Since Kevin Durant announced his decision to join the 73 win Golden State Warriors on July 4, fans have been shoving KD’s now infamous 2010 tweet in his face:
Now everybody wanna play for the heat and the Lakers? Let's go back to being competitive and going at these peoples!
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) July 16, 2010
Yeah, that’s not a good look. Fans don’t have a right to go after a player for choosing what he wants to do with his own life during the free agency period that he’s earned; but hypocrisy is pretty difficult to accept. Regardless, Kevin Durant will play for the Warriors next year and probably for the next few years after that, and what’s done is done. Now, it’s time to determine the ramifications of Durant’s move to the Bay Area will do for the NBA going forward. When looking ahead, it’s a different opinion that Kevin Durant offered in the past that is the most telling.
Legacy of Kevin Durant Signing with the Warriors
A few weeks before the 2014-2015 started, Durant spoke with Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. He wasn’t shy about holding back with his thoughts on max contracts:
“Look at it like this,” Durant explained. “Kobe Bryant brings in a lot of money to Los Angeles, that downtown area. People go to watch the Lakers. Clippers are getting up there, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and those guys are bringing in a lot of money as well. Look at Cleveland, look at Miami when LeBron was there. These guys are worth more than what they are making because of the amount of money they bring to that area. That’s a conversation you can always have, but until it’s changed you never know what will happen to it.”
Max Contracts
Durant (correctly) stated that the best players in the league are criminally underpaid in comparison, and he was clearly including himself in that discussion. He knew how much money he brought to Oklahoma City during his nine years there, and he felt that he deserved more than the $89.1 million that he made in OKC after his rookie contract. Interestingly enough, it was the relatively low value of NBA max contracts that allowed Durant to sign in Golden State.
It’s reasonable to assume that Durant would not have signed anywhere fore less than the max this summer. His feeling about max contracts and the fact that multiple teams would have offered him the max no matter its amount suggest that much. Given that assumption, Durant couldn’t have signed on to play in Oracle Arena next year if the max contract values were more reminiscent of what superstars earn for their teams. Golden State wouldn’t have been able to fit him into its cap space simply by moving Andrew Bogut.
Fast forward to the 2016-2017 season. It won’t be nearly as fun during this year’s regular to watch teams other than the Warriors and whatever team you root for. It seems to be a foregone conclusion that the Warriors will win it all barring injury. The NBA owners know this. Super teams tend to make tons of money for the league, which helps all the owners because of revenue sharing. However, if/when other owners start seeing their TV ratings drop during games that don’t involve the Warriors, they’re going to look to make a change during the 2017 CBA negotiations.
Super Teams and the CBA
That’s where the max contract debate comes in. Players have very little incentive not to form super teams. The media holds players who don’t win a title responsible for not having a ring for the rest of their lives (despite the fact that they also hate a guy like Kevin Durant leaving for Oakland, demonstrating that it’s not just a player like Durant who can be a hypocrite). The marketing opportunities are endless for any members of the 2017 Warriors of 2011 Miami Heat. The players will likely be able to line up any post-retirement gig that they want because of their name recognition that comes from playing on one of these teams. The owners know that if they don’t move, super teams like the Warriors will continue to form.
The best option is to raise the max contract level or to even eliminate it altogether. When there’s a max contract number, every great player in the league, who represent the most competitive creatures on the planet, want that number. If there’s no max, however, super teams can’t take over the league as much as the Warriors will do next season. Maybe Kevin Durant signed in Golden State because he was trying to get the owners to listen to his 2014 self and raise the max contract level.
