Why I Can’t Root For Kevin Durant

He’s greatness personified. But for some reason I can’t root for him.

It’s not that I’m no longer a fan. I am. In fact a huge one. I certainly think Kevin Durant is one of the greatest pure scorers not just presently in the league, but in the history of the Association.

I get why he wanted to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016. Playing with Russell Westbrook is hard. In hindsight Durant looks smarter for wear in doing so. Westbrook hasn’t gotten out of the first round of the playoffs since Durant’s departure.

It’s not that he went to the already established 73 win Warriors who were minutes from repeating as champions. Even though he held a 3-1 lead over the same team in the Western Conference Finals that same year.

It’s the flippant attitude.

To put it bluntly. Kevin Durant has turned into a complete asshole.

While on one hand that kind of honesty can be appreciated, one has to wonder if this is who he was all along.

Remember Kevin Durant after winning the 2014 league MVP?

That guy is long gone.

Maybe this was all a facade. This is the same kid that not only a few years back used to enter locker room with a backpack and a bible in it.

The Kevin Durant we see today is as petty a superstar as we’ve seen in quite awhile.

Don’t believe me? Check out the five podcasts he’s done with Bill Simmons over the course of the last year.

Calling writers “blog boys”, though I must confess it’s a pretty clever tag line.

The Twitter burner account goof from last summer.
​Remember that?

And yet all of that right now really doesn’t matter. Kevin Durant is 48 minutes away from his second NBA championship.

Maybe there will come a day where I will come full circle and just be ok with this complete 180’ of KD. I mean I’ve already knocked everything but his actual play on the course. Cause of course you can’t. He is greatness personified.

Which is why this hurts more. This is solely my opinion. He didn’t need to go to Golden State. He had them on the ropes.

Some will say “Well why did you give LeBron James a pass when he went to Miami?” He didn’t get a pass. In fact he was excoriated for the decision that still haunts him today. Plus both transactions were completely different.

LeBron alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh started a experiment that no one knew if it would actually work.

Kevin Durant? Well he went to a Golden State team that already won a title in 2015 and was minutes from winning another in 2016 alongside having the greatest regular season in NBA history. Huge difference.

But again it’s KD’s cross to bear. It just doesn’t feel right.

To me anyway.