Coming into the Finals, there was heavy discourse about if Kevin Durant helped Stephen Curry more or vice versa in defeating those LeBron James’ led Cavs for the title.
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Durant’s decision to join Golden State was always placed under a microscope because of how impactful it was for the league. When he joined, the NBA appeared to be broken. Sure there had been superteams before, but this team dwarfed every superteam before it.
When LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined the Heat, they were building a superteam. The Heat weren’t heavy conference favorites before LeBron and Bosh joined. Same thing with the Celtics before them, or the Nets attempt at one, or whichever other team you can name.
Kevin Durant joined a team that had just set the record for most wins in NBA history. He joined a team that had just beaten his team in the Conference Finals. He joined a team that had been to the Finals twice in a row.
There was no precedence for his move. It was something we had never seen before, and now that Curry is back in the Finals without KD, debates are raging on about which player needed the other more during the Warriors dynastic 2016-2019 run when they were virtually unbeatable.
The only thing that stopped them in the end was injuries. If not, KD and the Warriors may have won three straight Finals together with virtually no resistance.
Skip Bayless rips Stephen Curry for being saved by Kevin Durant against LeBron James
Draymond and Kevin Durant even got into this debate. Green commented about how Curry had always been the focal point of the Warriors offense, being doubled significantly more than Durant was.
Fans found several videos in Curry’s favor, and they also brought up how Curry had his team in the Finals while KD was swept by the Celtics. With the recent Finals games, Curry’s stats have also been better against the same team that Durant went out on so miserably.
However, KD’s fans are pointing to Curry’s record without Durant in the Finals as a way of showing how ‘The Baby Faced Assassin’ needed ‘The Slim Reaper’ to win. Skip Bayless ripped into Curry as well.
However, there are several things wrong with this argument. For one, Curry was a champion before Durant ever joined the team. He beat LeBron James in the 2014-15 Finals, and he made it back with a 73-win team in 2015-16.
Further, after Durant left the Warriors, they hadn’t been healthy till this season. Klay Thompson was out with leg injuries for the last two years, and in his first year back, the Warriors are right back in the Finals, without Durant. Sure, they may be down 2-1, but the series is far from over.
If Curry can win this Finals and secure Finals MVP (which is likely if Golden State can win), he’ll definitely have shown that he didn’t need Durant to win, and that it was the other way around.
