As Kevin Durant ponders his future in Brooklyn, new light is being shed on his tenure in Golden State, which remains the only place he has ever been able to win a title.
Those three years with the Warriors changed everything for Durant. He achieved great success, winning championships and dominating the league alongside Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
If you ask Shannon Sharpe, he’ll tell you that KD should still be thanking Curry for letting him come and play for a city and franchise that was already under his control.
“Kevin Durant wouldn’t have been a 2x champion, would not be a 2x Finals MVP, without Steph Curry, and he needs to praise Steph for allowing him to come into his house.”
Durant thrived in Golden State, and his talents helped push the Warriors from great to virtually unbeatable. But there is a strong sense among the basketball community that Steph Curry was always the leader of the Warriors and that Durant has yet to prove he can win as the guy in charge.
“Please don’t tell me you’re a great, great player, and you’re averaging 20,” said Charles Barkley on KD’s tenure in Golden State. “I don’t think I ever played in the playoffs and averaged 20. I don’t wanna bad mouth a dude but you guys always talk about Championship stuff. I try to tell y’all, all these bus riders, they don’t mean nothing to me. If you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around talking about you a Champion. If you’re riding the bus, I don’t wanna hear it. All these guys walking around with Championship rings, y’all bus riders. When you the bus driver and you get all that pressure when you have to play well or you’re gonna get the blame, that’s a different animal.”
KD’s game speaks for itself. No matter what questions you have about the guy and where his loyalties may lie, he is still one of the best basketball players in the world, and it’s why he remains such a valuable trade asset at 33 years old.
But had he never linked up with Steph and the crew in California, he might not be the decorated and widely respected player that he is today.
In a lot of ways, Kevin’s success is a result of Stephen Curry’s greatness, and some are refusing to lose sight of that amid all this drama with the Nets.
