There was Kevin Durant, going through the various Stations of the Cross that come part and parcel with the 30 NBA media days held across the country over the past few days, signaling the start of a new season.
It is a routine Durant, like every NBA player with a few years of experience, has come to memorize, and perform in perfunctory fashion: put on your game day attire and sit for some interviews, take a few pictures, have a little fun with the team’s social media account. This time though, it looked, and felt, very different.
No longer was Durant wearing the blue and orange of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team with which he’d spent the first nine years of his career. Instead, he was decked out in the blue and gold of the Golden State Warriors, his new team after he decided to join them in free agency in July.
It was a jarring sight, one that will take time to get used to. But after nearly three months of constant speculation about how the Warriors will look now that Durant has been brought into the fold, the NBA’s newest marked man was ready to get started when he reached the podium inside the team’s practice facility in Oakland, Calif., Monday afternoon.
“It’s just become more and more realistic as each day goes by,” Durant said of adjusting to his new team and surroundings. “Now I have my jersey on and media day, and seeing all my teammates, it’s real.”
For all of the attention paid to Durant and his decision to leave Oklahoma City and come to the Bay Area, there’s never been any doubt he’s always been most comfortable when he’s out on the basketball court. During the lockout in 2011, Durant went on a barnstorming tour across the country, finding games wherever he could.
This season, Durant will have to find sanctuary within the familiar confines of the court, because there will be none for him anywhere else. Durant will enter this season with more pressure on him to win a championship than anyone in NBA history – including LeBron James when he went from Cleveland to Miami in 2010. Unlike that Heat team, which was made up of a trio of stars – James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh – hoping to find a way past the Boston Celtics, in choosing the Warriors, Durant decided to join a ready-made Goliath.
Durant was on a team that was, at worst, a co-favorite to escape from the Western Conference this season had he remained alongside Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City. Instead, he chose to join a team with a star-studded core, forming a true super team that is a consensus favorite to walk away with a second championship in three seasons.
In many ways, it’s a no-win situation for Durant. Win a title, and it will have been expected. Fail to, and it will be a catastrophic failure. But none of that will matter to him if, come next June, he’s holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy and celebrating the championship he’s waited the past nine years to claim.
“That’s what it all comes down to,” Durant said. “The game, that’s the most important part. To get on the court and get acquainted with my teammates and the coaching staff, I’m looking forward to that more than anything.”
The Warriors are about to learn what it was like to be a member of the Miami Heat back in 2010. Everywhere they go this season, they’re going to be the hunted. They’ll likely be mercilessly booed in every arena they walk into, unlike the traveling celebration they’ve received for the past two years. All of it will be because of the presence of Durant, and his decision to seemingly tip the scales totally in Golden State’s favor.
Everyone loves to root against the favorite, and the Warriors will be favorites in every game they play this season. How they handle that anger and vitriol could be the toughest opponent they have this season, given the talent level around them. And given how Durant has reacted at times to the criticism and attention his decision has created, one of the NBA’s most popular and fun-to-watch players may need some time getting used to the newly minted animosity heading his way.
But this is what Durant signed up for in coming here, in joining up with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and playing for Head Coach Steve Kerr. This was a once-in-a-lifetime situation: a chance to join a historically great team with all of the key players in their primes – an opportunity that only presented itself because of a variety of factors, including the influx of money from a new league television deal.
Durant pushed all his chips into the middle of the table by exchanging Oklahoma City colors for Golden State’s. Only a championship will be acceptable coming back out of the pot. Such is the mandate for Durant and the Warriors this season, a mandate arguably no team has been forced to carry in the history of the NBA.
Monday marked the beginning of the 2016-17 season, and it also marked the beginning of a nine-month referendum on Kevin Durant, and his decision to join the Warriors. Succeed, and that is all anyone will remember. Fail, and the stain will be similarly indelible.
Such is life in the spotlight. Starting Monday, it’s the new reality Durant will live with until this season has ended.