{"id":124681,"date":"2025-02-19T15:16:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T20:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=124681"},"modified":"2025-02-19T15:16:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T20:16:42","slug":"suns-kevin-durant-big-3-disappointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/19\/suns-kevin-durant-big-3-disappointment\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns Superstar Disappointed in Desert All-Star Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phoenix Suns superstar\u00a0<\/span>Kevin Durant<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has always been a spectacular basketball player. He’s one of, if not the greatest scorer of the basketball we’ve ever seen. He has championships, finals MVPs, 30,000 points, and the skills and gifts most NBA players wish to have. Yet, from an outsider’s vantage point, Durant’s career appears incomplete. He would maybe disagree, of course, and he’s entitled to. However, when his career is over, it’s fair to look back on it and ponder what could have been during a few points in his journey. One career point that will hang over him is his tenure in Phoenix, where he attempted again at yet another All-Star collaboration that unfortunately fell short of expectations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Suns Superstar Disappointed in Desert All-Star Collaboration<\/h2>\n

Phoenix Suns Superstar Kevin Durant Admits Big 3 With Devin Booker and Bradley Beal ‘Hasn’t Materialized the Way We Wanted To’<\/h3>\n

Durant was criticized on all sides when he left the\u00a0<\/span>Oklahoma City Thunder<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to join his Western Conference rivals, the\u00a0<\/span>Golden State Warriors<\/span><\/a>. However, the career shift worked in his favor, producing two titles and two finals MVPs. No one can dispute that linking up with\u00a0<\/span>Steph Curry<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Klay Thompson<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Draymond Green<\/span><\/a>\u00a0didn’t work out well until it didn’t. Durant might still be without a title if he had not gone to the Warriors. If he had stayed with them, he might have more. Durant tried again to form another super team with the Brooklyn Nets. That attempt crashed and burned before it could ever truly begin. With the distractions that\u00a0<\/span>Kyrie Irving<\/span><\/a>\u00a0brought, to\u00a0<\/span>James Harden<\/span><\/a>\u00a0arriving and wanting out a few minutes later, to Durant’s big toe, the Nets were a failed experiment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In moving to the desert, Durant hoped that teaming with\u00a0<\/span>Devin Booker<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and, eventually,\u00a0<\/span>Bradley Beal<\/span><\/a>\u00a0would produce the Suns’ first-ever championship. Well, that hasn’t materialized either. <\/span>Now,<\/span> Durant is expected to be out the door this offseason, and Beal’s future is also uncertain.<\/span> It fell apart in Golden State, blew up in Brooklyn, and couldn’t find a groove in Phoenix. In a moment of transparency,\u00a0<\/span>while speaking to ESPN’s Malika Andrews<\/span><\/a>, KD expressed his feelings on his tenure in Phoenix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“We expect a lot out of ourselves individually, and it just hasn’t materialized the way we wanted to,” <\/em>Durant said. \u201cIt was disappointing to see us play this way and our fans and people who watching the game want more from us, but we can’t think about that. We gotta think about the day ahead of us and trying to get better and figure out how we’re gonna win the next game and go on from there.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Does A Fifth Team Tarnish A Legacy?<\/h3>\n

It was reported that\u00a0<\/span>Durant was against a trade<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that would return him to Golden State during this month’s trade window. It would have seen him get traded midseason, which was not ideal for him, and that makes sense. Nevertheless, now or later, Durant’s time in Phoenix is coming to a close. As for where he ends up during the upcoming summer, it is fun to speculate on. Wherever it is, it will mean Durant will be playing for his fifth franchise. Is it fair to question Durant’s legacy when he does suit up for a fifth team? Or does his greatness and accomplishments overshadow the team-to-team movement? This morning\u00a0<\/span>on\u00a0<\/span><\/a>First Take<\/span><\/a><\/em>, Stephen A. Smith, Monica McNutt, and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo debated the matter<\/span><\/a>. Each panelist had their varying perspectives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One could argue that Durant’s accomplishments uplift him over the number of teams he’s played for. One could also argue that his championships come with an asterisk. While that viewpoint is rubbish, it is a popular one. Nevertheless, Durant will be playing elsewhere in the 2025-26 season. His legacy is made, but he has time to add to it. His conversation with Andrews signaled Durant still enjoys the process and wants to prolong his career. The question is: Where will it happen?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phoenix Suns superstar\u00a0Kevin Durant\u00a0has always been a spectacular basketball player. He’s one of, if not the greatest scorer of the basketball we’ve ever seen. He has championships, finals MVPs, 30,000 points, and the skills and gifts most NBA players wish to have. Yet, from an outsider’s vantage point, Durant’s career appears incomplete. He would maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":124684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1608,62],"tags":[311,352,409,444,69,70,406,48],"class_list":["post-124681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suns","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-bradley-beal","tag-devin-booker","tag-draymond-green","tag-james-harden","tag-kevin-durant","tag-klay-thompson","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124694,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124681\/revisions\/124694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}