LeBron vs. KD Free Agency Decision
In the summer of 2010 LeBron joined forces with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to play for the Miami Heat. In the summer of 2016 Kevin Durant joined a Golden State Warriors team that had just won 73 games and was coming off of back to back trips to the NBA Finals. Many have wanted to compare the two decisions while really, they are incomparable. I have long grappled with why and how they are different and think I have finally come to a conclusion. LeBron joined his friends to beat his enemies, while Kevin Durant joined his enemies to beat his friends.
That sentence sums up my feelings on the matter. LeBron did team up with two superstars, but the team was not established; there were growing pains in South Beach, that’s why Dirk has a ring. LeBron did not distort the competitive balance of the league, in fact I could argue the disdain towards the Heat of the early 2010s helped grow the game of basketball exponentially. Then there is KD. If you can’t beat ‘em, join em, right? Durant and the Thunder fell to the Warriors (after holding a 3-1 series lead) in the 2016 postseason and then he decided to bolt town. He didn’t leave for any greener pasture, but the exact pasture that made him smell his own manure just weeks earlier.
