Does anyone know how we’ll remember Kevin Durant 20 years from now?
As we are going to remember:
As one of the greatest talents in basketball history, as a walking shot, as an indefensible player, as a clutch shooter that any coach would use on the last shot in a game.
As we won’t remember:
As a leader, as a player who gave him the responsibility of the team and the others would follow, as an alpha male. Like someone who didn’t run from place to place to seek acceptance.
Harden’s arrival with the Nets is fascinating, by far the most interesting story in the league this season, and gives the Eastern Conference a much greater appeal. The Brooklyn team, eternally insignificant, have decided to burn all their ships to win it this season, for them it is now or never and it seems to me that it is the right decision. Since the Nets reached the final with Kidd and Carter, no one has paid any attention to it. Now most want a league final against the Lakers who promise sky-high ratings
But let’s get back to Durant, wouldn’t he want to be the alpha male on his team once and for all? It was clear that Irving was playing a supporting role in the Nets, that he would be the Robin to Batman, but as someone now said with the arrival of Harden, he has become the Alfred butler to Batman and Robin. However, with the arrival of Barba, it is not possible to say who will be the leader of that team.
At the time, Durant left the Thunder after losing the 2016 conference final with the Warriors, finals that, incidentally, Oklahoma won 3 against 1 and brought back Golden State. KD decided to go with whoever beat him and joined Curry in a decision that was labeled controversial and weak. It’s true in the bay that he won a few titles and was MVP of the finals, but he never won what he was looking for: recognition from leader, because in reality that was never his team.
He left Golden State to take command of HIS team in Brooklyn and ended up doing the same, encountering more complicated personalities, bigger, more complicated egos, and openly signaling that he needed more help to win.