From Golden Boy to Snake(The transformation of Kevin Durant

Nowadays Kevin Durant is a pretty hated player. As with any player he has his fans and critics but there’s more critics than fans now. But there was a time especially after Lebron went to Miami that Kevin Durant was considered the Golden boy of the National Basketball Association. Kevin Durant was a humble young boy out of the Maryland -DC area. After a dominant high school career Durant had a stellar one and done season at Texas.

In the 2007 NBA Draft KD was selected 2nd overall by the Seattle supersonic’s. He was taken only after Greg Oden who many expected to become the leagues next great Big man but instead succumbed to injury. Kevin Durant immediately made a splash in the pros averaging 20.3 points 2.4 Assists on a 45.1 Effective filed goal percentage. The supersonics remained awful as they finished the season with a 20-62 record, Nevertheless Durant earned rookie of the year along with all rookie 1st team.

Team owner Howard Schultz sold the team and the supersonic’s relocated to Oklahoma City. With the teams constant struggle they landed lottery picks back to back years after selecting Durant 07. In 2008 they selected electric Point Guard Russell Westbrook out of UCLA. In 2009 they selected a hilariously beardless James Harden out of Arizona State. With this core and brand new role players the Thunder became a competitive team making the playoffs In 2010 and falling to the eventually World Champion Los Angeles Lakers

.This was only the beginning of the road for the young thunder and 2 years later they made their first finals appearance. There they fell to a hungry Miami Heat team leaving a devastated Durant crying on his mothers shoulder. Fast forward to years to the 2014 season, Kevin Durant won his one and only NBA MVP award. There he delivered one of the most moving and memorable speeches ever, stating that his mom was the real MVP for sacrificing to raise him and his siblings. That was the Durant that everybody loved, the 4 time scoring champ, the humble superstar.

While the 2014-2015 season was lost for the thunder due to injury the emergence of the Golden State Warriors and MVP Steph Curry became very clear to the rest of the league. With their unique blend of offense and shooting ability, they found themselves NBA champions. In the 2016 Western Conference Finals Durants thunder found themselves engaged in an all out war with the Dubs. The Thunder jumped out to a 3-1 lead and it seemed Durant would get his chance to meet Lebron In the finals again. Instead, the thunder proceeded to lose 3 straight and the warriors went on to be on the wrong side of history against the Cavs. Still thunder fans just knew that they’d be back next year. All they had to do was get KD to resign…….

On July 4th, 2016 the basketball world erupted. Kevin Durant had signed with the Golden State Warriors! The same team that had just beat him in the conference finals, this team also just so happened to be the greatest regular season team of all time! Quite frankly the basketball world did not approve at all. The Backlash included lots of snake and cupcake comments. Westbrook was absolutely pissed off.

The Warriors were favorites going into the season. That notion proved right when they steam railed all opposition in the postseason, losing in total one game. Durants attitude seemed to change, he was no longer that humble young boy out of DC. Instead, he became arrogant and sensitive to the common eye. In three years as a member of the Warriors, Durant helped capture 2 championships while being selected finals MVP both years. This past summer after a messy break up with the warriors Durant joined the Brooklyn nets. This is a chance to prove he can lead a team as curry was the obvious leader and best player on the warriors. If anything curry and Klay along with Draymond were the nucleus of the Warriors and that wasn’t going to change even with a player of Durants caliber on board. While we won’t see doesn’t on the floor this season this signals new beginnings. Chances are tho we won’t get the humble fan favorite version of Durant back.