The 2015/16 NBA season is considered the best season in league history due to all the historical moments we lived during those years. The 2016 offseason was also one to remember, given the huge move Kevin Durant made, leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors.
As we all know, this decision raised a lot of eyebrows around the league, and KD went from being one of the most beloved players to being considered a ‘snake’ for leaving his teammates hanging and, most importantly, for joining the team that previously beat him.
It’s been almost six years since that decision, and the NBA world doesn’t forget about this situation. KD has embraced his villain role and, whenever he can, teases people on social media and takes shots at media members. Well, folks around the league keep discussing this matter even today, and recently, Shaquille O’Neal gave his two pennies on this.
During a recent episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, The Big Diesel reflected on Durant’s controversial decision, saying that he left a situation where he was the main dude just to join the team everybody wanted to beat.
“When he was in OKC, he was the bus driver, and everybody was on him, and he couldn’t close. And people were really curious like you can’t close, and then you wanna join the team that beat you and then he don’t understand why everybody was upset about that. So, it’s supposed to be about competition. If I knew it was okay to join people, f*** I would have joined the Bulls.”
People can say Shaq joined the Los Angeles Lakers just like KD did with the Warriors, but those situations are very different. Kobe Bryant wasn’t even at his best level when he landed in LA, and they worked hard to become the team they were at the start of the 2000s.
Durant joined a 73-win team that eliminated him in the past postseason, which makes things even worse for him. In the end, he won two championships in three trips to the Finals before joining the Brooklyn Nets, where he’s been unable to have the same success he enjoyed in Oakland.
