I haven’t pinned much on the NBA lately, being busy with my Scout duties, #GoBearcats. I’ve seen a few things I wanted to talk about, but didn’t have the time to do good research to jot down my thoughts in an educated manner. Well today I felt like putting my two cents in on the Kevin Durant sweepstakes situation.
First to get what Kevin Durant is going through we need to rewind back to win LeBron James was a free agent back in 2010. I’ll never forget where I was at when LeBron took his talents to South Beach, I was visiting my auntie Karen in San Diego planning how I was going to propose to the love of my life. July 8, 2010 will never be forgotten by me for numerous reasons, for one it’s my wife’s birthday, it the decision date and it was the day I got engaged.
Now that I’m done with my backstory, Durant’s situation is a lot different from James’ situation in 2010 mainly because James was an adopted Cleveland kid, Akron is damn near like a Cleveland suburb no matter how you cut it, so his ties to the Cavs run deep at least to a fan and geographical aspect. For Durant he doesn’t have that tie to the Thunder, but it is a mid-market team like the Cavs. He also has Russell Westbrook who is a free agent after the 2016-17 season also and they have an organization that has done a better job at getting players around KD than the Cavs did with LBJ the first time around. Durant is a Maryland kid and thoughts were that the Wizards were trying to make a push, but that seems to be a pipe dream for Wiz fans.
From the outside looking in it seems that the Warriors are major players, Spurs and of course the Thunder. I feel like the Thunder have the upper hand, with the recent trade for Victor Oladipo it makes them even more potent, but if KD knows Westbrook is leaving after the season is up then you have to think why not join the Warriors who have Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry locked up for years to come.
If Durant leaves will there be backlash? Yes, but it won’t be the same level experienced by James in 2010 so with that being said KD needs to call Bron in say thanks. No matter his decision I don’t think jerseys will be burned in OKC, but only time will tell what KD will do.
