BigBoss23 wrote:I find your take on Durant's GSW tenure incredibly biased and inaccurate.
You're certainly entitled to your perspective.
BigBoss23 wrote:He wasn't jealous of Curry. He was envious of all the love his teammates were getting.
You think this makes him look less immature?
BigBoss23 wrote: His detractors would never acknowledge him as "being one of the them" and hence he left for Brooklyn.
You're skipping the important part. If Durant had been a dream to be around his entire time in GS before leaving that would be one thing, in reality he was a pill after the first year when the title didn't make him feel whole...just like many of us knew it wouldn't.
I say with zero exaggeration: When Durant chose to go to GS my thought wasn't "He's ruining the game", it was "That's not going to give him what he thinks it will". The only thing I didn't know is how poorly he'd handle it when his unrealistic hopes didn't pan out.
He turned a culture of joy into a culture of walking on eggshells around him, and when you talk about me being "biased" against him, you have to understand that if I'm biased, it's because of this. I wasn't gleefully waiting for him to act like an idiot, but when he began acting like idiot, I noticed.
BigBoss23 wrote:In this sense, he miscalculated that his play would do the talking for him; people have strong opinions and because he pulled an Infinity Wars Thanos and followed through successfully at making sure GSW dominated the league that the Heatles wish they did.
Durant chased legacy like a tone deaf person trying to sing, and this is why he's so frustrated, and why many of us find it very difficult to have patience with him.
BigBoss23 wrote:He fit in, played his role to perfection.
He played his role pretty well - not perfection the first year - then he developed a much less willing-to-learn attitude the next year.
BigBoss23 wrote: That scuffle with Draymond? Management suspended Green, so that should tell you who they thought was in the wrong for that altercation.
That tells you who they were trying to suck up to - Durant.
Now, the reason why they were sucking up to Durant rather than Green was in part because everyone knows Green is a loose cannon who should not be coddled, but don't fool yourself. Both Durant and Green deserved blame in that situation, and what they deserved blame for was not the same type of thing.
Green deserved blame for 1) making a bad play, 2) losing his temper, and 3) letting something out of his mouth that couldn't be taken back.
Durant deserved blame for becoming "that star" who grouses when those around him make mistakes or try to encourage him to do something he doesn't want to do.
I'm not saying Durant deserve more blame than Green. I think you can definitely make the case Green deserves more blame. But we have to acknowledge what Durant actually did or else we aren't talking about anything real.
And we also have to acknowledge this was not a one-time incident. Durant mocked Steve Kerr's culture, for example. That culture was a big part of why Durant wanted to come to GS and by his 2nd year on the team, Durant showed contempt for it. That's a really freaking short amount of time when you're actually winning championships. It's typically said that "winning cures everything", but that's how it is for most people, not someone who is as deeply neurotic as Durant is.
BigBoss23 wrote:Want to dig deeper? Draymond didn't like the mystery surrounding KD's impending free agency. I don't see other stars getting criticized for being "a malcontent employee" simply by not openly discussing their impending free agency. Did he ever have any other documented problems or altercations with teammates while he was in OKC or GSW? The answer is no. His GSW teammates lobbied for him to resign and have nothing but good things to say about him to this day.
He's not being criticized for being a malcontent simply because he didn't openly discuss his impending free agency though. You're now just pointing to one of the many aspects of the decision that was driving toxicity and trying to attach it to something else that it clearly wasn't related to.
If Durant had never opened his mouth to say negative crap indicating his frustration with the situation, we'd have never said "Boy, he seems frustrated." It's really not that complicated.
Re: other document altercations? There was other stuff in GS as I've alluded. Go read Strauss' book. There's plenty there.
As far OKC, well that's the funny thing. For a long time in OKC Durant was Mr. Happy even while Westbrook was massacring the organization of the offense...and then Durant started just screaming at the media and he only ever briefly stopped doing that when he went to GS. The media was a dog he could beat without consequence to his direct co-working relationship, so he expressed his frustration there all while saying he was fine with Brooks/Donovan/Westbrook.
And then he left.
Re: Teammates lobbied for him to resign...because he's very good at basketball.
Re: nothing but good things to say about him. Right except for Green obviously, oh and Iguodala. But Klay hasn't said anything bad, in part because Klay is probably on the spectrum and seems to be something of a golly-gee-puppy dog who probably doesn't even understand why Durant was upset in the first place. And Steph hasn't said anything, because Steph is actually wise and knows nothing good can come from it.
BigBoss23 wrote:Curry revolutionized the game no doubt, and is perhaps the greatest off ball player/ceiling raiser in history. But the one thing he didn't have was the elite top level ability to create his own shot at will when defenses bog down at the highest level. In the few games that GSW had trouble with in the 2017 and 2018 Finals where nobody's shot was falling those games, it was KD who was the one constant. Whether that means he was more or less "important" than Curry's overall impact is a discussion, as the value of isolation scoring at high efficiency seems to be lost for many in this project imo. You guys tend to focus on "what could have happened" vs "what actually happened".
This is a good thing to say.
It's easier to keep Curry from shooting than Durant, the rub is that you can't do that to Curry without providing space to his teammates. Which is more valuable? If you're teammates are good, I'd say Curry's way. If your teammates are bad, Durant's.