The chorus of hot-take spewing, nuance-hating, caffeine-guzzling junkies that make up sports radio have a new favorite reaction to the news that Kevin Durant is going to become a Brooklyn Net. They’re not furious at him like when he left Oklahoma City, nor do they think he is positioned to dominate the league year after year after year until all of Brooklyn is underwater. They’re more concerned that the New York Knicks didn’t sign him. Durant, they all say, has nothing left to prove.
Ha. Wait a minute. I’ve got to find the station’s phone number.
First time, long time. This is Joe calling in to let y’all know that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Durant has nothing left to prove? Puh-lease. He’s been in the league for nine years, won an MVP, two titles, and two Finals MVPs. He’s inarguably one of the 10 best players in NBA history. But he still hasn’t proven a thing.
At this point in the broadcast, the producer would likely play some kind of sound effect to show that I’ve broken the scale on their hot take-o-meter, and the hosts would hang up on me. But there are no producers to make fun of me and no hosts to cut me off here. So I’m going to keep on going.
In his first year in the Bay Area, Kevin Durant sat down with a local reporter for a Q&A who asked about the move to the Warriors. The Durant-led Thunder had just lost to Golden State in the Western Conference Finals. It was a heartbreaker. And when Durant went and signed with the same team that he had just lost to, it felt like a betrayal—to Oklahoma City, of course, but also to basketball fans. We wanted to see if Durant had what it took to earn a title for the Thunder. In other words, he had a lot to prove.
“I try to simplify as much as I can,” Durant said in the interview. “I think that makes my life easier and I think that’s what life is all about: trying to make it as easy as possible.”
One more time for the people in the back. Here’s Kevin Durant, months after making the biggest decision of his life up to that point: “I think that’s what life is all about: trying to make it as easy as possible.”
I don’t know what life is all about. I just know it’s not that.
I’ve never forgotten that quote, and it informs everything Durant has done since becoming one of the best scorers in the history of basketball. It’s why, when he announced he was signing with Brooklyn yesterday, no Warrior fans seemed to care. There weren’t jersey-burnings like when he left Oklahoma, and there weren’t messages of thanks like when LeBron left Cleveland last summer. Durant and Golden State just shook hands and parted ways. They’d made things easier for one another: he gave them some banners for their new stadium, they gave him some rings for validation. Nice doing business with you.
Now, he’s off to Brooklyn and the second half of his career with a bum ankle that changes everything. The injury is the first time in his career he won’t have the choice to just steer himself towards greener pastures. Now, our plot has some complication. It’s no surprise that it’ll be the first time we’ll care about the results.
So what does Durant have to prove in Brooklyn? Everything. We need to learn what kind of competitor he is. What type of teammate he is. What type of leader he is. Whether he can win a championship and not just join a team that has already proved it has what it takes. We need to see what happens when there isn’t an easy option to bail to. What happens to that perfect jump shot then? How badly does he want it? Does he want it at all?
These are the questions we typically ask of players just blossoming into stars, but Durant’s soiree to the Bay Area was an extended vacation for him, time for him to keep thinking he can build his life shying away from problems. Now, he has an ankle to heal, a contender to lead, and a legacy to build. Now comes the hard part.