I will not say that people have to like him. That’s up to everybody to decide for themselves. But I‘m not sure fans are appreciating enough that a player like Durant is in this league. For Curry or Lebron, I often hear the notion: „we should enjoy and embrace these guys as long as they are still in the league and we get to see them play!“ I rarely hear that about Kevin Durant.
KD is doing it since day 1. Since he came into the league in the late 2000s, he is a dominant player in this league, and he never had a subpar individual season when he was healthy & ready to compete. To tore his achilles and other devastating injuries never stopped him. Always came back to his top-level at the moment he was healthy again. Not even age has slowed him down at this point.
The thing for which I respect Durant the most is that you can sense his love for Basketball. He is not just there to grab the money and to just do his job, he genuinely likes playing Basketball day in, day out. That guy is a hooper. I think that’s also one of the factors for his longevity, the love for the game.
And he always played for his country at the Olympics, never skipping it like other star players do (by the way, Steph Curry for example, whom I also like, hasn’t played at the Olympics to this day). For KD, Team USA was always a no brainer. I respect him for that. Not many are like that.
Anyway, just felt the urge to say something positive about Kevin Durant lol. I hope he will be around for a couple more years, and injury-free.
No one will ever forget he took the cowards way out and joined a 73 win team. Those rings are made of plastic.