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By Alex Kuhn
Sports Editor 

Hear me out...The Kevin Durant fallout: Why it's okay for Superstars to leave town

 

July 7, 2016

Courtesy MGN

Kevin Durant with future Golden State Warriors teammate Draymond Green after Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.

The NBA has the best offseason of any sport. They get right to it, as soon as the NBA Finals are done the NBA draft is the following week, and the draft itself is more entertaining with trades happening at every turn. We aren't subjected to months and months of pre-draft scouting reports that tell us unnecessary information like what diet gives QB 'A' better bowel movements.

The NBA gets to the point and after the draft is free agency which usually has a handful of good players to keep things interesting, but they're usually your second or third-tier players, the LaMarcus Aldridge types.

Every once in a while a top-tier player hits the market and shakes things up. Kevin Durant shook things up on Fourth of July morning. By announcing his decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors he sent a 'San Andreas' (A great bad movie!) like seismic-shift through the NBA, immediately getting everyone more excited for the NBA season than the NFL and had me writing so much this column is turning into a two-parter.

Durant's decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder was surprising for several reasons. They came so close to beating Golden State in the Western Conference Finals, general manager Sam Presti traded Serge Ibaka for Victor Oladipo making the Thunder even more athletic, and it was thought Durant would give OKC one more run by signing a one-year deal essentially, then the following offseason he could decide on a new home while being offered a massive contract when the new TV deal kicked in.

I may have even made an overly confident statement about Durant staying put but who honestly remembers.

Durant's choice to leave brought the backlash and shade throwers out in full force. NBA greats like Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller said he was 'cheating his way to a title' or 'tarnishing his legacy.' ESPN's over-the-top talking head Stephen A. Smith called his move 'soft' and columnist Mike Lupica called him 'spineless.'

It makes sense to be disappointed over Durant's departure if you're an OKC fan but outside of that, the rage directed toward him doesn't make sense and the notion of "how dare he leave" is ridiculous. It's a free market and leaving for the Warriors, or if it were some Israeli franchise, is well within his right. Yes, he's a top-tier player joining an already historically great team which is unprecedented. But if you're Durant and rings are the only thing to cement your legacy why not go big and be the missing piece to a dynasty?

The narrative a superstar can't leave his original franchise is, to put it kindly, moronic. Why do we demand professional athletes stay on one team for their entire career and when they do leave we equate it to a lack of loyalty? It's unAmerican, most of us have left jobs because we wanted a change or find a better opportunity.

In fact, Durant leaving OKC is the most American thing he could do. That's right; I'm going there. He exercised his free market and God-given right to leave his current employer for an employer of his choosing. Eat it socialism.

And he announced it on the Fourth of July! The only thing that would have made it more American was two bald eagles perched on his shoulders in his picture on The Players' Tribune.

Like most backlash, it's shortsighted and doesn't take in account the bigger picture. Durant didn't join the Warriors for a title or two. There's potential here for a dynasty, one that hasn't been seen since the Red Auerbach and Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics teams. These new Warriors won't win 10 titles in 11 seasons like those Celtics, but they're certainly in line for five of six. And in today's NBA, that level of dominance is on par with Russell and company.

When the Warriors start piling up the titles, if you listen carefully you'll be able to hear the Scooby-Doo-like backtracking from all those who blasted Durant's move.

 
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