What If Kevin Durant Needs To Leave OKC?
Kevin Durant, should he stay or should he go? Most seem to think he won’t leave, but is that the best move for him?
Decision day is almost upon Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Even the most pessimistic Thunder fan, which is usually me, believes there’s a strong chance that Durant will stay in Oklahoma City, at least for one more season. Why would he leave a team that was one win away from the NBA Finals and loaded with young talent, including a superstar point guard? Why would he leave the only real city he’s ever known as a NBA player (sorry, Seattle)? Serge Ibaka doesn’t believe he’s leaving, and aside from Russell Westbrook, who knows Durant better than Ibaka? (Note: this was written before Ibaka’s trade). Durant leaving OKC just doesn’t add up.
Then I remembered that I’m a pessimistic Thunder fan and sports are dumb and the worst case scenario is usually the scenario that comes to fruition. What if Durant leaves? Let me rephrase that, what if Durant needs to leave?
All I can think about is LeBron James‘ decision to leave Cleveland. Granted, the situation was much different. LeBron didn’t have nearly the team that Durant has. But, like LeBron, Durant hasn’t won anything with this team. He’s been close, but he’s yet to get over the hump.
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LeBron needed to get out of Cleveland to experience winning. He needed to go to Miami and team up with Dwyane Wade because Wade had been there before. He had a ring. He knew what it took to win a title. LeBron needed to remove himself from the only place that he’d ever known and experience a different culture and a different environment.
What if Durant needs that?
Aside from Oklahoma City, the two favorites to land the star forward are the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. Both teams are familiar with winning. Both teams are led by a star player who has been to the mountain top. Both teams could instill a winning mindset in Durant, something that might be lacking given his failures.
No OKC fans wants to think about KD leaving and going to the biggest competition, but it’s a very really possibility. It would be tough to see Durant hold the Larry O’Brien trophy while standing next to Steph Curry or Kawhi Leonard, but it’s a visual that might invade our television screens as early has next year.
And what if it leads to Durant returning to OKC in 3-4 years, weighed down by a couple of extra rings on his fingers, and ready to add one more with the white and blue? Would that be so bad? Who am I kidding, of course that would suck. You think Cleveland fans were happy during those seasons without LeBron? It ultimately ended with a championship, but that championship was never guaranteed and it looked extremely unlikely a week ago.
Maybe this is what Durant needs though. Maybe, as good as the Thunder roster is, he knows that it’s not good enough. Maybe the pressure of being “the guy” on the team is too much for him right now and he needs to align himself with someone who has been there and can take that pressure off of him for a couple of seasons. Maybe the only way to bring a title to Oklahoma City is to leave Oklahoma City.