Which Team Do You Associate Kevin Durant With the Most?

Sports Illustrated

Kevin Durant could go down as an all-time great player that isn't truly assoociated with any one organization.

Transcript

00:00 Kevin Durant's had one of the strangest careers

00:02 for an NBA superstar I can remember.

00:04 He's almost a man with no home.

00:06 He returned to Brooklyn,

00:07 but obviously that was later in his career

00:09 that he was even on the Nets,

00:10 and now he's on the Suns.

00:11 Nobody really counts the titles

00:13 that he won with the Warriors to the same effect

00:15 had he won where he originally started,

00:18 with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

00:20 That is where he could have built his legacy, I suppose.

00:23 So he's gonna go down as an all-time great player.

00:26 You can't take that away from him,

00:27 'cause that's just a true statement.

00:29 He's an all-time great player,

00:31 but I don't know what team I most associate him with.

00:34 - Depends on what you're talking about.

00:36 Are you talking about his success or failures?

00:38 If you're talking about success,

00:39 then yeah, I'm gonna associate you with the Warriors,

00:40 because you got two titles, two finals MVPs.

00:43 If we're talking about failures,

00:44 which people tend to bring up more with him than anything,

00:47 well, I can look at the Nets as a failure.

00:49 I can look at his last year with the Thunder as a failure.

00:52 It's funny, I don't look at his overall stint

00:54 with the Thunder as a failure,

00:55 but leaving the way that he did to go to Golden State

00:57 was an absolute blunder.

00:58 So if I'm associating him that way,

00:59 then yeah, that was a big miss.

01:02 But to your point, he's weird.

01:03 He's definitely top 15, top 16 all-time.

01:07 But if I was to envision him in a jersey

01:10 to say this is his one signature moment,

01:13 I don't know if there is one.

01:16 I just feel like he's an all-time great player,

01:17 but to your point, he doesn't really have a home.

01:20 - He was beloved with the Thunder for a while there,

01:23 almost positioned as the anti-LeBron,

01:25 but then he goes to Golden State

01:26 and everybody viewed him differently

01:27 because we knew they were gonna win the championship.

01:30 Then he goes to Brooklyn

01:31 where that was supposed to be his team.

01:33 And by the way, I think he had maybe his best playoff run

01:36 with the Nets, but asks out of that situation as well.

01:40 So I don't even know if those respective fan bases

01:43 know how to treat him.

01:45 Thunder fans don't like that he left.

01:47 There was the whole cupcake thing.

01:48 Maybe time has healed that a little bit.

01:50 Nets fans didn't really know how to accept him.

01:52 He legitimized the franchise in a way, but obviously left.

01:56 And then Warriors fans, he was only there

01:58 almost like a hired gun, if you will.

02:01 And the Suns thing is new.

02:03 - Right, I have no idea.

02:08 Like what if he's with Phoenix for four years?

02:11 I feel like that would just be such an outlier.

02:14 Like I don't know, it's like,

02:15 I can only see him there for maybe a year

02:17 or two years tops, that's just his thing.

02:20 It's weird.

02:21 And it's funny because LeBron's left teams,

02:23 but because LeBron has so many signature moments

02:25 on every team he's played for,

02:26 and this is like, it doesn't matter

02:28 who you most associate him with

02:30 because he's had monumental moments with each team.

02:33 But KD is just like, I feel like I'm still searching.

02:35 - Yeah, LeBron has won with each team he's been on.

02:38 Eventually, obviously when you count going back to the Cavs

02:40 and I think that answers the question KD asked himself,

02:44 why aren't I in the GOAT debate?

02:45 Because he never won as the guy for a franchise

02:48 because he did it on Steph Curry's team.

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