Early on Thursday we got a taste of what Paul Pierce thought about Kevin Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
And now, a rebuttal from Warriors teammate Draymond Green:
My eyeballs are melting in my sockets the takes are so hot. Essentially, Green comes down where I think many of us do: Kevin Durant isn’t a businessman; he’s a business, man.
Should KD have gone to Warriors on an emotional level? From where I’m sitting, months later with the 2016 NBA season about to start, it looks pretty lame. On a business and legacy level, it’s perfectly fine.
Everything is built on winning in this league: Hall of Fame votes, local endorsements, shoe deals, national recognition, international sponsorships, and employment opportunities after playing. Durant’s move is a smart business choice if nothing else.
If Green thinks this discussion point is going to go away this season, he’s got another thing coming. Durant’s move to Oakland is one of the biggest stories in the league since LeBron James left Cleveland in 2010. It’s not going away, and it’s more likely that we’re just getting started.
What we could do without is the “generational difference” crutch that some of the older players seem to lean on. Often it’s revisionist history at best and disingenuous at worst. As Dan Feldman pointed out earlier, it’s not as though Pierce tried to stay in one place during his career, at different times courting the Dallas Mavericks, requesting trades, moving to the Brooklyn Nets, and so forth.
Green’s full quote is below:
I just wonder at what point do they get bored talking about the same thing. You got all these guys talking. Like (Paul) Pierce today, like, dude nobody care what you did or who you did it for. Just give it a break.
Everybody got something to say and want to take everything he say and twist it. Like, he play for the Warriors. OKC has their team, we have our team. He left there.
Nobody complain when somebody leave Apple and go to Google. As a basketball player, you are the CEO of a business. You are a business. Kevin Durant is a big business. He is the CEO of that business. So him going to play basketball for a different team, the CEO decided to leave where he was at and go somewhere else.
But there’s so many guys in this league that are so stupid they don’t think like that. They don’t think business wise. It happens every day in this world. But in basketball it’s a problem. Aren’t you competitive your day job if you work or Apple? Don’t you want to outdo Google? What’s the difference on the basketball court? It’s your day job. You want to do what’s better for you. If it’s better for your family life, better for your happiness. Ain’t no one criticizing them. I’ll never understand it. I don’t understand it.
So that’s just me. And I’d be willing to bet my salary ain’t many guys in this league more competitive than me.