The Truth Behind Kevin Durant & The Warriors

Anger is not one of my better qualities. It’s something I fought with for years, yet it always seems to get the best of me when I watch any of my teams play. Especially the Cleveland Cavaliers. But something was odd for me as I watched game 2 of the NBA Finals, as my Cavs played against the Golden State Warriors. Something was off — amiss — as I watched Kevin Durant pretend to be the greatest basketball player alive as he is flanked by three other current all-stars and one recently former all-star coming off the bench. The angrier I got, the more I had to process why. And then, after multiple back-and-forth discussions with Warrior fans, it hit me like ton of bricks: the GSW are the epitome of the millennial generation. And that is why I utterly detest them.

Now, the GSW team that the Cavs played in 2015 and 2016 were different animals. The ’15 team was good, but after LeBron James bullied them in six games with his two all-star teammates out for the remainder of the playoffs with injuries, that Cavs team eventually fell flat. LBJ went super human and played like a man possessed, making Matthew Dellavedova and Timofey Mozgoz millions of dollars (and household names) in the process, but without more help, we had no shot. Looking back, there is no way a healthy Cavs team loses to that GSW team. None.

The ’16 GSW version was coming off a historic 73-win season and was looking to repeat as champs. They were brash, arrogant, and honestly, they were punks. They also played a great, selfless-style that was undeniably fun. After taking a virtually-impossible-to-defeat 3–1 series lead, the Cavs came roaring back by winning four straight and embarrassing the GSW in a way never thought possible. On GSW’s home court.

For two years straight, the Cavs embarrassed the GSW. In ’15, they were pushed by LBJ and bench players to six games when they should have easily swept them; in ’16, they were run out of their own building and beat in worst way possible. And while their GSW fans spent the summer finding excuses (mainly Draymond Green’s suspension — although had he been properly suspended by the NBA during the GSW vs. Oklahoma series, the GSW don’t even make the Finals; that’s undeniable; OKC had their number — oh, and the “injury” to Steph Curry), they also became the ultimate NBA villains by recruiting KD, fresh off his loss to them just a month earlier.

At the time, I verbally attacked KD ferociously. I attacked his competitiveness, his lack-of-strength, and his desire to jump ship to a 73-win team just one year removed from a championship. The move was cowardly, showing that KD possesses no heart on the court, and that he can never been considered great, as he only achieved he vaulted status when flanked by four other all-stars. Selling out to join a 73-win super team solidifies that point.

The blowback from GSW fans was swift, if not predictable with gems such as ”‘LBJ jumped ship, tho!” True, and false. He did leave the Cavs to head south and form a super team in The Heat(les). But he also had no help in Cleveland, and was surrounded by washed up former all-stars at the end of their careers. Having to face Boston, the team that brought back the “Big 3” super team strategy, LBJ knew he could not simply rely on the Cavs to get him to where he needed to go. So he bolted, built his own dynasty, and won two titles and two Finals MVP awards. I was disgusted by it, but I understood it.

Yes, he did leave his team to form a super team. I’ve heard the term “semantics” thrown around when it comes to this topic, but I don’t those using this word understand that they are killing their own point using it. The devil is in the details.

Yes, LBJ formed a super team. But that is the key word: FORMED. He joined a Heat team barely making the playoffs and took them to the Finals for four straight years. This team was not here before him, and they damn sure did not win 73 games the season prior. He had to build it into a winner. And he did just that. And then he did the same thing in Cleveland, with one established star already there, acquiring another all-star, and having a team built to the strengths of all three.

KD simply jumped ship. Nothing was built by his hands, his talent, or his hard work. He joined arguably the best team in the league, leaving behind the one player that averaged a triple-double in forty years, Russell Westrbrook, in OKC. He also left one of the best centers in Steven Adams, a third all-star in Serge Ilbaka, and a truly good OKC team. He had help. He had the help LBJ never did. KD simply could not get the job done; he could not beat the GSW in seven games, even with a 3–1 series lead. And that makes his jump even more despicable. The literal “if you can’t beat’em, join’em” saying had come true. In competitive pro sports. It was beyond disgusting. And worse, it was accepted by some.

Can you blame GSW fans for feeling like champs the moment this deal was signed? No, not at all. Most GSW fans are “fans” (fair-weather, casual, arrogant and have the loyalty of a Kardashian), and most of their fan base has only been around since 2014, when the team became very good. If you ask them questions about Mark Jackson, Mike Dunleavy, Antwan Jameson or Baron Davis, they’ll look at you like you have three heads (if you’re reading this and didn’t know those names, welcome to the bandwagon). Regardless, no fan base is turning down KD going their team, even under these extremely dubious and pathetic standings. As much as I would have hated it, I would accepted KD joining the Cavs, but I truly feel I would gladly granted to anyone that it was a punk move by KD and, to me, puts an asterisk on the title. Again, it’s because he built nothing.

This brings me back to my anger and why I can’t let it go. Millennials today are all about themselves, their selfies, and their skewed version of what being successful means. KD is the epitome of this. When the GSW most like win in 5–6 games this week, KD will not have earned this title. He’ll accept it, just as he’s accepting the praise being thrown on him by media members trying desperately to see this story as a positive, not a negative. But real fans, REAL sports fans… we know the truth. We know what, and how, the GSW are without KD. We know he makes them practically invincible, and we know this team will be “great” for a few years, baring massive injuries.

But they aren’t great. KD isn’t great. They’re “great”. KD’s “great”. It’s easy to be great when you join greatness, but it’s a skewed version of greatness that is accepted only by weak minds. And that gets to me; it bothers me that the generation just after mine accepts falsehoods as greatness. This generation would have been fine with Michael Jordan joining the Detroit Pistons after he couldn’t beat them for years; they’d simply write I off as “he wants to win”. My generation? Well, MJ would never have become the icon he was, nor would he have sold that many pairs of shoes.

Everyone wants to win. Everyone. Millennials miss this. The older generations held onto the “I’m winning, but I’m fighting harder and winning MY way” mentality. And it created immense, beautiful competition. It forged players that we idolized simply because we watched their hearts break, and their brows furlough, only to lock-in and overcome adversity.

That era is clearly over, dead-and-buried. And it breaks my heart.

Ask yourself, did KD truly overcome adversity? Did he overcome the towering beasts that kept him from glory, or did he simply sell his soul to become on the beasts? MJ eventually overcame the Pistons, so badly so that they refused to shake his hand after he destroyed them. It’s one of MJ’s “THIS is why we love and revere you” stories. KD will never have that now. Ever. He robbed us of seeing that story, but worst of all, he robbed himself.

And he’s ok with that.

And inevitably, this summer the Cavs will either gets another top tier player (Paul George or Danilio Gallanari seems realistic) to match up against the Warriors. We’ll see the Cavs/GSW 4 — The Reckoning. And while I’ve be very happy to see my team make another Finals, it’ll feel shallow. The hole of actual competition not being there will not be filled, and this season will ring in my ears. The only solace I will take is when we destroy the GSW, tying the series at 2 titles a piece, I’ll know that we earned it because GSW built a super-super team only to beat us (well, LBJ). But as competition in the league drifts to only two teams, the league will have to decide if it is ok with this type of dominance, especially considering that the playoffs ratings this year are well behind what they were last year. I doubt the Finals will draw numbers even close to last year’s once-in-a-life-time spectacle, causing panic and changes in the top NBA office (as TV contract renewals are looming).

I doubt my Cavs win this year. That hurts. But nothing hurts as much as seeing my favorite sports destroyed by a generation known for ruining everything that they touch. Even worse, I now agree with that sentiment.