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It's like the Warriors franchise wanted to win more titles and make boat loads of money.

michaelm wrote:

DoctorX wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:Lebron James was the reason why they flew down and begged him to join. And yeah he should've turned em down you can tell it eats him up inside that he made that mistake.

Jerry West tricked him into signing with them. I have heard Durant had his doubts and was concerned he would not get respect by winning with a loaded team like the Warriors. West assured him that he would get respect and that it would be like when Magic won with the showtime Lakers or Bird with the 80's Celtics. Durant believed he was going to get respect and validation from the media and fans by winning with the Warriors. Like you said it definitely eats him up.

I believe history will look more kindly on him, he was hardly the instigator of the superteam era, and it will be very obvious in retrospect in the absence of the narrative de jour who did instigate same.

Yes, they and KD should have realised only LeBron was entitled to do whatever it took to win titles during LeBron’s career as an active player.

I will give it to LeBron that he ploughed on and ignored all naysaying, which is what KD should have done as well imo instead of arguing with adolescents on social media.

Rodwilliams wrote:Came across this ESPN article which breaks down how Durant ending up joining the Warriors.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18376747/how-kevin-durant-landed-bay

Key comment in this article:

“ And, in the aftermath, many sources around the NBA come to believe this: Boston might have landed Durant had the Warriors won the Finals -- as Durant wouldn't want to have looked like a man hopping aboard a dynasty.”

but as it turned out, kd running to the very team that beat him and okc amounted to the same thing as going to a ring team

and let's not forget one small point. gsw was a ring, just not that year. that year they were a record 73win team.

so either kd was really dumb to think it or the "sources" were really dumb to believe it.

Lalouie wrote:

Rodwilliams wrote:Came across this ESPN article which breaks down how Durant ending up joining the Warriors.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18376747/how-kevin-durant-landed-bay

Key comment in this article:

“ And, in the aftermath, many sources around the NBA come to believe this: Boston might have landed Durant had the Warriors won the Finals -- as Durant wouldn't want to have looked like a man hopping aboard a dynasty.”

but as it turned out, kd running to the very team that beat him and okc amounted to the same thing as going to a ring team

and let's not forget one small point. gsw was a ring, just not that year. that year they were a record 73win team.

so either kd was really dumb to think it or the "sources" were really dumb to believe it.

Sure, ESPN are well known for being objective/having no narrative in an era when LeBron James’ greatness is their major avenue for promoting the sport they are paying for.

Let us see in 20 years time when sone other player is the flavour of the day how Durant’s super team moves stack up more objectively to LeBron’s in the current era. If LeBron has any limits himself in regard to what he is prepared to perpetrate as a ring chaser I have been unable to discern same.

Golden St. was recruiting KD the entire 2016 season. It didn't just happen after the Finals were over. A team who was like 37-4 with Luke Walton coaching them, recruiting the 2nd best player in the game.

June 29th, 2016 The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski said the following on a recent podcast:

"Here's the thing that's interesting about Golden State -- their players have been recruiting Kevin Durant all year. And it goes back to early in the season when the Thunder were struggling. And I don't know if Golden State saw them as a peer; I don't know that they saw them as a threat ... Kevin Durant, just like he was hearing from guys in Boston, Washington, different places -- he was hearing from guys on the Warriors about, 'Hey, you can come help take the pressure off of Steph Curry. We need you.' This is when they were running off win after win after win.

"They had him on their mind. He's been on their mind. And it appealed to him. And some of it was text messages, it's a lot of that. But the communication with some of the players in Golden State and Kevin, that's just not just starting now."

"I talked to Draymond Green earlier in the year. We were talking hypothetically about a big free agent. Hey listen -- what player there (in Golden State) would have more to lose if you were looking at it from a selfish point of view, than Draymond Green? He's the third guy, he's still an All-Star. Well, he'll become the fourth guy with Kevin Durant.

"Are you gonna take four All-Stars from Golden State? If Kevin Durant comes, does Draymond Green remain an All-Star? Maybe he does, but maybe not. Would there be less offense for Draymond? Yeah, there's gonna be less offense for everybody.

"Yet Draymond has been as adamant as anybody, 'If we can get Kevin Durant, let's get Kevin Durant, because you know why? We will win.'"

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/report-warriors-players-recruited-kevin-durant-all-season

michaelm wrote:

michaelm wrote:

DoctorX wrote:
Jerry West tricked him into signing with them. I have heard Durant had his doubts and was concerned he would not get respect by winning with a loaded team like the Warriors. West assured him that he would get respect and that it would be like when Magic won with the showtime Lakers or Bird with the 80's Celtics. Durant believed he was going to get respect and validation from the media and fans by winning with the Warriors. Like you said it definitely eats him up.

I believe history will look more kindly on him, he was hardly the instigator of the superteam era, and it will be very obvious in retrospect in the absence of the narrative de jour who did instigate same.

Yes, they and KD should have realised only LeBron was entitled to do whatever it took to win titles during LeBron’s career as an active player.

I will give it to LeBron that he ploughed on and ignored all naysaying, which is what KD should have done as well imo instead of arguing with adolescents on social media.

KD will always deal with the stigma on jumping on the Warriors bandwagon. People wont' ever forget it. Look at how people discredit the Rockets title teams because of the narrative Jordan didn't play for 2 years and it's been over 25 years since the Rockets last title. So it shows you history really won't be kind to KD.

Also who cares about Lebron did. This about KD. It's amazing how polarizing of a figure Lebron is that he's brought up whenever talking about Kawhi, or KD's legacies or any other great player's legacy. It get's old after a while.

Lalouie wrote:

Rodwilliams wrote:Came across this ESPN article which breaks down how Durant ending up joining the Warriors.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18376747/how-kevin-durant-landed-bay

Key comment in this article:

“ And, in the aftermath, many sources around the NBA come to believe this: Boston might have landed Durant had the Warriors won the Finals -- as Durant wouldn't want to have looked like a man hopping aboard a dynasty.”

but as it turned out, kd running to the very team that beat him and okc amounted to the same thing as going to a ring team

and let's not forget one small point. gsw was a ring, just not that year. that year they were a record 73win team.

so either kd was really dumb to think it or the "sources" were really dumb to believe it.

This is where the misconception lies because Durant didn’t “run” anywhere. The Warriors ran to him. Durant was minding his business, on vacation in the Hamptons and the Warriors came to him begging him to join. Look at 4th horseman post, the post below yours. The Warriors were recruiting him already during that 73 win season. That’s just outright ridiculous. I question the Warriors competitive nature.

You mentioning that they had a ring and won 73 games just makes it much worse what they did. We know they got lucky cause of injuries in 2015 but we won’t get into that. This is straight up not wanting to compete but instead just aiming to get the 2nd best player in the NBA instead of trying to build a better team to beat the Cavs.

DoctorX wrote:

michaelm wrote:

michaelm wrote:I believe history will look more kindly on him, he was hardly the instigator of the superteam era, and it will be very obvious in retrospect in the absence of the narrative de jour who did instigate same.

Yes, they and KD should have realised only LeBron was entitled to do whatever it took to win titles during LeBron’s career as an active player.

I will give it to LeBron that he ploughed on and ignored all naysaying, which is what KD should have done as well imo instead of arguing with adolescents on social media.

KD will always deal with the stigma on jumping on the Warriors bandwagon. People wont' ever forget it. Look at how people discredit the Rockets title teams because of the narrative Jordan didn't play for 2 years and it's been over 25 years since the Rockets last title. So it shows you history really won't be kind to KD.

Also who cares about Lebron did. This about KD. It's amazing how polarizing of a figure Lebron is that he's brought up whenever talking about Kawhi, or KD's legacies or any other great player's legacy. It get's old after a while.

The general mindset of the average fan is that of a child.

Michaelm knows what he's talking about as do many of us. When the best player on this generation ring chases from 2010-present, it is pure hypocrisy to even criticize another star player for doing what's best for them.

BigBoss23 wrote:

DoctorX wrote:

michaelm wrote:Yes, they and KD should have realised only LeBron was entitled to do whatever it took to win titles during LeBron’s career as an active player.

I will give it to LeBron that he ploughed on and ignored all naysaying, which is what KD should have done as well imo instead of arguing with adolescents on social media.

KD will always deal with the stigma on jumping on the Warriors bandwagon. People wont' ever forget it. Look at how people discredit the Rockets title teams because of the narrative Jordan didn't play for 2 years and it's been over 25 years since the Rockets last title. So it shows you history really won't be kind to KD.

Also who cares about Lebron did. This about KD. It's amazing how polarizing of a figure Lebron is that he's brought up whenever talking about Kawhi, or KD's legacies or any other great player's legacy. It get's old after a while.

The general mindset of the average fan is that of a child.

Michaelm knows what he's talking about as do many of us. When the best player on this generation ring chases from 2010-present, it is pure hypocrisy to even criticize another star player for doing what's best for them.

Again this is not about Lebron. This about Durant. This thread is about Durant lol it's not about Lebron but he's going to be brought up in it. Go call out Lebron's move as chicken **** in a thread that discusses Lebron legacy which there are 50 of those threads in this forum. It's dumb as hell how people have to continuously bring up Lebron to defend other players chicken **** move. By the way I'm not fan of either Lebron or KD.

Lock er' up .

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It's the gm's (or president of basketball ops) to put the best team on the court. I dont blame the warriors. It's durant's decision that devalues his own legacy.

Do we really have to rewarsh/rehash durant going to the warriors to form a super duper fluper team. It happened.

Drygon wrote:

Rodwilliams wrote:Came across this ESPN article which breaks down how Durant ending up joining the Warriors.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18376747/how-kevin-durant-landed-bay

Key comment in this article:

“ And, in the aftermath, many sources around the NBA come to believe this: Boston might have landed Durant had the Warriors won the Finals -- as Durant wouldn't want to have looked like a man hopping aboard a dynasty.”


So if the Warriors had won that year Durant would’ve never been on that team. He would’ve been somewhere else. He didn’t want to feel like he would be joining a dynasty if they had won that year. This is nothing like Lebron situation with the Heat where the entire thing was pre planned already.


The Warriors won 73 games that year. Why go after such a high caliber player like Durant? Was Durant wrong in not turning them down?

Yeah and GSW lost NBA Finals against Cavs despite having a 3-1 lead.

Regular season record don't mean a thing without a Championship

And the year before the Warriors did win a championship. They were already champions and then Durant joined them. That’s why Durant never got the respect that he wanted.

If he wins a championship with the Nets he’ll get his due.

BigBoss23 wrote:

DoctorX wrote:

michaelm wrote:Yes, they and KD should have realised only LeBron was entitled to do whatever it took to win titles during LeBron’s career as an active player.

I will give it to LeBron that he ploughed on and ignored all naysaying, which is what KD should have done as well imo instead of arguing with adolescents on social media.

KD will always deal with the stigma on jumping on the Warriors bandwagon. People wont' ever forget it. Look at how people discredit the Rockets title teams because of the narrative Jordan didn't play for 2 years and it's been over 25 years since the Rockets last title. So it shows you history really won't be kind to KD.

Also who cares about Lebron did. This about KD. It's amazing how polarizing of a figure Lebron is that he's brought up whenever talking about Kawhi, or KD's legacies or any other great player's legacy. It get's old after a while.

The general mindset of the average fan is that of a child.

Michaelm knows what he's talking about as do many of us. When the best player on this generation ring chases from 2010-present, it is pure hypocrisy to even criticize another star player for doing what's best for them.

Signing with a 33 win team and a 26 win team is considered ring chasing??

Because he was in the Hamptons? The Celtics flew there too.

NZB2323 wrote:

Drygon wrote:

Rodwilliams wrote:Came across this ESPN article which breaks down how Durant ending up joining the Warriors.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18376747/how-kevin-durant-landed-bay

Key comment in this article:

“ And, in the aftermath, many sources around the NBA come to believe this: Boston might have landed Durant had the Warriors won the Finals -- as Durant wouldn't want to have looked like a man hopping aboard a dynasty.”


So if the Warriors had won that year Durant would’ve never been on that team. He would’ve been somewhere else. He didn’t want to feel like he would be joining a dynasty if they had won that year. This is nothing like Lebron situation with the Heat where the entire thing was pre planned already.


The Warriors won 73 games that year. Why go after such a high caliber player like Durant? Was Durant wrong in not turning them down?

Yeah and GSW lost NBA Finals against Cavs despite having a 3-1 lead.

Regular season record don't mean a thing without a Championship

And the year before the Warriors did win a championship. They were already champions and then Durant joined them. That’s why Durant never got the respect that he wanted.

If he wins a championship with the Nets he’ll get his due.

Come on man 2015 was a cupcake title. Still doesn’t justify the Warriors begging Durant to join them after winning 73 games. Question their competitive nature. They were already recruiting him during that 2016 season which shows they didn’t have much confidence in beating a healthy Lebron squad.

Pablo Escobar wrote:Lebron James was the reason why they flew down and begged him to join. And yeah he should've turned em down you can tell it eats him up inside that he made that mistake.

Lebron fans gotta love you right now. Although this is true this is also more ammunition for the Lebron vs Jordan arguments too. I could hear the Lebron fans now saying that a 73 win team went and got the 2nd best player in the league cause they were afraid of losing to Lebron. Jordan ain’t never have a team go and get the 2nd best in the league cause they were afraid of losing to him.

KD was never going to sign with Bos regardless if GSW had won the chip that yr.....why is it theres always a "would've" with Bos?...."woudlve drafted Herro" "woudlve drafted Giannis" "wouldve signed KD" etc.

The Warriors with their ability to spread the floor due to having 5 guys who could hit threes ushered in small ball into the league. The other teams simply were caught off guard. This is why the Warriors won in 2015 and won 73 games in 2016. But the thing is, other teams began adjusting and implementing their own small ball so by the time the Warriors made the Finals they weren't so unique. And it would have been even worse the following season as even more teams successfully adjusted. Swapping the very limited 3 and D Harrison Barnes for the best player in the NBA was a no brainer. What team wouldn't want to do that? And they were only able to do that because they had Steph on the cheap. Pre KD the Warriors were not an ATG team, I don't care how many meaningless regular season games they won in 2016. If KD doesn't join them, they lose Barnes and wouldn't ever have returned to the Finals. Step was too bad on defense, Klay too limited on offense and taking away 3 and D guy like Barnes would have been disastrous.

DoctorX wrote:

BigBoss23 wrote:

DoctorX wrote:
KD will always deal with the stigma on jumping on the Warriors bandwagon. People wont' ever forget it. Look at how people discredit the Rockets title teams because of the narrative Jordan didn't play for 2 years and it's been over 25 years since the Rockets last title. So it shows you history really won't be kind to KD.

Also who cares about Lebron did. This about KD. It's amazing how polarizing of a figure Lebron is that he's brought up whenever talking about Kawhi, or KD's legacies or any other great player's legacy. It get's old after a while.

The general mindset of the average fan is that of a child.

Michaelm knows what he's talking about as do many of us. When the best player on this generation ring chases from 2010-present, it is pure hypocrisy to even criticize another star player for doing what's best for them.

Again this is not about Lebron. This about Durant. This thread is about Durant lol it's not about Lebron but he's going to be brought up in it. Go call out Lebron's move as chicken **** in a thread that discusses Lebron legacy which there are 50 of those threads in this forum. It's dumb as hell how people have to continuously bring up Lebron to defend other players chicken **** move. By the way I'm not fan of either Lebron or KD.

Of course it is about LeBron. The whole context of Durant’s move was an era of superteams which was substantially down to LeBron, one of which beat Durant’s fledgling OKC team, for which LeBron was exalted and acclaimed as greatly superior to Durant, and LeBron’s fans awarding the 2015 title to him then LeBron petitioning the commissioner to suspend Green which motivated the overreach in going for the regular season record and the move to go all out for Durant/going to the Hamptons respectively. Someone actually quoted ESPN. If anyone wishes to contend the media organisation ESPN is part of is not known for running narratives sometimes with tenuous connections to reality there is a very nice harbour bridge near where I live in Sydney I am happy to sell them. The narrative from them has consistently been mainly about LeBron to the exclusion of other players during his career.

If you are not a LeBron fan fine, you have a somewhat more objective vantage point from which to criticise KD, but I don’t believe there is much in the way of doubt that much of the anti-KD rancour was from LeBron fans peeved about his ambitions, and their ambitions for him, being thwarted, temporarily at least. LeBron has gone on to demonstrate at the Lakers he has no discernible limitations in regard to whom he is prepared to play with and how they land on his team btw, while the cowardly KD played injured risking and in fact sustaining a career threatening injury in pursuit of a 3rd title for a team he had already decided to leave.

Bottom line is that LeBron has pursued an individual destiny for 10 years now, and has even been allowed to have his own player agency to aid his endeavours, while other players and KD in particular are somehow bound by arcane rules in regard to how they oppose him, and in particular are apparently bound by considerations of team loyalty even when no longer contracted to any teams and considerations of the general competitiveness of the NBA; LeBron on all evidence cares not a jot about the latter.

They both can do whatever they like as FAs as far as I am concerned btw, but I see no reason why it isn’t open slather for everyone in this era given LeBron’s ongoing moves since 2010.