• One Big Thing: Free Agency and the Ambiguity of Competitiveness

    The times, they are a-changing.

    Kevin Durant has been taking heat from former players and some older contemporaries about his decision to head to Golden State. In the old days, it would’ve been truly unfathomable for two rivals to team up like Durant and the Warriors have this summer. Quite frankly, it was an unprecedented move.

    That decision has been used as a harbinger of doom by those who turn in sleepless nights tossing and turning over the league’s concepts of parity and competitive balance.

    This sort of move, perceived as ‘taking the easy way out,’ has led to some who bemoan the modern development of super teams.

    From the obvious point of view, it certainly seems like joining a ready-to-win title contender is the easier path. On the other hand, with the perpetual coverage and the ever-looming media, it hardly seems like it’ll be an easy year for anyone involved. That’s not meant to paint the media as an evil specter- the nature of the work just means this is a topic that will be coming up all year long. There are some headaches coming.

    Yes, there’s the basketball part of things where there’s always a bit of a learning curve no matter who your new teammates are. It’ll be an adjustment period for sure but that shouldn’t be a monumental road block. But the off court stuff is already… let’s not say “getting to” some of the parties involved, but it’s definitely become somewhat of an irritant.

    Draymond Green (of course it was Draymond) fired back at some recent comments from Paul Pierce about what he interprets as a lack of competitive fire from today’s generations. We’ll get to Pierce in a minute but just know it wasn’t as Get Off My Lawn-y as it sounds.

    Green used a fairly poor analogy about employees transferring between tech giants and referred to the fact that nobody wants to talk smack when this kind of thing happens in the business world. It’s a weak comparison with lots of holes considering how prominent non-compete clauses are, but Green is right to say that Durant is a business and he’s just trying to do what’s best for his business. That doesn’t mean everyone should stop asking KD questions but some of his sentiment is right on target, even if Dray’s just channeling his inner Britta Perry.

    And really, it can’t be easy to wake up every day and hear that someone you respect, either a peer or a former player, is essentially taking potshots at your character. To go from being a fairly beloved player around the league to THE villain in a few months is a seismic shift.

    Some reports floated out that Durant left OKC in part because he was tired of being the most famous face in every crowd. Oklahoma City is one of the league’s smaller markets, and as a single sport town it’s fair to assume that the Thunder and their biggest star were a preeminent source of civic pride. Durant, if those reports are to be believed, wanted the freedom to go out without having to be the most recognizable man in the room.

    In San Francisco, and the Bay Area at large, his celebrity might not mean as much as it did in OKC. That shouldn’t be taken as a knock on Oklahoma City since there’s nothing wrong with appreciating a star. Those vibes just weren’t for KD anymore.

    The reasoning behind that sentiment is still pretty flimsy; you don’t swing a move that rocks the entire NBA to its core and expect to blend in your new digs, especially not with the constant coverage that every comment will now receive. It’s going to be an endless stream of stories and opinions, and to want to avoid talking about it is a fool’s errand. But at the end of the day, Durant did right by himself. And that’s okay. It’s better than okay, really.

    Durant’s decision makes a boatload of sense from any perspective. The only area where KD takes an L is in the court of public opinion. Everything he says is going to be twisted into some shot at the Thunder, like his comments about the Warriors’ unselfish nature already have. To outsiders he’s the bad guy now, whether he likes it or not. It sounds unpleasant, but that should be outweighed by just about everything else.

    But back to Paul Pierce, who claimed he could’ve worked his way out of Boston but decided to stick it out. He made his trade request threats in 2007 and was rewarded with a championship in 2008. Holding your GM’s feet to the fire doesn’t seem like “sticking it out.”

    The old Warriors would’ve been willing to get out of bed early any day of the week to stomp the Clippers into dust. I’m not sure incurring the wrath of this year’s team was the way to go.

    Pierce is right about one thing though- a lot of guys today are genuine friends. Nobody demands the heightened intensity of competition that any sport’s yesteryear mythos conjures up. Not the players and not fans. It’s not life and death. There’s very few reasons for any of these players to develop full-on personal animosity. I’m not sure that detracts from the competitiveness of it all, and even if it does who are we to say that guys shouldn’t be friends off the court? Framing inter-team niceties as a possible threat to the league’s integrity and competitive balance is silly.

    And considering Pierce’s kinda-sorta ultimatum to Danny Ainge back in 2007 makes this whole thing seem downright stupid. How is “if you don’t get better players to help me win, I’m going to ask to leave” better than “I’d like to use my own free will to select my destination?” Where is the moral high ground in any of this? How can you claim competitive superiority?

    It’s okay to try and whine and leverage your way into a better situation but when you exercise your collectively-bargained rights to do so freely it’s no good? Come on.

    Kevin Durant is a grown man who made a decision. It’s a great decision, but even if it weren’t it would still on Durant to deal with the consequences. It’s a story worth covering and a concept worth talking about, but if we can’t dodge the same talking points it’s going to grow tiresome quickly.

    There’s only one guy who can either shut people up or change the conversation, and he’s wearing #35 for the Warriors.

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