Kevin Durant: Future GOAT or just a really great player?

Kevin Durant is undoubtedly one of the greatest talents to ever play the game. But here’s why I don’t think he’s on his way to becoming an all-time great

When I get thinking about the best players in NBA history, obvious names, of course, come to mind. There are the OGs of basketball for someone born in 1985. I know their names. I’ve seen their highlights. I know some of what they accomplished but I can’t remember having seen them play live: Hakeem Olajuwon, Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain.

Then there are the guys that live in my early memories of basketball fandom. The guys who were dominating the game when I was growing up and many of which I can specifically remember seeing on the court while watching hoops with my dad: Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Allen Iverson.

And finally, the great players who are still pounding the rock or are recently retired: Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Dwyane Wade.

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All are special players who have shot, defended and won their way into NBA history as some of the best to ever play the game. But “some of the best” and “greatest of all-time” are two different levels.

For me, Kevin Durant is very much in the former group. Since he’s still an active player, the argument can be made that he still has time to reach GOAT status but I don’t see that happening for a variety of reasons.

My first reason is his infamous decision to join Golden State in free agency. This is especially true because of the timing. Only 38 days passed between the time Golden State ended Durant’s season in 2016 and his signing on the dotted line.

At the time, there was much speculation that he was trying to get away from Russell Westbrook with this idea having surfaced again as recently as July 8th. Other reports specifically refuted the idea that Westbrook had any influence one way or another and for Kevin Durant, it was simply about winning and playing the game at “a more advanced level.”

For me, it’s not about why he left the Oklahoma City Thunder but who he decided to join. There were 29 teams to choose from. Admittedly, some of those teams were non-options for a player of KD’s caliber but there were certainly options other the Golden State Warriors. And from what he said at the time, it seems clear that the focus was not on beating the best to become the best. It was about winning. Period.

Can you imagine if Michael Jordan had decided, for whatever reason, that he needed to leave the Bulls and then joined the Pistons? No! That never would have happened. Jordan’s decision to do what he had to do and work hard to beat the Bad Boys era Pistons is one of the factors that earned him undisputed GOAT status.

Jordan sought to get better to beat his stiffest competition. Joining the team that beat him was never an option. That being said, there was real, palpable dislike between Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas that contributed to the impossibility of either of them ever joining the other’s team. That kind of animosity simply didn’t exist between Kevin Durant and anyone on Golden State.

Even so, it’s not surprising that Durant’s if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em approach is something that continues and will continue to follow him in his career. Apparently, he didn’t think it was important to become the best by seeking out and beating the competition, and that, of course, is something people are going to remember.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the fact that this is following him around helped him decide to sign with Brooklyn now. But I think it’s entirely possible that it will be too little too late even if he finds success on the East coast.

And with his choice of career path, Durant may have robbed himself of the opportunity to become an all-time great on the level that Michael Jordan is. Without getting beat repeatedly by the Pistons, Jordan ultimately may never have had to push himself as hard as he did. And without that may never have reached the level of excellence that we instantly associate with him.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that Kevin Durant wanted a ring. It’s the pinnacle of basketball success worldwide. I know that for some fans, never getting that ring leaves an asterisk beside the names of some of the game’s best. Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley for instance.

But I think it’s fair to say that neither Miller nor Barkley had the raw talent that Durant has. They certainly didn’t have the what-would-you-do-other-than-play-basketball physique. In my opinion, KD should have been able to make it work with Westbrook.

Not a leader

Which brings me to my next thought on why KD doesn’t get my GOAT gold star. He’s not a leader. If ever there was potential for someone to be an amazing number two who just needed a good alpha to provide stability and direction, it’s Russell Westbrook. He’s a very talented but emotional player and that can always work for a team or against it. If Kevin Durant was the natural-born leader that Jordan was or James is, I believe OKC would have been a force. 

But he’s not. And that’s okay. Not everyone can lead. Not everyone has that natural steely-eyed focus. That intangible, inherent, ability to be the undisputed leader of a group of men that we’ve seen from the likes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kawhi Leonard, and of course, Michael Jordan.

A different set of variables when he joined Golden State could have made this a non-issue. If Golden State had been on the cusp of a championship and his joining them was what put them over the top, instant GOAT. But they won without him in 2015 and made it to a second consecutive NBA Finals in 2016 after taking OKC out in the Western Conference Finals.

It’s not like what Kawhi Leonard did with the Raptors this past season. The Raptors were a team of pretty good basketball players who’s play dissolved into panicked hero ball every time something started to go against them on the court. Leonard’s unflappable cool turned them into champions.

Yeah, of course, he played out of his mind in the playoffs but the poise that he brought to that group was every bit as important as his offensive and defensive plays on the court. Leonard’s leadership was just as, if not more important than the minutes he spent on the floor.

Durant didn’t lead Golden State to the Finals or to championships. He joined what was an exceptionally good team who were very recent champions. And in doing so, created a situation where for me, the NBA playoffs in the Western Conference stopped being interesting. Because what’s fun about watching three series worth of basketball when you can be reasonably sure of the outcome before the game one tip?

Some people argue that Kevin Durant proved his greatness when he took the floor in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Raptors. He’d been dealing with a strained right calf injury since Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Houston Rockets. I would have respected him more if he had decided not to play. It would have proved more to me about the strength of his convictions.

There were definite parallels between Kawhi Leonard’s situation in the 2017-18 season and Durant’s in 2018-19. They were both high-level players. Both were apparently critical to the playoff success of their respective teams. And there was a lot of perceived pressure for them to be on the floor whether you believe it came primarily from within their organizations for otherwise.

I give Kawhi Leonard mad respect for deciding he wasn’t going to play regardless of the fact that he was accused of faking his injury by fans. Entire Reddit threads were dedicated to the debate. He said ‘no’ regardless of becoming a pariah to the fanbase he’d grown up playing for when clearly he’d been a dedicated player and had conceivably earned some amount of loyalty. I would have liked to see KD make a similar decision. In hindsight, I think it’s safe to assume he wished he did too.

Of course, a lot of my opinion here is based on speculation and hindsight so take it with a grain of salt, or many grains if you need to. But one thing is for certain. At the time the decision was made that he would play in Game 5 of the finals, He. Was. Not. Right.

I know his doctors all said his injury couldn’t get any worse but that sounded crazy to me. It’s like saying, “You sustained an injury when someone hit you with a bat. But if someone hits you again in the same place with a bat, there’s no chance that any additional damage can be done.” Huh!?

He got injured playing basketball but was told that there was no chance that going out and doing the same thing that injured him, on a calf that was not fully healed could not possibly cause any more harm? I’ll never understand that.

Now, in fairness, I don’t know how he was feeling at the time. Maybe he felt like he was ready to go. I find that scenario doubtful considering the lack of a pre-game interview with Durant himself. I don’t remember seeing one and I can’t find one now. In any case, had he said, “I’m sorry guys. I have to look out for my career.” And not played, my respect for him would have grown exponentially.

This is doubly true as it seems, based on the timeline of events during free agency, he knew he was not going to stay in Golden State when he took the floor in Game 5. It seems like at that moment, not looking weak when his team struggling was more important than the long-term ramifications if he reinjured his calf or worse.

Additionally, it seems obvious that the question of whether Golden State was a better team without KD got to him. Admittedly, many of the articles that stated this as a fact were from smaller, local media outlets. But some of the larger ones like USA Today and SBNation were also discussing the question.

For the record, I found that conversation to be completely ridiculous. Of course, Golden State was not better without Kevin Durant. I didn’t need to see the Raptors beat them in the finals to come to that conclusion.

But at the same time, it’s a conversation that would have been impossible for anyone to take seriously if the names Jordan, Bryant or James were switched in for Durant’s and Bulls, Lakers or Cavaliers were swapped in for Golden State.

Kevin Durant cares about his reputation. He cares about what people think about him and that informed his decision to play. Even his mom came to his defense on Twitter.

There’s nothing wrong with caring about what people think of you and as a high-profile athlete, it’s easy to get caught up in the social media of it all. Thousands of people at any given moment are ready to tell you exactly what they think. I know I wouldn’t want to deal with that.

It takes strength to say, “Everyone can say whatever they want to say. Call me weak. Call me whatever you want. I know what I know. I know what you don’t know and that means what you say doesn’t matter.” I didn’t see that strength from Durant in this situation.

Maybe if Durant didn’t already have the idea that he was soft following him around from joining Golden State the way and when he did, he wouldn’t have felt the need to prove himself when he was injured. I also think there needs to be a culture shift around player injuries in general, but that’s another conversation.

Looking forward, of course next season will be a write off for KD. Having had surgery on his ruptured Achilles on June 12th, and with a projected recovery time of 9 to 12 months with physical therapy, we’re possibly looking ahead as far as the 2020-21 season before we can expect KD to be able to get back on the court. Even then, it’s easy to expect it to take a year of playing to get back to full form if he ever gets back to full form.

I know sports medicine and the technology in the field is the best it’s ever been. But a ruptured Achilles is major. Even with the very best care, the fact of the matter is, some players are never the same after this kind of injury. Best case, getting back to full form will take, at minimum, two prime years of his career.

For the sake of argument, let’s say he gets back to 100 percent. The question for Kevin Durant then is will winning a championship in Brooklyn get his GOAT? Two words are the reason that for me, even that scenario wouldn’t be enough. Kyrie Irving.

With Irving also going to the Brooklyn Nets in free agency, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have the potential to be a one-two powerhouse punch in the Eastern Conference. But with KD having to sit out next year, by the time he gets back, I think Kyrie will already have established himself as the leader of the team.

One of two things is likely to happen in that scenario. Either KD will take the second spot in the player hierarchy meaning a championship in Brooklyn will likely not be more meaningful to his legacy than the ones in Golden State.

The second thing that could happen is that Durant really wants to be number one on the Nets, in which case there will have to be a shift in the team dynamic. The only way that works out well is if Irving decides he’ll step back and be number two. I don’t see that happening.

More likely, there will be a power struggle that will lead to team dysfunction. With the very real possibility that the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks will be dominating the Eastern Conference by then, an internal power struggle will only hamper the Nets’ ability to reach the finals much less beat whoever is coming out of the West.

Everything considered, and taking nothing away from Kevin Durant’s talent and accomplishments in the league, I predict that Kevin Durant will not be among the GOATs of the NBA.