When Kevin Durant returns to Oklahoma City this weekend he’s going to be booed mercilessly. There will be signs in the stands depicting him as a traitor. He’ll be painted as Judas with a jump shot.
Canadian basketball fans, who jeered Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady whenever they returned to Toronto, know this situation well.
The unnecessary taunting of past stars in Canada lasted so long that a new generation of fans participated in the act, not even fully knowing why they were doing it. This lasted until there was hatred fatigue and the Raptors franchise moved on to greener pastures than the players who left Toronto.
This will not be the case at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in OKC on Saturday night when the Durant’s Warriors come to town. The KD wounds are still fresh and cut deep. And every time Durant is shown laughing on the bench during another double-digit Warriors blowout the band-aid is ripped off before it gets a chance to heal.
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In response to his essay entitled “My next chapter” where he used 351 words via the Players’ Tribune to tell the world he was leaving, Thunder fans burnt his jersey in effigy. That doesn’t seem like he was truly loved by the Thunder faithful, as real love should be unconditional. Instead it seems those fans loved what he did for the perception of their team.
Kevin Durant is the ex that broke up with you and is doing well without you. The Thunder fans can hate all they want but like Cleveland Cavaliers fans they’d take him back in a second. In the interim they are Facebook-creeping his wall as he effortlessly dominates while his old team and its fans are left wondering what could have been. Those are questions they need to ask their front office.
Durant is not aloof. As he told Marc Stein of ESPN he’s ready for a rude welcome “I know they’re going to be rowdy in there, man,” Durant told Stein. “I’ve been a part of some of the loudest nights in that arena. So, I know it’s not going to be the friendliest welcome, but…I’m sure fans that I got to know throughout my time playing there, even though they might not cheer for me out loud, I’ll give ’em a wink and they know what we had deep down inside.”
But just because he knows it is so doesn’t make it just; Durant did not author his exit out of town alone.
Welcome to the new NBA, where owners are front and centre. Their wishes and will has more to do with the franchise being competent than anyone or anything else. No longer are the leaders of franchises solely counting dividends in the backroom.
Case and point Knicks chairman James Dolan in New York who seems to be antagonizing both his current (Carmelo Anthony) and past (Charles Oakley) stars. And, on the flipside, The Warriors’ Peter Guber and Joe Lacob who have created a culture that lured Durant to the Bay area.
Which brings us to Clay Bennett, the chairman of the eight-member group that leads the Oklahoma City Thunder. Bennett should be the real direction of the fans ire. Bennett had a good thing going— new arena, rabid fan base, and a young team on the rise. But Bennett wanted to have his cake and eat it to. He raised ticket prices year after year but refused to pay the luxury tax to keep in step with the increasing wage demands of his rapidly-improving young players. Subsequently Jeff Green, James Harden and eventually Serge Ibaka were all traded before they were in line to get their big pay day. All were close friends of Durant. In the interim no big name free agents were signed to take their place. No loyalty was shown. No sustained desire for success was shown. The bottom line was Bennett’s bottom line was of chief importance and championships were second.
Durant watched one by one as his task to win a championship got tougher as proven players were traded for spare parts and draft picks. He watched as his beloved coach Scott Brooks was painted as the scapegoat, a man Durant defended vociferously.
Durant also showed love for the state of Oklahoma during his time there. He remained loyal even when the local papers unfairly questioned his character after playoff failures.
Imagine that, Durant being called Mr. Unreliable when he donated millions of his money to that community every year.
Fans can, and will, hide their penchant to boo behind the guise of the fact he wasn’t loyal. Loyalty isn’t shown by where you choose to play basketball. When a tornado hit the town of Moore, a suburb of OKC, killing 24, Durant showed his loyalty.
Durant put forth a $1 million donation to aid the relief effort and implored the Thunder organization and his endorser Nike to match. Refusing to stop there Durant was on the ground helping with the relief effort and removing debris from the wreckage.
Durant knows there is no loyalty in business. He learned that from businessmen, Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon, who ripped the franchise that drafted him away from Seattle after his rookie season because they wanted a stadium paid for by taxpayers.
Maya Angelou said “when someone shows you who they are believe them.” Kevin Durant showed you that he’s a philanthropic basketball junkie that only cares about having fun with friends and winning. Clay Bennett showed you he’ll do anything in the name of money and doesn’t care about hardcore basketball fans or the pursuit of winning.
Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant showed he loved you, he just fell out of love with your owner. Believe him, embrace him. Don’t boo him.
