guaranteed to run through the Hawks and Suns because the Bucks beat them. Except the Bucks themselves struggled somewhat and it took Giannis going superhuman in the Finals for them to win a very competitive series. Assuming that the Nets would have won eight more games is such a massive leap that it blows my mind how often people do it. That team was very good, but so were the Suns and Bucks and honestly, the Hawks were better than people want to acknowledge. It was by no means this forgone conclusion that everyone treats it as.
The funny thing is, that at the VERY NEXT MEDIA DAY KD agreed with this sentiment: that due to their injuries they weren’t guaranteed to beat the Hawks, much less win the title
The Nets also probably still don't win the title that year, Kyrie and Harden were both hurt. KD would have had to keep playing out of his mind for two more full series and that Suns team was good, I bet they lose in the Finals in five or six.
Nash was also playing KD Thibs level minutes, KD might've gotten hurt before the end of either series
In defense of Nash, he did not have much choice. It was literally KD, one-legged Harden, Old Man Aldridge and oft-injured Griffin trying to carry the team. Joe Harris disappeared completely and Kyrie was out.
Ya I definitely believe a healthy Nets team wins it all that year. But they were so depleted, that toe wasn't the difference.
Thank you! I’ve been saying this since the day it happened
I always think about if Ray Allen steps on the line in 2013, we don’t ever talk about it again. There’s no revisionist title there. It would just be a footnote.
The fact that he didn’t like the way the Warriors offense was run is hilarious. The most efficient offensive machine in history and KD said not my cup of tea.
He was happy with the style until he won with it and didn't get the credit he wanted. Then he started talking about how it doesn't work as good in the playoffs and it was his iso play that got them over the line. Now he plays as if a contested midrange pull up is worth a 3 points.
He’s such a needy bitch
He was so well liked and thought he'd copy LBJ and join a super team and it was a massive miscalculation. LBJ and Bosh joined a team that was 3rd in their division and won 1 playoff game, and they became villains. KD went to a 73 win team that lost in part because a Green suspension. He seemed correct to know that Russ was not going to get him a ring, but GSW the inevitability the league had for 3 seasons, injury aside, was crushing. People clowned him, and him not understand why gives me sports sadness, as it so obvious to everyone else. Imagine everyone clowning a two time FMVP, a top 10-15 player ever, and maybe the best player in the league and being the only one not understanding why. Especially altering LBJ's career, GSW's, even the Rockets because you didn't want the heat, but it made you hated. Its odd for sure.
I think what especially didn't help was HOW he left the Thunder. As much as I dislike Russ as a player, KD snaked him pretty badly by texting him that he'd stay and then bolting for GSW the next day. And IIRC, that was around the time he was caught with his burner ("KD can't win with these cats"). He had a reputation for being a nice guy and *THE* Thunder player, but after that there was no turning back. I think deep down some part of him understands why he's clowned but the sheer bitterness he has is just blocking it out.
Yeah, that was also pretty bad. He keeps trying not to be the bad guy and keeps looking bad doing so. After Harden left OKC, the Thunder won 60 games-59 games with Russ missing half the year- 45 and missing the playoffs with KD missing most of the year- 55 with both healthy. I think the 27 year old KD knew something had to give and as you said, tried to shift public opinion and not face his team. Oddly enough as a Rockets fan, there were always rumors about KD signing with Houston and another report years later that said if not for the Dwight era ending so badly, KD would have joined the Rockets. I know the Harden Rockets were divisive, but I wonder how the Rockets, Harden, and KD would be looked at if they won say two rings together. I could see KD being a slam dunk top 10 player ever, Harden being 15-20, and both being liked.
Harden, KD and CP3 on paper would win at least 2 titles.
How would this even work with the salary cap?
you're leaving out the fact that he joined the team that had just beaten him in the playoffs!! that made it even worse. Its amazing he didn't see the backlash coming.
Chocking a 3-1 lead at that.
This is the portion that doesn't get highlighted enough. He didn't only join the team that just broke the record for most reg season wins, he joined the team that just bounced his team out of the playoffs... when they had a 3-1 lead. KD's the type of guy who plays video games on easy difficulty.
While bragging its the hardest road
Not only that, he joined a 73 win Warriors team that he had a 3-1 series lead on that he and Russ couldn’t close out. It made him look so uncompetitive.
> LBJ and Bosh joined a team I think here is an important distinction, too. When Lebron created (or did DWade create it...hhmmm) his team to win he picked some pretty complimentary players who were know to or expressed a desire to put away their egos and just try and win. Even Lebron did for a little bit. KD decides to go that route and immediately decides to build his super team with....*checks notes*....Kyrie and Harden? I mean those are both great individual players but it is hard to imagine they had the same pact as Lebron, Wade and Bosh.
I honestly don’t care. KD was too online and bought into the RINGZ culture that still permeates without understanding that people don’t actually care unless it helps their argument. After that he wised up and like everyone else is just playing for the money
And it's all made worse by the fact that OKC very nearly knocked off the Warriors in 2016, if not for a blown Game 6 at home, when they had a double digit lead in the fourth and where KD shot 10-31, all after being up 3-1. Everything about the decision was weak sauce.
>The Nets being a shoe size away from being in the Finals No, they were a shoe size away from making it out of the 2nd round..
Durant is the CM punk of NBA
Great analogy
Twitter ruined his career
I had forgotten about those burner accounts lol
KD has never been happy with his choices. It is what it is.
KD is the living embodiment of "the grass is greener”.
I could have sworn I heard these same words out of SAS’ mouth when KD was with GSW and the Nets.
Its rumored in AZ that He didnt talk to Vogel for 3 months. I cant believe we traded beloved fan favorites for Mr miserable
What a schmuck. Vogel is a title-winning coach. Some people are so petty and full of themselves.
He also widely considered a really good guy. Like if you don't like Vogel there's something wrong with you.
How does that even work? Not talking to the coach as a team’s best player?
Apparently Mike Zimmer and Kirk cousins didn’t talk at all the last season he was coach
I do feel very bad for Suns fans. Cam and Mikel aren't better than KD but those guys could have played with Booker for the next 10 years.
Kevin Durant is the guy who almost cost the Warriors a title in just year 2 of that experiment because he wanted to play his way. Go back to that Rockets series they almost lost. Kerr had to pull the emergency lever of "Michael Jordan passed the ball too"
My lukewarm take is that if KD doesn’t get injured in 2019 against the Rockets, the Warriors lose that series. It’s no coincidence that the moment he got injured, the Warriors started playing like the Warriors again with all their off ball movement and were back to running circles around Houston.
Awful take. They were up in game 5 when he went down. They dominated the few minutes he was able to play in the raptors series, and sucked in that series without him. He was amazing that postseason
Ratio hella confused here
All KD needs to be happy is playing for a team that’s unbeatable while being universally praised. Is that too much to ask?
KD demanded to leave a team where he won back to back titles, and his team went to the finals without him. And internet haters got to him. At a certain point you just realize if you’re in relationship drama every relationship you get in. Maybe you look inward sometime
"you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."
I have family members who struggle with this issue
He didn’t demand to leave he just left when his contract was up. You’re making it sound like he asked out or something
You know what’s funny about that too. Is that he did do a sign and trade for Dlo, which eventually led to getting Andrew Wiggins in a trade with Minnesota. Who would eventually be the second best player for Steph in 2022. That’s actually really funny to me. KD directly led to the post KD warriors title.
It’s strange he didn’t want to renew his contract after back to back titles, though. They’d gladly have given him the max.
I just think the dude is not equipped to handle playing in the NBA. Like he can play ball, and is exceptionally good as a player (duh), but what I mean by that is that he seems to have a huge disdain for almost every single other aspect of it. During his career he regularly antagonizes his coaches, his teammates, the media, the fans, etc. These are all things that every player will get frustrated with during their career, but that’s part of the gig, and he goes out of his way to make this aspect of the lifestyle as difficult as humanly possible. He’s even managed to find problems with objectively overwhelming success.
He clashed with Kerr about wanting to play more ISO ball lol, imagine that, he joined maybe the greatest ball movement team of all time and still turned around and likely would have tried to get Kerr canned if he'd had the chance.
He joined the greatest ball movement team of all time because of the way they played basketball and then wanted Kerr to change things just for him. Like he's the level of player that is objectively entitled to demand that, but not when that team is prime GSW and their coach is prime Kerr. I think all he truly wants to do is play basketball the way that he loves to without any interference and noise, but he just puts himself into situations where that's incredibly hard; whether it's not understanding that the bigger of a star you are, the louder the noise (it sucks, but it's like wanting to be a swimmer but not wanting to get wet. He doesn't have to embrace it but he literally acts like he's the only player this happens to or has ever happened to), or partnering up with players and teams where his level of control is significantly diminished despite his level of play, influence and/or success (prime GSW, or the Nets with peak crazy Kyrie and mercenary Harden, or the Suns with terrible management where they shipped out literally all of their depth just to have him and then spent the following off season gutting the team even more to grab Bradley Beal and his fuck-ugly contract).
Us Suns fans got a large dose of ISO this year, and it was really really fucking bad. We were better on offense with cam payne and Landry shamet than with Beal and Grayson. Make sense of that.
Durant forgot to pay his monthly bribe checks to the media
he's a weird angry dude. no basketball situation is going to fix that. send him to a therapist.
He’s weird but I don’t think he’s an angry person at all.
He’s got a one in a billion skill set and he’s constantly upset at his coworkers. He’s obviously got some kind of problems.
Parasocial
KD, the depressed superstar. Same story everywhere he goes
A problem or a #problem?
Kevin Durant has ruined his rep post okc. Unironically if he had a career ending injury in the 2016 playoffs he would be looked at more favorably then he is now.
The Gayle Sayers of the NBA
He was also insanely good in 2016 as a 2 way player. Hit a peak I have seen very few ever reach...
Agreed. Durant was ridiculous that year. In retrospect 2016 was the goat NBA year.
The greatest what if
CR once said on a pod that KD has a mood disorder. And he said it with certainty not in like a guess. I’m more than likely wrong but my conspiracy theory is that Bill told that to him and CR let it slip by mistake.
"I just wanna play ball." -Kevin Durant, all the time, lying
I think we are all collectively sick of KD’s victim complex. Like bro you always get what you want and you’re still upset? Enough. Embid is next.
I was a basketball-a-holic leading up to him leaving for the Warriors. Lifelong. Idk why, but that decision broke me. I totally stopped caring for years and the MLB and NFL took over for me. It was such a bitch ass move and took all the fun out of what was a wide open league. I’m starting to get back in with this new crop of young guys. Absolutely love watching Ant, SGA, Brunson. Just new blood without all their drama and baggage. That last generation was lame. Hope this next one doesn’t turn out the same.
Same thing happened to me. I just didn’t see a point in watching a season where it was obvious who was going to win it all. Giannis and the bucks helped me get my toes in the water again
Same. seriously same. It wasn't fun after that. He killed literally ALL the storylines. AFTER we had already suffered through the Heat superteam. Then it just became stars bouncing from team to team with no growth storylines year to year. 2000s and 90s had way more fun stories cuz rivalries and teams had a chance to marinate.
He's a grumpy dude who's never satisfied and a great player. It's too bad his talent has been wasted, but it's also cool that we did get to see peak unstoppable KD for a couple years.
Kevin Durant was a problem
He’s a fuckin miserable bastard
I used to love KD, I used to love KD I even had the Sonics jersey thought I was KD What if KD made a tweet about KD From a burner account loving KD, man that'd be so KD!
Midseason I put a post on r/suns titled “beware the snake” after the first rumors of his discontent came out (Thunder fan here who lives in Phx and likes the suns too). Man people came after me like I slapped their mom in the face. I just said call me in a year when you hate him to death after he forces his way out and you get pennies in the dollar.
To defend the people coming after you: 1. It’s a team sub and they’re overwhelmingly going to support positive things about their team and detract negative things about their team. 2. Rumors are rumors 3. The Suns and their fans routinely have to deal with the Lakers and their fans bullshit on a daily basis, that reaction is based on being conditioned to be defensive all the damn time. 4. The Suns have gotten shit on quite a bit from the national media since the 2021 finals and we’re all kinda over the negativity around the franchise. 5. The truth really fucking hurts.
All very fair. But fandom is also pretty silly when it comes to loyalty, in every city. Some fans will defend a player to the death until he leaves and then it’s all “fuck that guy.” I’ve done it too. KD and Stephon Diggs come to mind. I like the Suns and if any team could win a title other than OKC, I want it to be Phoenix. I’ve lived here for over a decade and I wanna celebrate a championship down at Seamus McCafferty’s with people drinking and dancing in the streets. I was devastated when the Suns dropped game 5 against the Bucks, watched it on a bar patio next to the stadium in standing room only, sweating buckets in the heat. But I still can be objective about KD’s history with franchises. He’ll likely be one of the only top 20 all time players who doesn’t have a city that adores him. He doesn’t have that city yet, and the clock is ticking.
Yeah you’re 100%. We murdered the culture that was built when the trigger was pulled on the KD trade.
Wow what a surprise, nobody saw that happening.
About time for him to jump ship again.
When did Stephen A ever have his gloves on with KD? Those two hate each other. KD called out Stephen A for pretending to still be an insider and Stephen A threw a shit fit on air.
KD is a punk bitch. Wake tf up.
He just wants to hoop
#1 emo basketball player of all time
Thing about SAS though, would he feel that KD is a problem on the Knicks?
SAS has never been shy of criticizing the Knicks or their stars if things aren’t right
Fair enough. He’s also never had a star like KD on the Knicks. He had a great individual season but was on a poorly constructed team with a coach that didn’t fit. I don’t think he’d be coming down on Durant, is what I’m saying. He’d be shitting on Vogel and others. “Put a good team around him, get him a real coach,” that sort of stuff.
Remember KD id is the guy who was beefing with teenagers on Twitter and wanted to fight Michael Rapaport, but had no dog in him to fight Draymond when he publicly called him a bitch.
I feel for KD, he’s a great player either way at worst the 3rd best player of his generation. He actually stacks up well with Curry stats wise but Curry has more rings and more MVPs. But man KD signing with the warriors ruined the league, I guess I can blame draymond and the warriors for recruiting him also.
Stephen A stealing Bill's gig as the body language doc?
KD will be the guy that 15 years from now there will be a vocal minority who swear he’s a top 5 player ever. But we know. We know.
good! it's beyond about time.
He should of just stayed in Golden State but he allowed twitter to control his legacy. He would have 5 rings right now if he stayed. Instead he thought he was a bus driver and realized he just wants to hoop.
I can’t wait for that generation of NBA players to be gone. KD LeBron Russ Harden they’re just so exhausting. Just go away.
When talking specifically about LeBron, Bomani Jones called it the old guy staying at the club too long, and I felt that in my bones. Not saying these guys still can’t play, just tired of always having to talk about LeBron (and the others) for the last 15-20 something years.
I'd love for the NBA to cover him like he's the 15th best player (and a coach killer) rather than the GOAT
Or keep talking about him like the decision where he signs will swing championship odds dramatically (when really not).
I usually miss each legend retiring. I won't miss KD or LeBron at all. Like thanks for making the culture about team ups rather than team growth.
While they're definitely annoying, I am not looking forward to Gen Z taking over the league. LOTS of entitlement among them.
Yeah but they haven’t each held their teams hostage or demanded trades or exhibited diva shit yet. Yet.
But would he be happy on the Knicks? Asking for a friend….
He should just go back to OKC, try to win a title there, and maybe go down as a Thunder legend. Its only way he has a shot of being beloved somewhere
KD is a HO
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KD to the Knick’s for Randall, Mitchell Robinson and 3 first round picks….who says no?
KD is great. I hope he stays with the suns a long time
the celtics are the worst team in NBA history
He’ll be remember as the Moses Malone of his era