Kevin Durant is undoubtedly going to get some flak for his decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder and join up with the 73-win Golden State Warriors this summer. Some view it as running to a better team to make things easier for him because he's not a tough enough competitor. Those viewpoints of the situation will likely lead to a negative connotation with a lot of what Durant does as a member of the Warriors. Golden State had already found itself turning villainous in the court of public opinion during the playoffs and this is going to be seen as stacking the deck in its favor in an unfair manner.
That leads to Durant getting labeled as a villain. Whether that lasts throughout the season or dissipates when the Warriors start back up dazzling crowds, K.D.'s new coach Steve Kerr thinks viewing Durant as a villain is "kind of absurd." Kerr told Michelle Beadle and Ramona Shelburne on ESPN Radio that he's an "awesome human being" and his work in the community should overshadow any ill feelings of a change of scenery for the All-NBA forward. From ESPN:
"To think of Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or any of our guys as villains, it's kind of absurd. Especially Kevin," Kerr said Sunday in an interview on ESPN Radio's TMI with Michelle Beadle and Ramona Shelburne. "This is one of the most likable people in this league. He's just an awesome human being. What he did in Oklahoma City was just amazing for that community.
Kerr added: "Circumstances kind of dictate, I guess, that some people are going to see him as a villain. But it's only because he decided to go elsewhere to play. He wanted to change his scenery, he wanted a new challenge. More than anything he wanted to play with our guys. He loves Draymond [Green] and Steph and Klay [Thompson] and Andre [Iguodala]. Seeing those guys in New York, he loved seeing the chemistry that exists and he wanted to be a part of it."
Things probably won't be as intense as what we saw with the Miami Heat and LeBron James following his decision in 2010. We've had that initial lashing out against such a decision, and eventually championships subsided a lot of the distaste the general public and diehard fans of other teams had for LeBron and the Heat. The titles justified the means and it's safe to say that will likely happen with the Warriors and Durant -- assuming they do what most expect them to do by winning titles. Also, Durant has never been as polarizing as James was even before that decision, so there is less of a background of anger toward him than there was with LeBron.
But the villain label is here and will continue for at least a short while. It'll be much easier for Durant to get rid of, especially since the team is more likely to be criticized on a personal level with Draymond Green as the catalyst of that backlash than Durant and his personality. Winning eventually trumps all criticism and this team should win quite a bit. Durant will still have to deal with being booed like he's never been booed before, and he'll have to find a balance in his emotions and play on the court to make it eventually go away.
