On the Fourth of July, residents of the Bay Area were celebrating two things: the anniversary of America’s freedom and Kevin Durant’s free transfer to the Golden State Warriors. The team that had been the pride of the Bay until their disappointing collapse a few weeks before was filled with new promise — sales of crisp yellow-and-blue Durant jerseys soon topped all others in the NBA.
On the opposite end of the country, the situation was very different. The Thunder franchise that had, for almost a decade, been the pride of a city was now in shambles. Oklahoma City’s most famous resident had departed for greener pastures, and a team that had once seemed destined for long-lasting success was crippled, seemingly beyond repair. To understand why Kevin Durant shattered the hopes of a city to which he had professed his undying admiration and joined a team that was already the favorite to win the title the next year, one has to look back to the rebalancing that the league has undergone over the past decade.
Last year in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors’ own Stephen Curry stood out as the league’s highest-scoring player and, accounting for the minutes he played, the most efficient offensive player as well. In second came the Warriors’ newest member, Kevin Durant, then still playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder. In third came the star player for the Houston Rockets, James Harden. In fourth was Durant’s longstanding teammate, Russell Westbrook. Though pundits and players alike were shocked to see the two most potent scoring threats in the NBA join forces, perhaps more shocking is that the trio of Durant, Harden, and Westbrook all shared a dressing room only a few years ago.
In 2007, Kevin Durant joined the Seattle Supersonics as the second pick of the draft. The following year, the franchise found a new home in Oklahoma City, and drafted two future superstars in Harden and Westbrook. Every year but its first, the OKC Thunder franchise has qualified for the playoffs, and has been a major contender for the trophy for much of that time. This year is the first in which the franchise could potentially not qualify at all, buoyed by only a resilient Russell Westbrook and none of its original All-Star cast.
Durant’s exit concludes the downfall for a franchise that once had the clear potential to enter the domain of the elusive basketball dynasty. Rather than gathering several trophies, however, ten years of success in the Western Conference and one of the most promising young rosters of all time yielded only a single Finals appearance and not a single title. The loss of their lynchpin in Durant was just the nail in the coffin of an already-dead franchise. In fact, the most fundamental part of the Thunder’s downfall was doubtlessly its decision to trade future All-Star James Harden to the Rockets. After the Thunder board rejected his requests for a better contract, one he felt was merited by his good display the prior season, Harden chose to move to the Houston Rockets, and in doing so sealed his former team’s fate as a title contender rather than a winner.
In the same vein, Harden’s move was greeted with an entirely different response than Durant’s. From a distance, it became abundantly clear that there were irreconcilable differences between Harden and the Thunder organization. Durant, however, was in many cases a backbone of his community. A prominent philanthropist and activist for children’s causes, Kevin Durant’s mild-mannered, honest personality seemed at odds with the man who uprooted his relationships to make an unprecedented departure. In a similar contrast, Durant’s torso is covered with tattoos invisible to the naked eye beneath his jersey. However, Durant arrived in Oakland sporting a tattoo of the rapper Tupac Shakur covering his right leg. For the angered residents of Oklahoma City, the act represented Durant’s pleasant exterior being torn off to reveal more about the man.
Durant’s move to the Warriors was met with further disapproval from pundits and NBA veterans. Charles Barkley, who is regarded by many as an all-time basketball great despite never winning a title himself, said “Listen, if you get traded, you get traded, but my problem is with when you get together and say, ‘Let’s dominate the league and try to cheat our way to a championship’”. Another NBA great, Larry Bird, said “back in the day, I couldn’t [even] imagine going to the Lakers and playing with Magic Johnson. I’d rather try to beat him.” And indeed, what has drawn the most criticism from the Durant move isn’t the decision to depart the Thunder franchise itself, one that had clearly only been sustained for years from a host of incredible drafted talent, but the decision to move here, to the Bay Area specifically.
Last year, bookmakers gave the Cleveland Cavaliers the best odds to win the title. This wasn’t because of the quality of their squad, as the Warriors had just come off a 67-win season to deliver an impressive Finals performance, but instead because of the absolute dominance they held in their conference. In the Western Conference, where the Warriors play, there was significant competition from the Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs. In the Eastern Conference, the quality of the Cavaliers all but assured them a Finals appearance and a fair chance to win. The Cavaliers are predicted to maintain their regional dominance in the coming year, but with the departure of Kevin Durant, the Thunder are no longer seen as contenders and the Warriors seem to have all but guaranteed themselves another Finals series with Cleveland.
And so, NBA is left with two “superteams” and few possibilities for the coming season. With a franchise shattered, a competition seemingly marginalized, and a hero vilified, the Warriors seem to have assured themselves another title. Whatever the cost, perhaps there is some joy to be found that, at the very least, we will witness some of the best basketball ever played over the coming year. In the Bay, at least, we should be in for a very entertaining season.
