I'd argue the NBA more than anything else is a players league. Granted, I'm not from an NBA city but my rooting interests have always sat with players and/or coaches.
Harden is getting older and that extra weight he carries is going to cause injuries moving forward. Performance likely will decline more quickly as he ages as well.
Mediocre? He's made the playoffs in 6 of his 7 years and has only had 1 losing season (last season with the Bulls). His team was on track to challenge in the East this season before getting ripped apart by injuries. One of the few college coaches that have managed to enjoy some success on the pro level.
At this point in his career and in the evolving nature of college personnel rules, what college job could possibly entice him? Based on his record he could coach 3-5 years and then move into a front office job
We can glorify KD all we want, but his star to greatness is marred for several reasons. 1) He couldn't win a championship in the original place he was. He had to go where superstars were to win. Bird didn't do that ditto Kobe, Jordan, Doctor J, David Robinson, Seth Curry, Magic (the list is almost inexhaustible). Does that make a player less spectacular because he buys his way into a championship rather than forges his own with the people that rally around his house, YES! 2) Where he was, unlike Lebron, Shaq, Jabbar, Bosh, et al. (who also bought into championships), was that he had perhaps two of the top ten players in the league playing with him at OKC, and a host of other top-tier performers, and just COULD NOT GET THE JOB DONE. That speaks volumes to me about his legacy and toxicity. When you have Harden and Westbrook on your team, and you are perhaps the greatest player in the game, and you can't even reach the finals, you cannot possibly expect people to attribute the problem to lack of talent and not toxicity on all three of their parts. KD HAS to bear a large amount of responsibility for its failures. You say championships are not what measures success or greatness, but realistically we all know if that were the measurement of being the one of the best of all time based on the above, he wouldn't even be in the conversation. 3) You can subjectively assign blame for the personnel problems he has had for every team he has played for to the other players, but once a pattern has been established and the only common element in the pattern is KD, it is safe to say that he must bear some of the culpability. 4) He thought he could leave Golden State and carve out his own legacy separate and distinct from the best offensive backcourt in the HISTORY OF THE NBA (which is the ONLY REASON why KD even has championships) and he is getting a crude awakening to the reality that in the final analysis, he is a piece of the puzzle and not the picture once the puzzle is assembled. He is not a person that you build a championship around. He has allowed Kyrie to take over Brooklyn and dictate politics on the franchise instead of like all of the other great champions, who put their foot down and dictate to the front office how things are going to go. That in my opinion is toxic. He is too arrogant to realize that he is not THAT LEADER, but too timid to assert himself when it really matters. If that is not a toxic condition I do not know what is????? 5) We can go back to his days at UT- why did he even go to UT? He escaped Georgetown, Maryland, Virginia, UNC, Duke, all programs significantly closer to where he came from, and went across the country to UT. He was HEAD AND SHOULDERS the best player in the country his freshman year, and I doubt UT even made it to the Sweet Sixteen. That is toxic in my opinion. He is not a player that raises the level of other players around him, and his best value is playing around stalwart leviathans like Curry, Thompson, and Green (all first-ballot Hall of Famers that he ran to to get a championship). 6) We have seen retracted comments on Twitter, inappropriate in nature, and bizarre interviews with the press where people are left scratching their heads about where this person's head is at. You look at his scoring ability. Sometimes you have to look at the complete picture to make an accurate assessment.
His greatness is only marred by NBA fans who refuse to look at context. Lol, this is such a tired take. They had to bring in Shaq for Kobe, Dr J had Moses and Mo, DRob couldn't win one without Duncan...and who was Finals MVP for both 99 and 03? Curry had a absolutely beautiful roster built around him with an HOF coach, Magic had Kareem and Pat Riley. Jordan had Pip and Rodman and Phil. No player wins it on their own. I never said KD was the best of all time, he is easily one of the top 15, 20 players of all time though. That OKC team was super young and had to compete with Kobe's Lakers, Dirk and the Mavs, the Spurs in their prime and then the Warriors when they won 73 games. The year they made the finals they had to play the Heat with LeBron, Wade and Bosh. Absolutely brutal. Those three also never played together in their prime. This whole big three thing with them is hindsight bias. Maybe one year of KD and Russ, but Harden was a 6th man and no one knew when he left that that he was going to be as good as he was. Yeah you can; but uhhh we're talking about Draymond Green and Russ. Those two have been hell raisers their entire career and get into entanglements with everyone. How do you know that the Cavs don't beat the Warriors both of those years without KD? This is an argument you can't make, especially since the Cavs beat them the previous year when they didn't have KD. Again, the NBA is very difficult to win a title in. You don't win it with one player. KD now? You maybe don't build your roster around him, but in his prime? He was absolutely a championship centerpiece. Him going to UT doesn't make him toxic. They lost in the second round to a very good USC team (KD scored 30 in that game too). I'd argue that the Warriors needed KD to win another since they lost to Bron and Kyrie the previous year. Lol, so KD decides to participate on twitter and call out fans/media personalities for dumb takes? That doesn't make him toxic. Maybe its foolish, but not toxic. And we've all said dumb shit in our lives, so yeah moot point.
KD left a team that had a stacked 73-9 GS team up 3-1, to join that same stacked team just to win a championship. That says it all right there. He's too skinny. When teams play him hard and body him up, he can't get his normal shots off. That's where he and Lebron differ greatly. Lebron can power through, whereas KD can't.
Because Lebron played out of his mind. The fact that he would join the enemy just to win a championship, says it all. He's a cop out. He knows he's too easy to manhandle when the going gets tough.
As they get older, they have more injuries. Look at Lowry with the Heat. You just pray that their injuries are during the year and not the playoffs. KD is an excellent player. Not Lebron like where he delivered championships in Miami, Cleveland and LA, but a good player. When you have wind championships and are a max contract guy, you can choose to play in a market and with players you like. Championship is not necessarily the goal with a Kyrie or a KD like it was with Bill Russell.
The combination of NIL and free transfer is doing it IMO. If we went back to having to sit out a year, it probably wouldn't be so bad.
Dumbest post. Ever. Somebody should break into your home and remove every piece of gator clothing or memorabilia.
I agree, going back to the sit out year will help stem the tide...as it is now it's like musical chairs
What did you think when KD slammed Billy D for basically being a hard ass - in other words a coach that demands and wants the best for his players and team. It was quickly deleted, but speaks volumes to what a prima donna candy-ass KD is Kevin Durant sorry for tweets that criticized Billy Donovan, Thunder
