*By now you already know that earlier today Kevin Durant started the fireworks celebration on this 4th of July early by announcing that he’s leaving the Oklahoma Thunder and has agreed to a two-year, $54 million deal with the Golden State Warriors including a player option after the first season.
Naturally a monumental decision like this is not going be universally accepted especially by Thunder fans and supporters. But we are kind of surprised to see ESPN analyst and mouthpiece Stephen A. Smith, seeming to take Durant’s move personally.
READ RELATED STORY: Kevin Durant Decides to Take His Talents to the Warriors
“I’m viewing it as the weakest move I’ve ever seen from a superstar, plain and simple that’s just how I look at it. It’s not that he’s leaving Oklahoma City, if you’re not happy there, you wanna move on and you wanna grow as a player there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s one of the top three players in the world, he’s a quintessential superstar, he deserves all the credit in the world for the talent that he possesses but the flip side is this: they were up 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals. Not 1, not 2, but 3 different times he was 48 minutes away from getting to the NBA Finals by winning the Western Conference and three times he failed, particularly in game 6 and you depart for the team that beat you? When you’re on the cusp of getting to the Finals yourself and ultimately winning the championship with the franchise that you’ve been with since you come into the NBA? I think it’s incredibly weak.”
Not that it matters at this point, but as you can see in the above video, Smith explains why Durant’s decision is worse than the one LeBron James made in 2010. LeBron was highly criticized for leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and teaming up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat. Stephen A. says LeBron had nobody in Cleveland while Durant had a legitimate championship contender with the Thunder.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
