Everybody should have known better about where Kevin Durant was headed
COMMENTARY
What’s the Boston equivalent to Kevin Durant deserting Oklahoma City?
In terms of a player receiving superfluous criticism for ditching his foundation in search of what’s perceived as an easy run to a championship ring, Johnny Damon’s defection to the New York Yankees seems closest. Except Damon already had his name on a trophy with the 2004 Red Sox, something Durant had been unable to do over the past nine years with the Thunder/Supersonics.
When Roger Clemens left for Toronto to be closer to his Texas home in 1996, it marked what was perhaps the biggest free agent blow in Hub history. It’s the same deal in Oklahoma City with Durant on his way to the Golden State Warriors, but “The Friendly City” doesn’t exactly boast the same list of athletic accomplishments as Boston (Sorry, Oklahoma City Bounty Hunters of the Gridiron Development Football League).
Ray Bourque went and won the Stanley Cup with a stacked Colorado Avalanche team, but he got to Denver via trade in 2000 (where have you gone, Martin Samuelsson?) and finally was able to raise the Cup the following season, just prior to his retirement from the NHL. Mo Vaughn was a local icon when he jumped ship for the Los Angeles Angels in 1998, but turned into Greg Oden from that point on.
Ray Allen to the Miami Heat? Curtis Martin to the New York Jets? Wes Welker to the Denver Broncos?
There’s not really a veritable parallel to Durant’s decision to join the most-disappointing 73-win team in NBA history, announcing a two-year, $54.3 million contract with the Warriors, including a player’s option after year one. Clemens probably comes closest based on the enormity of his work in a Boston uniform, playing for a team that was starved a World Series. But he also joined a Blue Jays team that was coming off a 74-88 campaign. That’s one more win than the record-setting Warriors had in 2015-16 in twice the length of schedule. It wasn’t like he was becoming Ringo (Glavine-Smoltz-Maddux) on the Atlanta Braves’ stellar starting staff.
Damon received a comparable amount of the criticism that Durant is undergoing in the wake of his decision. He’s been championed as “spineless” and “taking the easy way out.” Damon cut his hair and professed his place in Yankee history before even stepping in the batter’s box.
So, where’s he going next, and with whom else?
Durant’s option means we’ll go through all of this again next summer, when Durant will most likely be a free agent again. Along with new teammate Stephen Curry, former teammate Russell Westbrook, and Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin, and an NBA salary cap that is expected to reach $107 million for the 2017-18 season, up from $94.1 million in 2016-17.
The Celtics, who received yeoman’s kudos from every corner of the Green Team scene for failing in their Durant endeavor (Good job, Good effort), will probably be back in on one of them next summer, particularly with Al Horford breaking down the barrier that suggested the team will never sign a premium free agent. If Durant truly, really, honestly, swear to Gawd, was impressed with the Celtics bid over the weekend in the Hamptons, as pretty much every Celtics public relations maven in the media corps did his or her best to make perfectly clear, then maybe the guy is just stopping off for a quick ring before he fully commits to wearing green long term.
So there’s the season-long narrative.
Fireworks.
Yeah, the Celtics were part of the schmoozing sweepstakes circling this offseason’s prized free agent, but that invite spiraled into an unrealistic set of possible outcomes from a Boston perspective. The Celtics are a cute option for Durant in the Eastern Conference, especially considering he’d be playing with the guy in the dirty t-shirt at the meeting, not the fella with four Super Bowl rings to his credit. “Cute” might be something more in a season’s time. Maybe good friend Horford is really here to give him a one-year diary in advance of the next negotiating period.
Which is why any reactionary dressing-down of Durant here seems bred purely out of fantastical aspirations. It’s not like the guy intensively dangled the Celtics in the Warriors and Thunder’s faces, a la Kirby Puckett when he fruitlessly negotiated with the Red Sox before re-signing in Minnesota, in hopes of increasing his value at his preferred landing spot. But how can anybody really call his interest in Boston much more than curiosity, considering these Celtics have been first-round playoff exits each of the last two seasons.
Celtics fans should have known better.
Thunder fans should have as well.
Then again, they’re not exactly as experienced in this sort of thing. The Thunder have been there for a mere eight years now, which, put in a Celtics perspective, would only make it 1954 with zero titles to the franchise’s name. Welcome to heartbreak, folks.
Thing is, there’s no LeBron caveat here. Durant is never going back to Oklahoma City. He may stay in the Bay Area, get bowled over by the Heat or Clippers, or re-consider becoming a Celtics icon. But the Thunder? They are firmly in his rear-view mirror.
Boston probably is too.
It probably always was.
Meet the Celtics’ 2016 draft class
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