Few basketball players have been more critical of Kevin Durant‘s decision to join the Golden State Warriors than Paul Pierce. Back in October, Pierce called out Durant and everyone else who has formed a superteam, saying “Guys I don’t think they are as hungry or competitive as my generation was, and that’s why you’ll probably see more of that.”
Fast forward a few months and Durant’s Warriors are a few days away from playing in the NBA Finals. Should Golden State win, it would mean that Durant got the championship that he so badly wanted when he joined the team.
But for Pierce, it’s still kind of gross that Durant joined Golden State. The now-former member of the Los Angeles Clippers appeared on ESPN’s The Jump and used a metaphor to explain why he’s still against Durant’s move.
Paul Pierce compares Kevin Durant joining Warriors to a kid becoming friends with his bullies to avoid getting beat up. pic.twitter.com/00U8c5sTW0
— Jordan Heck (@JordanHeckFF) May 30, 2017
“I’m just not built like that,” Pierce said. “I’m not a guy who goes into the neighborhood, gets beat up the bully’s gang, and then now I want to join your gang. That’s just not me. I wanna fight, let’s go. I mean I’m gonna stand up for myself, that’s just the competitive nature of where I come from, the era I grew up in.”
The superteam debate will go on forever, and it’s going to intensify no matter what happens during the Finals. If Golden State wins, people will say Durant’s ring is tainted because he had to join forces with the Warriors to get a title. If the Dubs lose, then Durant will be something of a laughing stock among some. Pierce won’t necessarily be in that second group, but it sure sounds like he’d prefer that Golden State falls to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second year in a row.
