Mocked for making a collection of offseason calls for that had been swatted away by the individuals who pay him, Kevin Durant can nonetheless have the final chortle. He can nonetheless make this all work out ultimately for his Brooklyn Nets.
Durant is the very best participant who ever suited up for a New York-area crew, higher than the likes of Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Julius Erving, and Jason Kidd. He made as massive a shot as any New York star ever made when he drained that Recreation 7 fadeaway towards Milwaukee, a tying 2-pointer that might’ve been a successful 3-pointer if not, Durant mentioned, for “my big-ass foot.”
None of that modified as a result of Durant first insisted that the Nets commerce him to a extra steady and dedicated franchise, after which insisted that proprietor Joe Tsai fireplace normal supervisor Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash in alternate for KD’s renewed loyalty.
So so long as the 34-year-old Durant stays wholesome, and the ball is in his palms, he will get to jot down his personal story. And it does seem there may be room on the prime of the NBA energy construction for Durant to train some literary license.
The Boston Celtics, who humiliated final 12 months’s Nets within the first spherical on the way in which to the Finals, have now gone from dead-serious title contenders to finish unknown within the wake of the Ime Udoka mess. On the opposite facet of the draw, the defending-champion Golden State Warriors would possibly finally be impacted extra by Draymond Inexperienced’s laborious punch to Jordan Poole’s face than they had been by Inexperienced’s bygone feud with Durant.
No person actually expects the dysfunctional Nets to benefit from another person’s dysfunction. So think about what Durant would do for his present standing within the league, and for his legacy as an all-time nice, if he can guide a parade for Brooklyn.
If he might win all of it with the perpetually unreliable Kyrie Irving as his quarterback. If he might win all of it with the overmatched Nash as his head coach.
If he might make a champion out of Ben Simmons, after Simmons made the Sixers throw up their palms and cry uncle.
Sure, after what we've got seen (or, higher but, not seen) from the Nets since Durant and Irving arrived to nice fanfare in the summertime of 2019, it’s awfully tough to image them celebrating below a confetti rain in Barclays Middle subsequent June. They've received a grand complete of 1 playoff collection collectively. Accidents, self-serving sabbaticals, massive trades gone awry, poor teaching and tradition constructing, and normal underperformance have conspired to make Brooklyn the worst postseason crew cash might purchase.
The identical Nets followers who assumed that their crew would’ve received a title by now would in all probability join a tricky six-game loss within the convention finals. If nothing else, that might recommend progress and not less than a semblance of a program.
However what if Durant reestablishes himself because the world’s finest participant and takes this crew the space? It might change all of the noise round him. It might convert the amusement (at his expense) into admiration (of his resilience).
This positive isn’t meant to make KD a sufferer of occasions he couldn’t management. He created his personal adversity right here. For starters, he by no means ought to have left Golden State as a free agent. Durant has already value himself one ring and possibly extra by making an attempt to reply the critics he ought to have ignored — the voices assailing him for becoming a member of the identical superteam that had vanquished his Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.
Durant had elevated the Warriors to a better place by successful back-to-back championships, however felt he wanted to show he might kind a juggernaut to name his personal. He made one of many worst trades in NBA historical past — Steph Curry for Irving — in pursuit of one thing even his wingspan couldn’t attain. And after the Warriors received a title with out him final 12 months, Durant couldn’t take it anymore. He determined he wanted to seek out one other crew, one other forged, that cared as a lot because the Warriors did.
“My entire factor was, I need all people to be held accountable for his or her habits as a participant on daily basis, and loads of stuff was getting swept below the rug as a result of we’re injured or guys aren’t round,” Durant mentioned at the beginning of coaching camp. “We might’ve fought by that extra and targeted on the blokes that had been right here. After I went out with the harm, we misplaced [11] in a row. We shouldn’t be shedding a few of these video games.
“I used to be extra so fearful about how we had been approaching on daily basis as a crew. I felt like we might’ve fought by loads of stuff that held us again.”
Durant acted on these emotions by demanding a commerce, after which by demanding the heads belonging to Marks and Nash. When Tsai rejected the entire above, compelling Durant to face down and honor his lavish contract, properly, it didn’t make the 6-foot-10 celebrity look excellent. No matter occurred to the period of participant empowerment?
However when the Nets open the season at dwelling Wednesday evening towards the Pelicans, KD can regain management of his personal story. He can lastly lead his crew to the place it was supposedly meant to go.
Greater than something, with the ball in his palms, Kevin Durant can earn himself the final chortle.
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