Kevin Durant is pushing aside the criticism that his move to the Golden State Warriors and singling out the Orlando Magic’s poor rebuild.
The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have a week to prepare for the NBA Finals. The seemingly inevitable rubber match between the league’s past two champions is finally about to begin. Everyone just has to wait a little while longer.
That will give everyone plenty of time to prepare and talk to the media. The fodder will grow as the teams begin posturing.
This is also the end of a long journey. Especially for Kevin Durant.
Durant has taken a lot of heat for his decision to move from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Golden State Warriors in free agency. Unfairly in many ways. But the legacy questions he is trying to avoid continue to arise. He joined a championship-caliber team to make it even better.
And this year’s Playoffs are not helping matters.
The general consensus is the inevitability of this year’s Finals has ruined the league in some way. The fact that it was Warriors and Cavaliers and everyone knew this back in October takes something away from the league. The Warriors enter the NBA Finals undefeated. The Cavaliers have just one loss. And neither conference finals series featured many close games.
The Warriors and Cavaliers have been masterful and dominant all postseason. And Kevin Durant’s decision has received much of the blame for the league’s lack of drama.
Durant has accepted the role as heal. He does not care. And he asked the question everyone in Orlando certainly hates hearing, telling Sam Amick of USA TODAY:
"“Like I’m the reason why (expletive) Orlando couldn’t make the playoffs for five, six years in a row?” he said. “Am I the reason that Brooklyn gave all their picks to Boston? Like, am I the reason that they’re not that good (laughs)? I can’t play for every team, so the truth of the matter is I left one team. It’s one more team that you probably would’ve thought would’ve been a contender. One more team. I couldn’t have made the (entire) East better. I couldn’t have made everybody (else) in the West better.”"
Durant is absolutely right. His decision to leave the Thunder to win a championship with the Warriors is completely independent of the league’s parity problem. If it even is a problem. The NBA is notoriously unfair, it being a league where one player can drastically change outcomes for a team on his own.
This is certainly a strange way to call teams out. Especially since the Orlando Magic were led by one of the assistant general managers who drafted Durant and oversaw his development in Oklahoma City.
Alas, there is no comeback. The Magic have struggled to gain much traction or collect talent to make the Playoffs the last five years (not six, Kevin). And that is not Kevin Durant’s fault.
All Durant did was try to win a championship. That is what the great players are judged on, right?
The Magic are not likely to see anything close to a championship for some time. It will take a good stroke of luck and the right development to get there. At this point, the Magic would like to get back into the Playoffs and avoid this list.
Next: Orlando Magic Daily Roundtable: Early Draft Thoughts
Druant singling out the Magic this way . . . it sure feels like an embarrassing call out.