Can you cite some of these douchey comments?No, because this year they have Durant. I don't think the Warriors would have a chance without him. He stretches the court is so many ways, playing about any position on the court.
I used to really like Durant, wanted him to win. Last few years he's been a bit of a douche with his comments, and then bailing like he did rubbed me the wrong way. Warriors will win, he will get his ring, but not given a lot of respect imo.
Can you cite some of these douchey comments?
I know right!?I've only watched a couple quarters of the two games but Cavs defense is absolute shit. There was a time last night in the first half where Curry didn't have a defender within 15 feet of him. How does that happen? Tons of stupid, needless fouls on shooters. And other than Love being decent in the first 5 minutes of the game noone was doing anything to help Lebron on offense. I followed very little basketball this year. Is the east really that shitty that this was the best that we got from them? At this point, unless Silver calls in a few fixes and you see Curry getting 3 cheap fouls called on him in the first couple minutes in Cleveland it is looking like a 4 game sweep. Cleveland appears to have no answer on either side of the ball.
Can you cite some of these douchey comments?
If you have kept up at all with the NBA, you'd probably have seen them.
Most recent; https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...nt-as-arrogant-and-disrespectful-to-nba-fans/
He has since apologized. Someone probably got into his ear and told him it's not the tickets that pay his salary. He used to always say the right thing, be appreciative, etc. Not so much anymore.
People blasted, horribly blasted LeBron for going to Miami. Durant should be getting blasted even more so for going to GSW. LeBron had good reason to leave Cleveland, they absolutely sucked. When he left, look at their record. Durant and the Thunder very nearly beat the best team in basketball but left his team to join them. Way worse in my book.
that's really idiotic - we should criticize players proportionally based on the strength of the team they join? Isn't the whole point of the game to win? Should we institute a rule that players can only join shitty teams?
I love how Lebron was demonized for coming to Miami, yet he's somehow a saint for going back to Cleveland (and assembling a super team loaded with more stars than Miami ever had). There is no rhyme or reason to the way fans view this game. I don't like the rules that allow for this absolute lack of parity, but I'm not going to criticize the players for using those rules to win rings.
I thought that was called the Larry Bird exception?It would have been totally different if he would have joined a team like the Cavs because they didn't nearly beat them on the playoffs prior to him leaving. Especially when that same player criticized LeBron for moving teams. Of course it's within the rules. There are many things that are fine with in the rules of sports that all of us criticize. Hell, there are things that are outside of the rules that people are fine with.
These super teams are obviously a problem in the NBA, so much so that they just made a rule, nicknamed the Durant Rule, your current team can pay a hell of a lot more than other teams.
KD was basically on that path, and he decided to change it so that he had a better chance at a ring. And it looks like he's coasting to one.
I understand the "optics" looked bad, but I agree with you totally that fans are way too wound up about his move. In pretty much any other industry, or even pro sports league, nobody really cares if an elite employee joins an elite company. Granted other sports are not as top-heavy as an NBA roster, but KD spent 9 seasons playing for OKC and won one Finals game. People keep harping that the Thunder were so close last season before failing, but if anything that reinforces to me that KD needed to get the hell away from Russell Westbrook. The front office had made questionable moves for a few years and IMO there was little evidence that OKC would seriously contend against the Warriors for the next couple seasons.It really is stupid to criticize KD for going where he wanted to go. I hear the worst of it around here being in the DC area because everyone around here assumed he would come here just because this is his home town. When he didn't even pick up the phone from Washington last year it made people hate him even more.
Fact of the matter is he wanted to go somewhere and win and better his output. It's nothing more than that. I think that most people in all walks of life would want to do that as well. I don't blame him at all and don't hate on him at all for it. Good for him doing what he wanted to do to better himself and his family and not worry about what the peanut gallery thinks.
A great comparison I heard on the radio last week was comparing KD to Karl Malone. I would be willing to bet that most people don't realize Malone is the 2nd highest scoring player in the NBA of all time. ALL TIME. Yet nobody ever even has him in the conversation of being one of the best players of all time. And why is that? Since he never got his ring and was never a championship. He got close a few times but never got there. KD was basically on that path, and he decided to change it so that he had a better chance at a ring. And it looks like he's coasting to one.
In 5-10 years no one is going to put an asterisk on KD's ring he gets this year, and possibly more in the next few years. They will just remember that he was part of one of the greatest dynasties in an era and has rings. People will move on and cry about the latest and greatest thing.
And damn, pulling out a SAS article to try and prove someone else is douchey. That is a bold (and bad) play lol.