Kevin Durant Did The Right Thing By Selecting Golden State

Guest Blogger: LeRon Crowder/@LeRonCrowder via Twitter

(Editor’s Note: The article was written on 7/4/16)

Today is Independence Day. Family cookouts are a plenty, and it’s also known as a “Tell your side chick, Nah My family don’t celebrate July 4th” Day. I’m sitting in my cubicle getting calls and tweets out of queue, and getting paid time and a half and holiday pay while waiting on the breaking news from Kevin Durant.

Life is in slow motion. Early into my shift, I’m slithering through my TL, waiting for a KD decision, and I see “KDTrey5: My Next Chapter”. Immediately my Stomach goes into full butterfly mode. In that moment I knew something crazy was about to happen. I click the link, and what do you know? It crashed. The traffic was Los Angeles, California Bad! I couldn’t even see the decision. I wanted to open that link like Christmas Morning, but I couldn’t. Instead a barrage of “Wow” tweets ravaged through the timeline. I knew at that moment, that things got really, very real. Yes, KD signed to the Golden State Warriors! The only people mad were the ones whose dad’s went to the corner store for milk and never came back.

First, KD gave 9 years to the organization, so stfu about loyalty. Half of y’all don’t stay in relationships longer than 3 months to get a ring. The other half in relationships for 10 years and still got nothing to show for it.

Class is in session. From the day that the last buzzer of the finals go on till about October, we have what we call off season. In that off-season, NBA draft happens. That’s where young players from collegiate or overseas gather together to be picked by NBA teams. We also have trades. That’s when GMs use methods of exporting their own players or draft picks to other teams to import other players and draft picks from other teams. It’s quite the simple process. And THEN we have Free agency!

That’s when players who have fulfilled contractual obligations with teams, can go where-ever THE FUCK THEY WANT! FREE(Dom) AGENCY! If they want to put themselves in better position to take more money and not win (Melo) they can do so. If they want to win and don’t care about money (Ray Allen), they can do that. If you’re a superstar and want both, you have EVERY RIGHT to do that as well (KD and LeBron).
The most intriguing thing has been the complete, usual biased Ohio Sports fans show.

Listen here—if you have to explain why something is different, then yeah essentially it’s the same. Trying to nitpick how the LeBron move is Different from The KD move is pointless. Fact of the matter is. LeBron did it TWICE! He teamed up with Bosh and Wade THEN went to Kyrie and Love. If Kyrie wasn’t a potential superstar and Love wasn’t interested in coming to Cleveland, he would have NOT came back to Cleveland. Now, I don’t have a problem with King doing that, especially not the second time. The only problem with the first time was the sitcom he put on. Which I think even King James admitted to being a Dick move.

I’m seeing similarities with the move now as far as personnel. When LeBron moved both times, people were lining up to join the roster. I’m seeing the same thing with the Warriors. The move to the Warriors makes sense because it makes for an interesting season. People say KD is a pushover or too nice of a guy. In actuality he’s been warming up this move for a while now. Actually it’s well documented that Steve Kerr and KD has shown interest in each other since before the historical 73-9 season. He’s been at odds with the media for a few years now. It looks like he’s been preparing for this complete heel turn on the league.

LeBron took it from Kobe. Now KD taking it from LeBron. He’s played with an edge and I think he’s ready to compete for his ultimate goal. To be a champion. The NBA has always been a chase for rings. Just now it’s more scrutinized because it’s more scrutinized now when certain players don’t win. It’s not like when Barkley, Iverson, Malone, Stockton, etc played. They are brought up in conversations about not winning but their legacies weren’t defined by it. Now!? LeBron, Melo, KD, Chris Paul, all were/are under the microscope of failed careers if they don’t bring home rings. The media has created this rhetoric for fans to weigh down on superstars. Even Chris Paul tried to pull a move like this via trade which was vetoed by other owners. It was seen as cheating. Let that had been free agency. Chris Paul would without a doubt had a ring by chasing it. Seen a quote from Charles Barkley saying how disappointed he is in Durant and Bron for cheating to win rings. Sounds bitter.

Especially when he forced a trade to Houston, a proven winner with Two Hall of Famers Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon and Clyde the ‘Glide’ Drexler. I respect Charles Barkley, but he sounds like the guy who wants the ringless bus of Greats, he’s on, to be full. Its funny people talk about rings now, when in the 80’s and 90’s, only a handful of Superstars were winning them. People weren’t equally winning. It was like 6 teams out the entire League. Maybe KD doesn’t want to be on that wave.

Whispers of  James Harden saying, “There’s only one basketball,” when asked about The KD move. That was the problem with OKC often. Is that the ideology that there is only one basketball was so transparent. Meaning Russ is a ball dominant player. James Harden uses 20 seconds of a shot clock dribbling. KD is in a situation now where that mindset is not with GS. The ball Moves. Everyone is held accountable for the way that offense runs. That is a thing of Beauty for KD.

Why would KD leave a title Contender to a join a team that wasn’t a title contender? He spent 9 seasons with this team and had great times there, but no one knows what that locker room was like. Going to Boston? Nah. Team isn’t good enough with him to knock off the Cavs. He could stay in OKC for that. It’s the kind of team with him, as OKC is. Clippers? That’s the SAME thing as going to Warriors. That team is loaded already. With the same rep as stacking a roster. NY? Rebuild. Washington? He didn’t want to go home for personal reasons. LAL? Rebuild. Warriors were the only logical team ready to compete for a ring.

With Westbrook knowing himself that he would be leaving, it would be another rebuild without him. KD made the right decision for him to put him in position to win his rings. The same way King James did.

Yes the Warriors won 73 games, but they didn’t win it all. Now with most of the team leaving, is it still cheating? Or logically does it take more than 5 people to win a ring. They still have to work hard to win against deeper teams this upcoming season. Chemistry may be off a bit because of the #1 option changing. Not only changing, but now on that team there being one. I’m not sure there was a number one option before as much as they were just shooting arenas up all over the country. Obviously Steph is a different player, but I’m not so sure to say he was a #1 option because of the system they ran.

I guess we will see though. One thing you can definitely count on is, KD to show up every night a villain, and perform like Bron did in his first season Miami. No matter how much the skeptics fake hate KD, you’re still going to watch EVERY night.
With that said, shut up and enjoy this upcoming season. It’s going to be special