Kevin Durant’s decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors was undoubtedly a seismic one for the NBA as a whole.
It effectively ended what had been shaping up as an epic in-conference rivalry between the Thunder and Warriors, and may have turned Golden State into an unstoppable machine, if all their parts are healthy. (And, uh, if they injure Kawhi Leonard.)
As much as one player changing teams can affect the NBA landscape, Durant’s move did so, perhaps the most significant change of scenery since LeBron moved to Cleveland. (Maybe even since LeBron’s move to Miami.) Durant has taken a lot of flack for that move, from people who wanted to see a great Thunder team take on a great Golden State team, while good-to-great teams in Houston and San Antonio nipped at their heels.
And while he may have eliminated that possibility, one thing is certain: he’s not at fault for the NBA’s apparent parity issue. And yet people keep asking him questions as if he’s the focal point of that debate:
Kevin Durant on the amount of blowouts this postseason: "If you don't like it, don't watch it." pic.twitter.com/WaqGEt93k5
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) May 21, 2017
In a USA Today piece, Durant expounded upon his position:
Cue the simplistic headlines. Start the silly debates. Durant will clarify his comments the following day, and even apologize to fans who were offended. But what he won’t do, as he makes clear, is allow anyone to try and peg him as the poster boy for the NBA’s parity problem.
“Like I’m the reason why (expletive) Orlando couldn’t make the playoffs for five, six years in a row?” he said. “Am I the reason that Brooklyn gave all their picks to Boston? Like, am I the reason that they’re not that good (laughs)? I can’t play for every team, so the truth of the matter is I left one team. It’s one more team that you probably would’ve thought would’ve been a contender. One more team. I couldn’t have made the (entire) East better. I couldn’t have made everybody (else) in the West better.”
Durant makes some incredibly valid points. First of all, the only priority any free agent should have when making a decision on where to sign their next contract is what they want. That’s paramount. But beyond that, even if he did decide that what he most wanted was to ensure competitive balance in the NBA (that sounds so dumb when put like that, yet it’s apparently what people expected from him), there’s really a very limited amount of things he could have done.
Had he stayed with the Thunder, it wouldn’t have stopped the Cavs from coasting all season and then dominating their way to the Finals. It wouldn’t have made the Spurs or Rockets any more competitive in the West. It wouldn’t have ensured Kawhi Leonard didn’t get hurt at the worst possible time. He’s just one guy. One very talented guy, to be sure, but still just one guy.
NBA fans, analysts, and others need to find a different scapegoat for this particular problem.
