The NBA can be ironic sometimes and reality can mock fiction big time. Proof of that is the loyalty rating Kevin Durant had in the NBA 2K16 video game. At the time, it wasn’t crazy, KD had spent his whole career with the Thunder, reaching the NBA Finals in 2012 and winning the MVP award in 2014.
Four years ago, he was still part of the Oklahoma City Thunder, one of the best teams in the NBA. KD was very close to reaching the Finals for the second time in his career that year, but the Golden State Warriors pulled off a historical comeback, returning from a 3-1 deficit in the Western Conference Finals.
After that, KD joined the Warriors who won an NBA record 73 games the last season. Of course, that move didn’t please a lot of fans, who instantly called him a snake for joining the team that beat him the prior season. It was a shock for everybody, including the 2K people, who put KD’s loyalty rating up in the sky.
Never forget when Kevin Durant had a maxed out loyalty rating in NBA 2K16 😂 pic.twitter.com/MtSuyy9Er1
— . (@TheNBACentral) July 17, 2020
Durant's Loyalty attribute in the official #NBA2K16 roster is 100. Awkward… #KDWatch pic.twitter.com/cDrwFzlH8e
— Andrew Begley (@AndrewNLSC) July 5, 2016
It’s ironic how loyal the people of 2K saw him and what he did after that season, where he seemed decided to do anything to take OKC to the promised land.
The next installment of the game presented us a KD with a 49 loyalty rating and some fans took things to the next level, manually adjusting his loyalty rating to zero. That move certainly changed the way people saw Durant but he still carried on. In the end, Durant won two titles with the Warriors and played in three Finals, although injuries prevented him from having a bigger role against the Raptors last year.
Now he’s with the Brooklyn Nets, trying to demonstrate he can lead a team to the victory without the help of the Splash Brothers and Draymond Green.
