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When LeBron James announced his “Decision” to “take his talents to South Beach,” it’d be fair to say he received criticism. Just a little bit. Like skinned-alive, raked-over-hot-coals, salt-poured-into-his-burnt-and-gaping-wounds and then vinegar-added-for-good-measure criticism. And Kevin Durant was held in contrast to all that.
When he signed a new deal with no more fanfare than a simple tweet, it was used as an example of the “right way” that things should be done:
Exstension for 5 more years wit the #thunder….God Is Great, me and my family came a long way…I love yall man forreal, this a blessing!
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) July 7, 2010
Durant said all the right things, too, per Royce Young of ESPN:
“I’ve always been a loyal person,” Durant said after signing his deal in 2010. “I just love this organization, what we stand for, which is family. I’m really big on that. This is the only place for me. I told everybody a couple of years back that I wanted to be a part of this organization, so I stuck with it.”
But it was an unfair comparison. LeBron had already done what Durant did, and Durant’s choices weren’t the same as LeBron’s. LeBron was an unrestricted free agent who’d already done his seven years. He was playing on a team without another superstar. Durant was on a team with two rising stars: Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
Durant couldn’t go elsewhere even if he wanted to, and if he wanted to, where was he going to find better teammates than those two? So the whole thing was a false comparison.
And in 2014, Durant defended James’s decision with
“I don’t think it’s fair,�? Durant told a small group of local reporters. “I don’t think anything that you guys criticize LeBron [about] is fair. He switched teams; he’s not the first guy to do it. He decided to opt out; he’s not the first guy to do it. Sometimes a lot of people criticize him a little bit too much for doing normal things, doing stuff that everybody has done. [Even] Tim Duncan went into free agency before. He got courted by quite a few teams. We’ll see what happens with me, but everybody’s done the same thing. He’s not the first.�?
It’s not hard to read a bit of foreshadowing there. And this summer, Durant will be entertaining center ring of the same circus that James led during the summer of 2010. With that, rumors of Durant going to the Washington Wizards, New York Knicks, Los Angles Lakers and even Golden State Warriors have swirled.
And it’ll have the same sort of hype leading up to it. The same fascination with every trip Durant takes, following every conversation with every team and speculating endlessly about where he’ll go. We did it with LeBron James (again) and Carmelo Anthony two years ago. We did it with LaMarcus Aldridge last summer.
But Durant’s next decision will be the most captivating since LeBron left Clevland — that of an elite, all-time player determining where he’ll spend the peak of his career. We’ll suck the marrow out of this bone and chew on it until there’s nothing left — not just the media, but the fans too.
We. Eat. This. Up. We really do. And then when it’s over, we sit around and evaluate and criticize, which is all kind of funny when you think about it considering how much we were just anticipating it.
The only place that James wasn’t criticized was Miami. I wonder why. Do you think Chicago would’ve had a different take if LeBron had teamed up with Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah? Maybe? Just a little bit?
James got to the Finals and lost. Then he got there again and won. Then he got there again and won again. Then he got their again and lost. Four years, four Finals, two Finals MVPs. In many ways, it was the perfect scenario for future free agents. It justified “teaming up” to win rings in that “he” won rings. But in the two Finals “he” (I hate that expression, but let it slide) lost, it proved it wasn’t “the easy way.”
It was just “a” way which still required a lot of work and with James still doing the heavy lifting. There was no easy way. This wasn’t just a free ride. He wasn’t getting carried by Dwyane Wade. All the jaded and spurned rhetoric had no merit. And after awhile of seeing that, many of the detractors stopped detracting.
So when LaMarcus Aldridge joined the Spurs last summer, he wasn’t criticized. If anything, he was celebrated. He joined a team-first team, and he was going to be a team-first guy who was willing to sacrifice numbers to help the teamiest team in the history of teamdom win another title. Go team!
So now we sit on Durant this summer with the very real possibility of him joining up with the Warriors, threatening to be the greatest team ever, even without Durant. And a potential 82-0 obscenity if he goes there. And it’s very likely he won’t get the same criticism that James did when the King blazed that trail, and some will decry how unjust it is that Durant doesn’t receive the same scorn.
But remember that it’s because of and not in spite of James’s trials that Durant will be dealt with less harshly. Because in the end this isn’t about Durant or James, it’s about the fans and media as a whole having learned that there’s nothing wrong with players keeping their own fate in their hands. And for those that still criticize? They just haven’t learned that yet.