I still can’t blame Kevin Durant for going to the Warriors

I still can’t blame Kevin Durant for going to the Warriors

I still can’t blame Kevin Durant for going to the Warriors
NBA

I still can’t blame Kevin Durant for going to the Warriors

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There hasn’t been a single day since July 4, 2016, that I’ve begrudged Kevin Durant for his decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors. This doesn’t mean I’ve loved what’s followed. I’ve lamented, countless times, the fact that there was very little tension in this NBA season. As soon as KD got his hands on the ball, you remembered: Oh, yeah. The Warriors have Durant now.

But I’ve haven’t been able to blame Durant for leaving Oklahoma City. For almost a year now, whenever I’ve tried, I keep coming back to this line from the Talmud, the Hebrew text that accompanies the Torah.

“If I am not for myself, who is? But if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”

It’s the most true statement I’ve heard in my 28 years of existence. No one can help you the way you can help yourself. Other people, as well as entities like teams and companies, might say they want the best for you. They might even mean it. But no organization or human can help you the way you can help yourself.

At the same time, a life lived completely selfishly is at best forgettable for its lack of impact and at worst sends dangerous shockwaves of negligence, carelessness, or lack of compassion and empathy through the world.

Look, please believe me when I tell you I realize how silly it sounds to say that the ancient teachings of a rabbinical master shaped the way I’ve thought about whether a professional athlete screwed over a professional sports league. This isn’t religion. This isn’t life or death. This is basketball.

But the handwringing that’s gone along with Durant’s decision has seemed much bigger than the sport itself. It illustrates what we expect from our stars vs. what we expect from ourselves.

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that you have your dream job. You’re good at it. One of the best in your industry! Let’s say you’ve been in that job for eight years, which is a long time by constantly hopping-around-Millennial standards. You love your coworkers, but you’ve still haven’t reached the levels of greatness you desire.

What if an opportunity comes along? Someone at another company reaches out, maybe by text. They tell you that not only do they want you to come join them, but that if you do, they know — they are certain — that together you can set a new standard in your professional world.

Now imagine turning that down. I can’t. So I can’t blame Durant.

I know being an NBA player isn’t your typical 9-to-5 job. Athletes are, when you strip away everything else, entertainers. You could argue they owe something to their fan bases and have to think of a larger swath of people than just themselves when making decisions. You wouldn’t be wrong.

But Durant tried: For eight years he tried!

Which brings me to the “if not now, when?” portion of the quote. Durant banged his head against the glass ceiling of titles for years in Oklahoma City. He and the Thunder fell short in every possible way — untimely injuries, blowing big leads, falling short against better teams and direct peers. All the while, the roster kept getting weaker to protect a billionaire’s checkbook. Durant was running low on options, time, and patience in OKC if he wanted something more ephemeral and less contractually guaranteed than tons of money.

Wishing he’d stayed in Oklahoma City, saying that would’ve been The Right Thing To Do, downplays the fact that while he is a public figure, he’s also a human. Just because you exist to entertain doesn’t mean you don’t exist as an individual.

Durant himself said something similar to that Hillel quote when he spoke to Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins in an interview last summer:

“I can’t make a decision on my life because everybody else is going to be upset about it. I told myself to put me first, to really think about what I wanted. This is what I wanted. ... It was simple. That’s where I want to play basketball.”

It’s not Durant’s fault the Warriors were so damn good before he got there. It’s not his fault they wanted him and actually had the cap space to make it happen. He didn’t design the team. He didn’t draft the players. He didn’t give the NBA $24 billion dollars in TV money. He didn’t create the conditions where that massive increase in revenue arrived all at once after the Warriors won 73 games. He was simply offered the opportunity of a lifetime — multiple championships — in a league with a fan base and media that don’t consider you a true master of your craft unless you collect enough jewelry to prove it.

But he was the final nail in the coffin the Warriors packed all the other teams into and slammed shut. He became the poster boy for a lack of parity simply by being in the wrong or right place at the wrong or right time, depending on your point of view.

The fact that he won that ring angers people who think he was wrong to leave OKC or wish he’d gone somewhere else besides Oakland. But every time I’ve had a conversation where someone’s said, “I never would’ve done that,” I’m baffled. Really? You wouldn’t have taken an opportunity to make history?

I also don’t think Durant’s move was completely selfish. I think he was for others, in the sense that he brought a degree of transcendence to another team that would’ve been impossible without him. He helped the Warriors unlock the next level. He gave fans and appreciators of the sport something to marvel at. He made history, and don’t NBA fans love history? Isn’t that what we spend hours arguing about — LeBron or MJ? The ’96 Bulls or the ’17 Warriors? He contributed to record NBA Finals ratings.

Ambition can be threatening. When someone seeks out what they want, and it comes at the expense of someone or something else, it can seem selfish. But what makes the best people the best is that they do whatever it takes to climb to the peak of their abilities. When they get there, they reach higher.

For Durant, getting to those heights this June meant he had to be for himself last July. As I watched him hoist the trophy above his head with his teammates that drove me crazy all season as they demolished the league, I couldn’t help but smile. Durant was for himself out there, but he wasn’t alone.