“He wakes up with his family every day. That’s all he has to answer to. He ain’t gotta answer to the critics. He ain’t gotta answer to nobody else.” -- retired NBA star Jermaine O’Neal
Jermaine O’Neal was referring specifically to Kevin Durant, who after taking stock of his personal and professional life, woke up one morning and exercised his collectively bargained right as a free agent.
He decided to leave the Thunder and join the Warriors.
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To leave Oklahoma City to come to the Bay Area.
Durant took a new job that might not pay as much as his old job but was more appealing in a variety of ways.
Two years and two Warriors championships later, folks are still searching for ways to sling disapproval his way.
The latest came Wednesday from the thumbs of Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum, a smart man and terrific player with evidently a few resentful bones in his body, who poured Twitter gasoline on what’s left of the fire that began raging on July 4, 2016 and, thanks to NBA players current and past, is threatening to become the longest-lasting blaze in human history.
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After making an appearance of McCollum’s podcast “Pull Up with CJ McCollum” -- Durant likely assumed all was well. They joked. They laughed. The teased, with McCollum mock recruiting Durant to Portland and Durant feigning an effort to break up the Blazers. They parted amicably.
And then Twitter got involved.
Quote tweeting a comment critical of Durant’s move to the Warriors, McCollum dropped a gang analogy, hinting at disloyalty, that he surely knew KD wouldn’t appreciate. Durant clapped back. Loudly.
Reminding McCollum that he’d just appeared on “your (expletive) podcast,” Durant dropped a line about “snakes in the grass” along with a laughter emoji. The Twitterverse, sniffing the seeds of conflict, dived in headfirst.
Which led McCollum to reply that he was just making an analogy, that there is “no feud” and that “y’all gotta chill.”
There is no feud, yet McCollum couldn’t resist taking a shot at his friend. There may not have been any malice, but it was nonetheless superfluous. It was, again, a few more drops of fuel on the ashes that continue to smolder.
With inspiration, preparation and a little luck, we all create a life in which we determine a definition of success. It’s a personal thing. Most folks measure success by wealth or health or freedom, or the intangible “happiness.”
Durant came to the Warriors because, quite simply, it was what he wanted to do. He put himself in position to contemplate options, to choose the locale of the next chapter of his life. He was healthy, wealthy and free to decide what would make him happiest.
It’s a bad look for someone to project their personal codes and desires onto someone else, to say not only that you wouldn’t have done what another has done but also that they should not have done what they actually did.
In a profession where the job often moves the individual -- hello, DeMar DeRozan -- Durant took the liberty to move on his own. It’s an option everyone in the workforce wishes they had.
It’s an option that ought to be celebrated rather than castigated.
Durant has put up with this stuff for 765 days and counting. It’s an old gripe from folks that think old. It has been heard and overheard and overheard some more. It’s time to get over it.
Let the man have his rings, NBA Finals MVP trophies, his outreach to the community and his personal financial portfolio. Let him have it where he wants it. Let it go, CJ and the rest, unless you think Kevin Durant is living his life for your fulfillment.