Lowe wonders if KD joining Warriors was worst thing to happen to him originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Sure, Kevin Durant might have some regrets from his Hall of Fame NBA career. Nobody’s perfect. But signing with the team that helped him win two championships might not be one of them.
However, ESPN senior NBA analyst Zach Lowe might disagree.
Lowe appeared on Friday’s episode of “Get Up,” where he discussed the Phoenix Suns firing coach Frank Vogel and the lack of playoff success — and organizational consistency — Durant has experienced since leaving the Warriors in 2019, and proposed a head-scratching question: Was Durant’s decision to sign with Golden State the worst thing that has happened to him in his career?
“We’re seven, eight years removed from it now,” Lowe said. “The more this kind of stuff happens, the more I just go back and look. I wonder if that cap spike, remember the cap skyrocketed and it was the only reason that one summer Golden State, a 73-win team, could sign a player like this who was the best or second-best player in the NBA then.
“I sometimes wonder, was that the worst thing that happened to Kevin Durant? Because he went there, he won two titles, two Finals MVPs. No one can take that away from him. He’s never going to get the credit that those accomplishments would normally bestow on him because of how good the team was.”
Lowe and the “Get Up” panel likely are referencing this statistic that went viral on social media Thursday, highlighting the lack of consistency that has followed Durant since he departed from the Warriors.
If there is a career decision Durant might regret, it’s more likely to be his decision to leave the Warriors — a team, as Lowe mentioned, where he won two championships and two Finals MVPs — than his decision to join Golden State.
“I think he’s realized that, his people have realized that and he’s just kind of been a wayward soul ever since,” Lowe added. “I wonder if you went back to that moment and Golden State was not an option for him, if he could have made his own path somewhere else in a way that was more sustainable. Because, yeah, the two titles are awesome, it was incredible. Two Finals MVPs, that’s all-time historic stuff. It just felt he’s been wayward ever since then and it’s just getting more and more wayward.”
Durant appeared in the Finals every year of his Warriors tenure, and could have won three championships had he and guard Klay Thompson not gotten hurt in the 2019 Finals loss to the Toronto Raptors. He also did so with the same coach (Steve Kerr), general manager (Bob Myers), owner (Joe Lacob) and teammates (Steph Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green) by his side. There was nothing but consistency, stability and success in Golden State.
It’s fair to assume that’s one decision Durant doesn’t regret.
Source Agencies
