The Warriors advanced to the NBA Finals on Monday night, sweeping the Spurs to improve to 12-0 this postseason and earn more than a week off before the start of the Finals. Kevin Durant, the biggest offseason acquisition of any team last summer, was the dominant force for the Warriors in the series, as he averaged 28 points per game in the Western Conference Finals on a 60.3/40.9/87.1 shooting split.
Durant’s play on the court is unimpeachable, but there are still plenty that question his decision to go to the Warriors and make what already was the greatest regular season team in NBA history even better. Durant feels great about his choice, but he has critics aplenty, including ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith. Smith went on a rant on Monday, prior to Game 4, about recent comments that Durant made telling fans to turn games off if they don’t like them when asked about the many blowouts this postseason.
Smith took this as an opportunity to come after Durant for a change in character in recent years, questioning why Durant has turned on the fans.
The full transcript, if you’ve got your device on mute, is as follows:
“He’s aged. And along the process of aging, he’s gotten more arrogant, he’s gotten more disrespectful, he’s gotten more dismissive, particularly of the fans, and to be quite honest with you, he hasn’t gotten smarter,” Smith said. “And the reason why he hasn’t gotten smarter is because the younger Durant never would have said something so flagrantly disrespectful towards fans. This is an individual that has made well over $200 million in his career and is in the throws of a $300 million endorsement contract, and I’m here to tell you he deserves every single penny. He is a superstar. He is the real deal, in terms of his talent, and he deserves the money. But that guy that was crying during his MVP speech, dedicating so much of it to his mother and the affection he garnered because of it and the manner in which he’s conducted himself as a basketball ambassador and all that other stuff is to be commended.
“It’s just not the Kevin Durant that we’ve been seeing over the last couple of years. And maybe, just maybe, it’s a product of the fact that you’re in your 10th year and you have to jump on a well-oiled machine already to get yourself a championship, because being the superstar you were still wasn’t good enough to get it done on your own. Even with Russell Westbrook as your teammate. But what I would say is, the other word that’s apropos in this all is unappreciative. He’s unappreciative of the honeymoon that he has enjoyed. Because of LeBron James and other storylines … tell me a superstar the magnitude of Kevin Durant that has gotten a bigger pass for not capturing a championship.”
The latter part of Smith’s argument is a familiar one with regards to Durant. Many in the media can’t understand why he, a superstar that has gotten, for the most part, positive coverage throughout his career is unappreciative of that fact. No, he doesn’t get the criticism LeBron James did for not winning a title in his first run in Cleveland, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t gotten any. We love to compare superstars and in this instance, we even compare them in how much we’ve collectively ripped into them for not winning.
Just because he hasn’t had it as tough as LeBron with the media, he’s still heard criticism and has also heard plenty that have said he can’t be an all-time great without winning a title. (Lest we forget the Mr. Unreliable headline.)
Because the Stephen A. Smiths of the world will tell you that rings are the most important thing, players like Durant are going to take opportunities when presented to go get those rings. Now, he’s reached the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 and it took him only 10 months to do so with the Warriors.
Whether he took the easy way out or not, he is four wins away from accomplishing that goal. Those rings don’t come with asterisks and, if he stays around with the Warriors for awhile and Golden State wins another title or two, no one will question whether he was appreciative enough anymore.
