This year’s NBA playoffs have been…underwhelming, to put it mildly. Aside from the Grizzlies-Spurs series that went six games and the seven-game barn-burner between the Celtics and Wizards in the East semis, the 2017 postseason has been mostly an excuse for the Cavs and Warriors to showcase their dominance.
It’s been off-putting for just about everyone in the basketball-watching world, particularly given all the efforts put in place to create more parity around the league. It’s as top-heavy and non-competitive as ever, which has rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way.
Kevin Durant didn’t help matters any with his startlingly callous response to those complaints, saying recently that “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” The backlash was immediate, but when speaking to reporters on Monday, ostensibly to apologize for those remarks, KD instead issued a classic non-apology. Via Chris Haynes of ESPN.com:
“I mean, life can be simple, man,” Durant told ESPN. “If you don’t like the way the game is going, just turn it off. If you’re enjoying it, just keep it on. Life is simple. I didn’t mean it to disrespect anybody, but if you felt disrespected, I’m sorry. But if you don’t enjoy the game, turn it off [and] turn something else on. If you do, enjoy the rest of it, man.”
So there you have it, one of the league’s most high-profile stars basically telling millions of fans – not once, but twice now – that they can kick rocks if they don’t like what they see.
KD likely senses this as an indictment on himself, and he wouldn’t be incorrect in that regard. After all, when he signed on to join a Warriors team that had just won 73 regular-season games, he helped create a juggernaut that is currently steamrolling its way through the West.
But it isn’t fair to blame Durant. He did everything within the established rules, and it isn’t his responsibility to keep the league competitive. The fans, conversely, have every right to be bored with the Warriors’ increasingly-banal dominance. So we’ve arrived at an impasse.
The hope, of course, is that things will get much more competitive when the Finals kick off on June 1. If not, we can always just turn off the TV, apparently.
(ESPN.com)
