Kevin Durant Doesn't Believe Playing On Super Teams Should Negatively Impact His Legacy And He's Absolutely Right

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

There's no denying that Kevin Durant is a polarizing basketball player. In fact, he may be one of the most polarizing players in the entire NBA. I think part of it comes with the territory of being an all time great player, part of it comes with the fact that he's very much online and isn't exactly shy about talking shit, and part of it of course is the whole GS decision.

For some reason, people to this day are still extremely weird about Durant joining GS. Talking about how his rings don't count, he's not an all-time great because he joined a super team blah blah blah. It's all very weird to me. Outside of Dirk's 2011 title which is probably one of, if not the heaviest rings of all time, this idea that legends playing on super teams didn't exist is very strange. Is Michael Jordan's legacy lessened because he played on a super team? Or Bird or Magic? Or Kobe and Shaq? Or KG and Ray Allen? Or LeBron? Or Steph? Certainly not to the degree that KD's career/legacy is discussed, which seems a little hypocritical.

When asked about this very thing, KD gave what I would consider a rather normal response

Guess what? He's right.

Now, maybe you think Durant's situation is different because he "chose" to join that Warriors team that just eliminated OKC the year prior to create one of the most dominant super teams in NBA history. My question is, why? You still have to go out and actually execute. These things aren't won on paper, you have to go out and get it done on the court. Not only that, it's not like KD didn't carry any of the load during those title runs, the dude won back to back Finals MVPs by being absolute nails on the biggest stage. 

Sometimes I think I'm taking crazy pills when it comes to this topic, and I wonder how much of it is tied to jealousy or fans being upset because those Warriors teams kicked the shit out of their favorite team. Newsflash, teams that win the NBA title are usually pretty fucking stacked! That's not exactly new, and KD is certainly not the first NBA legend.

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When you think of Durant's legacy, that GS decision will obviously be part of his story, but it's just one slice of the pie. When you're in the NBA for close to 20 years and are one of the greatest individual offensive players the NBA has ever seen, there's a ton of stuff that goes into a player's legacy. Again, we're talking about a player who has done shit like this

Currently sitting at 30,650 points (8th all time), I'd say barring some sort of serious injury it's looking pretty good that KD will end up passing MJ (32,292, 5th) on the all time list, and maybe even Kobe (33,643, 4th). Does he have 6,000+ points in him to get him into the top 3? The games played problem might prevent that, because it takes Durant around 75 games to get to 2,000 points in a season (2023-24), and if he's playing in the low to mid 60s, that ends up being closer to 1,600. He'll need 3-4 more years of at least 1,600 points a year to get into that conversation, which would bring KD into his early 40s.

The point is, I'm sure he'll be dragged for that comment on NBA Twitter just like he is whenever he does literally anything, but the truth of the matter is, he's right. I honestly think maturing is realizing that KD has been right this whole time, and that the bigger issue is more how weird the general basketball public is about him and his career.

P.S.

Let's also not forget, if KD's big toe didn't touch that 3pt line in that Game 7 back 2021 against the Bucks, KD most likely wins the title with BKN as well. Unfortunately, that's just how things go sometimes.