If you are an avid sports fan like myself, you usually watch the "ESPY" awards. You get to see a celebrity host kickoff the show with a recap of this year in sports. It's usually really funny, the host cracks jokes at all the embarrassing moments of the year (ex: JPP's firework incedent). This year, the host of the festivities was Peyton Manning. Peyton is a guy most people love, his commercials are always a hit and he seems like a real down to earth guy (Ryen Russillo might not say the same for his wife unfortunately). Anyway, Peyton's joke of the night had to be when he mentioned the success of the us women's gymnastics team, and Peyton mentioned that Kevin Durant is considering joining them, in reference to his shocking move to Golden state from OKC, and Durant did not like it. Usually when an athlete is made fun of, they can laugh it off and take the joke, but Durant was clearly offended by the humor. Now this could have been staged, but if it wasn't, it's really disappointing that he simply couldn't laugh off this hilarious diss at him, when he acts like he really didn't do anything wrong in joining the warriors. This brings up my main point, that in agreement with my man Stephen A smith in that Kevin Durant's move to Oakland from OKC was one that ruined the regular season in the NBA as well as the post season. When we look back at the 2017 postseason, how could one forget the thrilling series that was Golden State vs Oklahoma City. The warriors were down 3-1 and they came up big in that series. Klay Thompson was simply unconscious from behind the arc in the later part of that series and this combined with the disappearance of Kevin Durant in game 6, the warriors pulled off the comeback from down 3-1. This set up and epic finals match up of the Cavs and Warriors. The previous year, these teams matched up and the series quickly got out of hand and the warriors won in 6, as the cavs were heavily outmatched as Kevin Love had been sidelined for the rest of the playoffs by Kelly Olynyck's dirty play when he dislocated Loves shoulder, and Kyrie Irving hurt his knee early in the series, and despite the best efforts of Lebron James, the series wasn't much of a contest with Matthew Delevadova as the cavs best second option. This year, the story was different. The Cavs were fully healthy and the we were all on the edge of our seats to see if the cavs big 3 was enough to beat the seemingly unbeatable team that was the golden state warriors, and well, you remember what happened, the cavs down 3-1, draymond greens antics finally catching up with him for a game 5 suspension, the lights out scoring off lebron and kyrie irving, and an epic game 7 ending with Lebrons block and then the cold blooded 3 point dagger from Kyrie, and thus the "Warriors blew a 3-1 lead" joke is born and we are all were witnesses to a classic finals battle for the ages. Now personally, I was very happy to see Lebron finally fulfill his promise to bring a championship to the city of cleveland, as I had been rooting for them for the entire playoffs. But even if the Cavs hadn't been able to pull of the historic comeback, I could still appreciate the game and say "wow! what an entertaining series that was." This whole midset changed for me and most basketball purists when Kevin Durant shocked the NBA and decided to leave Russell Westbrook and the incredibly supportive city of OKC and pulled the "weakest move we have even seen from a superstar"-Stephen A Smith, and joined the very team that beat him in the WCF the previous season before. This move completely shifted the balance of power in the nba. The Warriors went on to roll through the entire western conference in the playoffs, not losing until the losing just one in the finals. Now this may have been different if the pride of Georgia, Zaza Pachulia didn't purposely injure Kawhi Leonard in the game one of the conference finals, but regardless, we had the "Rubber Match" of Cavs vs Warriors in the finals. This was far less exciting to watch, the warriors were just too good at defending and the cavs were simply helpless in defending all of the Warriors shooters and the series was over in 5 games. Now that Kevin Durant was finally a champion, and most of the media expected the people against Durant's move to Golden State as acceptable, becuase he's a champion and that will silence all the haters. This was anything but the truth. When Durant first joined the Warriors, it was hard to see them not win a championship, I mean they added probably the second best player in the world to a 73 win team, how do they not win the championship? This championship was SUPPOSED to happen, this didn't surprise me at all, and therefore doesn't change my mind about his decision. The way Durant "earned" this championship was just too disheartening to ignore. I mean, lets take a look back at some of the NBA greats overcoming their rivals. in the late 80's, MJ couldn't overcome the bad boy pistons, so what did he do? He got in the gym and GRINDED. He built up his body to withstand the pistons physically punishing brand of basketball and along with Scottie Pippen coming into his own as a player, the bulls were able eventually able to sweep detroit, and Jordan's Bulls would eventually have 2 3-peats and solidifying jordan as the "goat".When Jordan faced hardship, he didn't JOIN THE PISTONS because it was "the best move for his career", he stuck with his squad and took down his rivals, and that one of things that makes jordan so legendary. many remember the classic celtics and lakers finals match ups of the 80's. Red Auerbac building the celtics into a juggernaut with the way larry bird was acquired while he was still in college and the trade with golden state where they got mchale and parish in a ridiculously lopsided trade that built this historic celtics team. They were challenged time and time again by the la lakers, which was a team an unable to defeat the celtics throughout the 60's despite being so close so many times. They were showtime, with probably the greatest point guard of all time in Magic Johnson, big game james worthy and the nba's all time scorer Kareem-Abdul Jabarr. These series were so memorable and because the competition matchup EVEN. It's not like when the lakers lost the first or second finals to the celtics they just said, "nahh lets win championships in boston", they said "We are gonna attack these guys and we'll beat them, together." And the lakers eventually beat the celtics in the 80's, and the celtics themselves went to the lakers locker room post game to congratulate them on finally overcoming them. This is something we'll never be able to see from Kevin Durant, as his decision to leave the thunder ruined any hope of something similar to that kind of rivalry. Now some may say, "Hang on, didn't Lebron do the same thing when he left for Miami?" I say no, it's not the same at all. Although Lebron leaving Cleveland was heart wrenching, and he probably didn't need to announce it on national tv in the face of his cleveland fans, his decision was definetly justified. In Cleveland, Lebron didn't have a whole lot of help. Dan Gilbert and the cavs organization seemed to take him for granted, and really didn't put many valuable pieces around him. His best players from his first stint in Cleveland were who? Mo Williams? Larry Hughes? Old man Shaq? come on man! Lebron wanted to beat his rivals, the boston celtics and joining the heat gave him a legitimate shot at that. Him and banana boat friend dwade built a new superteam in miami to dethrone the celtics reign over the east and they did just that. Remember: Lebron left to beat his rivals, he didn't JOIN THEM.
In conclusion, The Warriors reign over the NBA seems to be far from over, as they re signed durant and curry to long term deals, not to mention signing nick young to bolster the bench while retaining virtually all of their other key pieces. They also added big man Jordan Bell, looks like he could be the second coming of draymond green in a trade with the bulls for nothing but cash (thanks garpax). This reign was greatly bolstered by durant's move to the warriors and while some may think that durant has etched his name in the nba record books as an all time great for winning this championship and probably more to follow, he won't be that in my book. He will always be the kid who simply gave up on russell westbrook and the solid, championship caliber team that was the OKC thunder, for the almost guarenteed championship in Golden State, He fore fitted his shot at an epic redemption, for one that is far less respectable, and one that will never be forgotten.
