Kevin Durant has received a lot of criticism since 2016, the year when he decided to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder and join the team that beat him coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the Western Conference Finals. When he signed with the Golden State Warriors, the perception of him completely changed.
Ever since that moment, nothing has been the same between KD and the fans, but he’s not too worried about it. In fact, Durant enjoys engaging in heated debates with them on social media, constantly giving fans and media topics to discuss.
Former players have been especially harsh with KD, constantly criticizing him for his prior decisions and how he’s managed himself since leaving the Thunder seven years ago. Two of the most infamous KD detractors are Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. These legends have gone at it with Durant, trading jabs whenever they have the chance.
Shaquille O’Neal Diminishes Kevin Durant’s Career Without The Warriors
KD won two championships with the Warriors, finally lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy, dominating in each of those series he could play. Even though he’s a 2x champion and 2x Finals MVP, many people have criticized him for joining a 73-win to finally win something.
Shaq and Chuck are part of that group, and recently, the Big Diesel charged against KD, saying that his tenures in Oklahoma City and Brooklyn have been a failure since he couldn’t lead those teams to wins when he was the man. During a recent edition of the Big Podcast with Shaq, O’Neal had this to say:
“Yeah… If you’re the guy and you ain’t get it done, that means you failed,” Shaq replied when he was asked if Durant’s career outside of Golden State was a failure.
The truth is that Durant couldn’t get the job done in OKC, even though he was close in the 2012 Finals and during the 2016 WCF, where they looked ready to reach the Finals and face off against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the biggest series of all.
Now, with the Nets, his best result was the second round of the playoffs, and he couldn’t lead his injured team past Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. Last season, Durant was swept in the first round of the postseason, earning even more criticism from his haters.
He requested a trade away from Brooklyn this offseason, but nothing happened to him. He’ll have a third shot at the championship with the Nets to try to prove doubters wrong, but that job will be very hard to carry out.
