Would Kevin Durant Signing with Golden State Warriors Ruin the NBA? Hardly.
With the obvious exception of Oklahoma City Thunder fans, everyone in their right mind ought to be rooting for Kevin Durant to join the Golden State Warriors.
Not everybody will, of course. That's not how things like this usually work.
When marquee free agents flirt with established powers and put superteam construction on the table, we don't see anything close to the unanimous, "Do it, it'd be so cool!" encouragement we should. Instead, we see the same handwringing and self-serious moralizing we always do.
Competitive balance is kaput!
Superstar X is giving up on his team! He's a ring-chasing coward!
Forget about anyone respecting his legacy!
You know, the usual.
Durant is aware of the barbs potentially headed his way, according to Anthony Slater of the Oklahoman:
"Durant is concerned with image and perception. He reads articles, watches shows and checks tweets that discuss him. If he left for Golden State, even though the Finals loss would soften the noise, the takes are predictable: Can't beat him, so he joined them. Isn't an alpha dog. A title there would never mean as much.
"
Funny, don't you think, that Durant might be worried about stuff like that mere days after LeBron James—he of the notorious Decision—earned his third ring and universal celebration of his legacy. Everything's forgivable in time.
The particulars of a Durant departure would be different from the one James made in 2010. Durant's fanbase in OKC has only existed for eight years, and he wasn't born and raised nearby. He's never been the messianic figure James was/is, which means the abandonment fallout could never equal the magnitude of James' in Cleveland.
Even if it could, James just proved no desertion is irredeemable.
Whatever your takes on the Durant issue, get ready to fire them. His exit from Oklahoma City has a decent chance of happening.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, KD intends to meet with the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs when he officially hits free agency at midnight on July 1. Stein also mentioned the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers as suitors.
Durant wouldn't be taking meetings if he were dead set on sticking with the Thunder. The Warriors wouldn't be reportedly sending Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to their sit-downs if things weren't at least semiserious. And a guy like Draymond Green, famously outspoken, wouldn't be toeing an uncharacteristically diplomatic line if he didn't think there was a possibility Durant might soon be wearing a blue and gold jersey.
"KD is a great player, but I obviously love the guys that I play with, and we've been together for some years now," Green said, per Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle. "I can't control if we get KD. I can't control if we don't get KD. It's one of those things that is out of my hands, so I'll just go with the punches."
Let's say the meetings, Golden State's motivation after a Finals collapse and Green's political stance all point to the Warriors actually pulling this off. Let's say Durant plays his home games in Oakland next year.
How is that possibly a bad thing?
Sure, it'll bother old-schoolers, gasbag pundits and justifiably biased diehards in OKC. But we ought to do a better job of ignoring those emotional reactors anyway.
What makes the NBA more compelling than a new superteam? Every fan of the game should want to see this, dissect it and marvel at the possibilities. Detractors will root like mad for it to fail. Factions hoping for new levels of on-court greatness will shout praises while an equally vocal contingent will pray for collapse.
It will be as good for discourse as it will for TV viewership, which matters because the NBA is ultimately an entertainment product. It's supposed to attract attention.
As for concerns over competitive balance, keep in mind the Warriors just lost three straight to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who can still get better this summer. And they did it after falling down 3-1 to the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Remember, too, that Golden State hard-charged for 73 wins not just because it wanted to make history, but also because the Spurs pushed them for the No. 1 seed in the West until the end.
There are already powerhouses all over the NBA landscape.
That the Warriors didn't finish the drill last year makes it foolish to assume Durant would immediately render them unbeatable—particularly when his addition would mean the Warriors jettisoning all of their eight free agents and losing one of either Andrew Bogut or Andre Iguodala to make the money work.
Landing Durant would create real concerns over roles. Chemistry would be tricky, at least initially. The allure of a possible Curry-Thompson-Iguodala-Durant-Green Death Lineup is undeniable, but so is the intrigue attached to a restructuring of this magnitude. It's a basketball dream with just a dash of nightmare potential because the pieces not fitting is at least remotely possible.
If they did fit, we'd get to watch this terrifying creation play a season under incomprehensible pressure. Golden State would have to be better than it was this past season—otherwise what was the point of all this? And being better than last season feels nearly impossible.
Durant would have almost no margin for error either.
If either he or the Warriors couldn't make it work, they'd both be exposed to a zillion rings of "I told you so" and "Serves you right."
Is any sane person not interested in that ridiculously vast and impossibly fun spectrum of possibilities?
OKC fans are within their rights to hate this, and those who'll shout loudest about the ruin of the NBA by another Frankensteinian monster will be paid to keep shouting.
But if you love the NBA, you want this. You want this so much.
Durant joining the Warriors wouldn't ruin the league.
It would elevate it.
