SEATTLE — I imagine if there were a poll asking Seattleites who their favorite NBA player was, Kevin Durant would top the list. Or if not — he'd at least poll higher here than he would in any other town — including those in the Bay Area, where he won two titles and two Finals MVPs with the Warriors.
People in the Emerald City love that dude, whose sole season in Seattle netted him NBA Rookie of the Year honors before the team moved to Oklahoma City. And he has returned Seattle's adoration — regularly commenting that the NBA needs to put a team back here ASAP.
In short: Sports fans in the 206 pay attention whenever Durant's name is brought up. They want to see him succeed. But as much as the former league MVP has accomplished in his 15-season NBA career, there is still a massive hole in his legacy.
I bring this up now because, after a recent trade that brought Bradley Beal to Phoenix, Durant is once again on a team that sits as one of the top-four Las Vegas favorites to win a championship.
This has been the case for the majority of Durant's career, which previously featured him as the centerpiece of the Thunder, Warriors and Nets. The only problem is — to most objective observers, I assume — the two titles he won with Golden State have Saturn-sized asterisks next to them.
Remember, after the 73-9 Warriors ousted the Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference finals, Durant joined them the following offseason. This was a Golden State group that, yes, lost in seven games to the LeBron James-led Cavs in the Finals but still set the league record for most regular-season wins.
One would think that, barring injury, any of the NBA's top 10 or 15 players would have rolled to a championship if they joined Steph Curry and Co. in the Bay. And that's exactly what happened, as the Dubs added two banners to the rafters by going 16-1 in the 2017 playoffs and 16-5 in the 2018 playoffs. A third ring almost certainly would have followed if KD was healthy the following postseason.
But when ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith calls Durant's move to the star-studded Warriors, "The weakest move I've ever seen by a superstar," it's hard not to disagree. And he hasn't been to even the conference finals since.
Durant missed the 2019-20 season due to an Achilles injury. In 2021, the eventual-champion Bucks knocked Durant's Nets out in the Eastern Conference semifinals despite KD averaging 35.4 points in the seven-game series.
The following year the Nets were swept by Boston in the first round, when Durant shot 38.5% for the series. And then there was last May, when the Nuggets beat Durant's Suns in the six-game Western Conference finals.
It's not that Durant has been a scrub in these series. But he hasn't been the best player on the court in any of those losses. That matters when it comes to finalizing one of the game's great regular-season players, whose postseason résumé lacks legendary credentials.
So now with three-time All-Star Beal joining Durant and three-time All-Star Devin Booker in Phoenix, the question is whether KD can win a title that would go (relatively) uncriticized.
It's a rare situation for an athlete of his caliber. There have been plenty of NBA superstars who haven't won championships — Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley and Chris Paul to name a few. And there have been others who won as role players in the twilights of their careers, such as Gary Payton and Jason Kidd.
But Durant is a two-time Finals MVP who made an unprecedented free-agency move at the peak of his powers — a move that really hasn't been repeated by a superstar since.
For the record, I think it'd be great to see KD hoist a trophy with the Suns next year and cement himself as a postseason all-timer. He was always one of the more approachable, amicable stars, even if it seems he has gotten more sensitive to scrutiny over the past few years.
He came to Seattle to open an outdoor basketball court after he left the Thunder in 2016 — a moment of great joy for OKC-hating Seattleites — and grinned as he answered a question about this town celebrating his departure.
"We're not going to talk about that," his PR flack said.
Except he did.
"Yeah, they were excited," replied Durant, adding how "electric" it would have been for Seattle had the Sonics stayed.
It sure would have been. And perhaps this is where he'll end his career should the team return.
Until then, KD has some work to do. His NBA résumé is a work of art — but not yet a masterpiece.
