2019 NBA Playoffs Poll

[Socnorb11]

Again, it would be like Jordan getting Bird or Malone (in their prime) on his team. Think about that for a minute.

I understand we can draw that line between Jordan and KD, but then where do you draw a line for what is fair to add to your roster.

If the Warriors a few years ago didn't sign KD because KD went to the Lakers or something and they offered Andre Drummond a max deal and Drummond signed with them and Detroit let him go, is that too much for them to do? If they didn't get Drummond and they got Al Horford, would that have been too much? Like, if the Dubs, coming off that lost series to Cleveland, signed Drummond, a guy who can go for 20/20 any night, would that then have caused fans to moan that it wasn't fair, Drummond was soft, the Dubs are an evil empire?

On the other side of that, we all loved the Dubs in 2015, right? Curry was MVP. He was taking ludicrous shots we had never seen routinely taken before. He would pull up anywhere and swish. Thompson had that stunning game with 37 in a quarter. They beat the reigning punching bag soft cheater LeBron James in the Finals. And TWO YEARS LATER this team that we all loved when they came out of nowhere was reviled by certain fans for having the audacity to improve their team. What's the line for them? If they're not allowed KD in that offseason, are they allowed Drummond? Horford? Robert Covington? Josh Richardson? At what level should their autonomy to improve their team be capped?

That's why the Kukoc/Rodman thing matters. The Bulls traded Will Perdue straight-up for Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman. They added a Hall of Famer for virtually nothing to an already great team bringing the reigning GOAT back. If the Dubs are not allowed KD, or Drummond, or Horford because they are already too good, the Bulls should not have been allowed Rodman.

My beef isn't as much with what the Warriors did as it is with what Durant did.

[InvincibleCakeEater]

I hate it when players want to win championships.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

I hate it when players want to win championships.

Are you going to be devastated if KD signs with the Knicks because he's jamming up his path to a ring so badly?

I guess it comes down to taste. I sarcastically hate a league that isn't 82 games plus three months of pointless exhibition. And wins that seem like actual victories. If you don't want a league, like I do, that is this:

or this:

...there is a team in Harlem you could be a fan of if the Warriors are providing too much doubt.

Oh! Or, I still have a vhs of the 92 Dream Team. You'll love it. Panama and Belarus don't stand a [expletive] chance.

I'd avoid the movie Miracle though. The Soviets work so hard to durant (a verb which means make a competition a ridiculous farce) and lose. "Do you believe in inevitabilities? Oh no!"

[InvincibleCakeEater]

I hate it when players want to win championships.

[Socnorb11]

He'll have a ring. Good for him. He won't be remembered as a guy that led his team to a championship. Duncan will. Lebron will. Curry will. Jordan will. Durant......... no way.

If he's happy, more power to him. To me, it says something about his competitive spirit.

[MAGA]

Kevin Durant feels the heat about the quality of his rings. He's created fake twitter accounts to defend himself. He knows not all championships are created equal. Durant seems NYK bound because he feels the pressure to mark out for his own legacy and do it on "his team."

And on that note, Jordan played a lot of garbage teams and never faced anything on the level of GSW like LeBron did multiple times. Lebron probably has another ring against GSW if Love and irving aren't on the bench hurt in 2015, as well. LeBron had many cakewalks to the finals, but his finals opponents were much better.

[33anda3rd]

He'll have a ring. Good for him. He won't be remembered as a guy that led his team to a championship. Duncan will. Lebron will. Curry will. Jordan will. Durant......... no way.

If he's happy, more power to him. To me, it says something about his competitive spirit.

He has two Finals MVPs so if you don't remember him as the best player on B2B champions I don't know what to tell you.

As John Oliver would say: And now: this.

Kevin Durant doesn't give one one millionth of one crap what fans think of him. Or what the media thinks of him. It's in this interview, defiantly: "You tell me how you want me to play. I'm not gonna be aggressive because you think I need to put up 30 shots....then of course the hammer at the " The fallacy of fan behavior and emotion is that they think KD cares what they think. He doesn't. LeBron does, KD doesn't. And probably shouldn't. In this interview he's candid and honest. He says the Clips played harder than they did for a stretch. He doesn't back down from anything. And he also tells them: "I'm Kevin Durant. Y'all know who I am" which is 100000000 kinds of wonderful. Fan sentiment doesn't even register. How some sportswriters or fans will remember him doesn't matter to him, which is a breath of fresh air.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

If he doesn't care, why is he defending his honor with fake Twitter accounts? Did you see the soles of his Nikes? Seems like the behavior of someone who gives two millionths of a crap at least.

Kevin Durant shouldn't care what I think. Truly, good for him of he doesn't. He should serve his values, not some long-suffering random Blazer fan's.

I'm sure he weighed the blowback before joining GS, (Lord knows I'm not the only guy going round and round and round justifying the blowback)and he still went, so he's at least willing to face it. But he cares about it. More than one millionth. I'm not even saying it's bad--Damian Lillard gets most of his mojo from the doubters. But no one that doesn't care what the critics say wears those shoes and responds to random dudes on Twitter with fake accounts. And it's good to know the message landed.

[Socnorb11]

Personally, I don't care if he cares. He gets paid tens of millions of dollars to be judged by slugs like me, so I'm gonna judge.

"He wants to own a ring". Great. So does every other player in the league. That doesn't make him different. What he really doesn't want to do is compete. That makes him significantly different than pretty much every other great player in the history of the NBA.

It's like the U.S. Olympic team. Yeah, they kick everyone's ass, but does anybody really care?

[MAGA]

What kind of competitor is KD?

He goes up 3-1 on a team, loses to them 4-3, then joins them the next season.

That’s KD for you. And now he’s probably leaving to show he can do it all on his own. Because he clearly feels the criticism about his legacy. He ultimately does what the public wants because he wants to be accepted. He can say otherwise with his fake tough guy act. But we all know he made fake twitter accounts because he’s sensitive and gets his feelings hurt.