In 2016, the NBA woke up to possibly the biggest free-agent news in its long history when Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant decided to join his Western Conference rivals – the Golden State Warriors. With the basketball world still reeling from the news. Durant decided to do an interview with GQ in 2017, where he spoke about his deeply controversial move.
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Though Durant faced immense criticism for joining the Warriors, he always felt he had done nothing wrong. In an interview with GQ in 2017, the player talked about the move and how he felt the NBA players have the power in the league. The two-time champion defended his move to the reporter and said,
“We always had the power, as players. We’re just realizing it now. It’s like when you wake up—we woke now. And a lot of people didn’t want us to be woke. They wanted us to stay in this trance, that we felt like we had to live our life based on what somebody else does. They can move us when they want to, they can sign us when they want to.… We got control of that now.”
Durant talked about following in the footsteps of LeBron James and controlling his future with the teams through one or two-year contracts. The author describes the situation and writes, “With the Warriors, Durant had decided to follow LeBron James’s example of signing one-year deals—two years, technically, but with a player option for the second year—that effectively prevent him from being traded at all. Together, the two men seem to be modeling a future of the league in which players—stars, anyway—control their own destinies.”
According to the NBA’s 2014 Most Valuable Player, NBA players hold the power of their destiny in the league. They are made to believe that the franchise owners can move them as and when they like based on their whims and fancies. However, the players have gotten ‘woke’ now and can control their future and there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so.
That said, while Durant makes a good point, his argument is practical only for the superstars in the game. For the rest of the players, it’s the front office who owns the keys to their future.
Kevin Durant faced harsh criticism for his move
Kevin Durant’s move to the Golden State Warriors was labeled the weakest move in the history of the league. Not only did he join future Hall of Famers Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, but he also joined a team that had just beaten him in the Western Conference Finals. The Warriors were the emerging franchise in the NBA, reaching the finals for two consecutive years and had won a championship already by that point. Durant’s move made them an unstoppable force and probably the greatest team ever formed.
In 2016, Sports Illustrated ostracised Durant for his decision and said, “It’s true that Kevin Durant can do whatever he wants with his career and his life. But this is also true: We don’t have to care, or even watch. As long as we do, we’re entitled to opinions about what he does, and I think his move to the Golden State Warriors stinks. It is a competitive cop-out, worse than saying, ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,’ because Durant could have beaten the Warriors, and he joined ’em anyway.”
The author did not hold back with their opinion on the move and were adamant that it was Durant’s shortcut to win a championship title. They talked about the player not having a competitive mentality and wanting to buy his way to the promised land. Though Durant was the best player in the team, having won two NBA Finals MVP, he still does not receive the respect he deserves for those two championship rings. However, for the future Hall of Famer, the noise doesn’t bother him anymore, and he just wants to hoop.
