a deal with the devil

a decade of disappointment for a supposed legend

well this is certainly interestingly timed, huh?

bewildered i was, this past sunday night, staring dead in the eyes of this piece, half-finished, as the screenshots came flying. i considered canning it, i considered rewriting it in its entirely—but ultimately, i decided to leave it unchanged, a decision i’m still not sure about, that i will touch on more toward the end.

so, if you’ve clicked on this article hoping for a juicy gossip piece, detailing each of the many messy messages that were recently released, i am sorry to disappoint, but that’s not what the bulk of this piece is about—though stick around, i do dive into it a at the end. nonetheless, i can offer those disappointed in, upset with, or disgusted with durant by recent events a few thousand words worth of pointing-and-laughing—if that suits your needs.

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in a case of cruel irony, kevin durant is widely regarded and often referred to as the best plug-and-play player in nba history. one of few superstars who can fit into any team’s system with ease—yet, it seems that every outlet you plug him into short circuits.

on the court, this has hardly been durant’s fault. the plug-and-play moniker is more than earned—he’ll come in, get you 26 a night on excellent efficiency from every spot on the floor, without fail. but like the anti-midas, it would seem for some time now that everything kevin durant touches seems to crumble to pieces around him.

this isn’t a matter of coincidence—far from it. this is durant’s own doing. over the past decade, it has been understated just how much of a mess kevin durant’s career has been. at every turn, he has been surrounded by terrible injury luck, dreadful trades, and multiple controversies. relative to expectations, it would be unreasonable to call it anything but an abject failure. the first 9 years of durant’s career entailed an mvp, 6 playoff appearances, 10 series wins, 4 conference finals appearances, and 1 finals appearance. the last 7 years of durant’s career saw 4 playoff appearances and 2 series wins. what’s caused this stark difference in the two halves of durant’s career is what happened in the two seasons in between that i failed to mention. kevin durant signed his soul away to the devil, and in return, the basketball gods cursed him for eternity.

part i: etched in stone, signed in blood

i’m sure you know the lyrics to this one: in 2016, in any order, the two relatively agreed-upon best players in the league, behind lebron james at 1, were golden state’s stephen curry, and oklahoma city’s kevin durant (some people may have even argued either of them ahead of lebron at the time). curry had just wrapped up leading his team to the greatest regular season in nba history—an absurd 73-9 record that feels wiltesque in its impossibility to be toppled. in the playoffs, durant (and westbrook)’s thunder came closer than anybody could have imagined to knocking off the behemoth warriors (before lebron actually did it just a couple weeks later). okc narrowly lost in the conference finals to curry, thompson, green and the rest in 7 games. but this wasn’t the end for okc—they had time. durant and westbrook were both just 27, still in the early stages of their primes. other important pieces like steven adams and serge ibaka were young, too, and seemed to be going nowhere anytime soon. there was an unprecedented 34% spike in the league’s salary cap just around the corner, that was sure to give the thunder front office some extra spending money to throw at some more reinforcements for the next crack at it the following season.

then, kevin durant did the unthinkable.

in what can only be described as a god-defying act, kevin durant inked a deal with the golden state warriors. taking advantage of the aforementioned salary cap spike, durant was able to join the team in an unimaginably low-cost fashion, with the warriors needing to move off very little of importance to make room for his contract. yes, the same warriors that just went 73-9. the same warriors that are fresh off back-to-back finals appearances, one of which ended with them hoisting up the larry o’brien (and inexplicably andre iguodala with the finals mvp, but i digress). the same warriors with reigning back-to-back mvp stephen curry, were being joined by the player who won the mvp just before him, the guy who just lost to them in the conference finals. the best current comparison would be giannis joining okc without them losing anything major, but even that doesn’t quite measure up (though i did shudder just imagining it).

and that marked the beginning of the end for kevin durant. upon dipping the quill into a fresh, self-inflicted wound, he signed his soul away in blood for all of eternity. in return, he was promised all the riches one could ever desire—and that he was given. the warriors went on to win the championship with ease the next two seasons, losing just 1 game en route to the first one, and sweeping lebron’s cavaliers in the finals for the second. they were unstoppable, they were on top of the world.

but then came the drum. a drum beating, louder and louder, in the back of kevin durant’s head. one that he couldn’t ignore. one thing we’ve always known about kevin durant, is that he knows what people are saying about him. whether it be his comments to the media, or his never-ending beef with everybody on twitter, durant knows, and durant cares. and one thing, it seemed, started to become very clear in his mind:

“nothing i do here matters”.

whether or not the sentiment is true can be debated, but whether or not that was how people felt cannot. kevin durant having success in golden state was a write-off. it was the superteam of all superteams—the complete lack of adversity they were forced to face made back to back titles and finals mvps for durant feel miniscule. anything but a title was a failure, a catch-22 wherein there is no way to exceed expectations, as the expectation is the pinnacle of success. the general sentiment was, and by-and-large still is, that his time in golden state did not add to his legacy—it hardly moved the needle for durant’s spot in the all-time greats list. hell, you can still find countless people arguing that it detracted from his legacy—this was, after all, a move that made durant the most hated man in basketball for quite a while (note: i generally quite hate “legacy” talk but it feels necessary to touch on to get the full picture here).

all of this compounded at once in the 2019 nba finals, in which an odds-defying one-and-done mercenary in kawhi leonard had lead a raptors team that had been struggling to get over the hump to being 4 wins away from a championship. all they would have to do is beat the same golden state warriors team that was 32-6 in their last 2 playoff runs. should be easy, right?

well, it would maybe be a touch easier than it appeared, because kevin durant had gone down with a calf strain in game 5 of the conference finals matchup with the rockets, after already being injured for much of the playof run. without durant, it was looking like an evenly-contested series in the first two games, but the devil came to collect earlier than durant anticipated. it was announced that klay thompson would be sitting out game 3 with a hamstring strain. without klay, toronto took care of business easily in game 3, causing klay to return in game 4, but even with him, toronto was victorious yet again, taking a 3-1 lead.

in a desperation move, kevin durant returned to play game 5 in the finals. back against the wall, the warriors needed him now more than ever. in 2026, we know all too well the risk that is taken by playing through a calf strain. and just 11 minutes into his return game, kevin durant learned about it first-hand.

“i heard a pop… and my whole basketball career flashed before my eyes. everything, everything i did, everything that i thought about. all my favourite moments, all my bad moments, it flashed, and that’s why, if you watch, i’m just sitting there gazing into the crowd before somebody came over to help me up because i’m just like, ‘this shit is over with.’”

we know what happened next, but at the time, it was very likely that an achilles tear would end just about any nba career—the few times it didn’t the player was, at the very least, a shell of themselves post-injury every single time.

the warriors went on to miraculously win that game, but yet another player performing through injury in klay thompson went down, tearing his acl in game 6, sealing the deal for a toronto victory, and seemingly the end of the golden state warriors’ dynasty, all in the span of 48 hours.

the cunning devil had already won, just 3 years after durant’s soul was signed to him. not only had everything fallen apart in unbelievably explosive fashion after two years at the mountaintop, but that mountaintop looked a lot less high up close. the riches that durant had signed for hardly mattered—the warriors’ successes held much less weight than expected individually for durant. and now, after tumbling his way down to the base of it, it was doubtful durant would ever even get another chance to scale the mountain again.

but the devil wasn’t done with him yet.

part ii: 16 games

before we take a look at what happened to kevin durant post-2019, we need to take a short detour to 2013, where the brooklyn nets made what is widely regarded as one of the worst trades in nba history: shipping out 4 first round picks for the aged paul pierce, kevin garnett, and jason terry. this was one of the biggest disasters of all time—none of them played more than 1 full season with the nets, and all they got out of it was one playoff series win. without garnett and pierce or any other assets, the nets’ foolish all-in move predictably resulted in them standing on the outside looking in, as the worst team in the nba watching their draft picks used by boston to draft jayson tatum and jaylen brown.

in 2016, the hiring of sean marks as new general manager came along with some quality around-the-margins moves. trading for up-and-comer d’angelo russell, drafting jarrett allen, as well as acquiring a litany of other quality young players in spencer dinwiddie, caris levert, and joe harris, were all moves that showed the franchise was headed in the right direction. 2016 also saw the hiring of kenny atkinson, then hawks assistant coach, as brooklyn’s new head coach. atkinson was credited as a major part of establishing the culture that this young nets team started to showcase over the next couple of years, ultimately resulting in an expectation-smashing 42-win 2018-19 season. d’angelo russell was an all-star, dinwiddie was a 6th man of the year candidate, and they had earned the 6th seed, making their first playoff appearance in 4 years. best of all, they were just turning the corner into an era in which they would control their destiny yet again, with the 2018 draft pick being the last of the haul they shipped of to boston.

enter: kevin durant.

fresh off the heels of the achilles injury (pun not intended, i swear), durant had all the time in the world to reflect during recovery. it would seem in the quiet days and nights of recovery, the aforementioned beat of the drum became too loud for him to bear, and he set his sights on a new era for his career: one where he wasn’t a sidekick. one where the championship he hoists over his head at the end of the season means something for him, individually.

durant still didn’t feel comfortable without some reinforcements, though, as he brought along his good friends kyrie irving and deandre jordan, all signing deals with the nets in the same afternoon. they did have to ship out d’angelo russell to golden state as a part of a sign-and-trade to make this happen, but i think that’s a deal just about anyone would make, even with d’angelo russell being at the apex of his career thus far.

it seemed like a no-brainer. the nets needed to shed none of their depth to make these additions happen, they immediately had a quality, young supporting cast around two offensive behemoths in durant and irving. the one risk at play was irving’s off-court drama, with which there was a history. an ugly exit from cleveland due to disdain with being a robin was followed by an even uglier attempt at being batman in boston. but surely as long as things go smoothly and the nets are winning games, that won’t be a problem, right?

right?

*ahem* more on that later.

with durant still recovering from his achilles injury, and irving himself getting injured just 20 game into the season, it was an uneventful gap year for the nets. still managing to make the playoffs, they were quickly and predictably dropped off by the raptors in four games. but nobody cared about that. there was no expectation of legitimate success—next year they’d be healthy. next year they’d put the league on notice.

the surprise wasn’t the loss, it was what came just a month before it: kenny atkinson was fired as head coach. the man who established the positive culture in brooklyn, was gone. it felt as though there was little rhyme or reason to this firing—sure, the nets had a poor season, but with their two best players out, to place the blame on the shoulders of the coach would be malpractice.

despite denying this, there were countless reports that durant and irving played a major part in atkinson’s firing. shams charania reported that durant and kenny atkinson never connected. it was well reported that durant and irving were displeased with deandre jordan coming off the bench for jarrett allen. most could see that allen was a more impactful player at the time and deserved the starting spot, but all reporting pointed to durant and irving simply wanting their friend to get the nod. soon after atkinson was fired, deandre jordan entered the starting lineup, leading to grumblings and reporting that, effectively, the players are calling the shots in brooklyn. this was only further backed up by a quote from kyrie irving when asked about the eventual hiring of steve nash, who had an absolute zero in the experience column for coaching at the time: “i don’t really see the nets having a head coach”. irving also specifically complained about atkinson’s coaching philosophy, and that he had them “running on the first day of practice.” you can draw your own conclusions.

there was a belief that this set a dangerous precedent for the front office, establishing that they were now willing to bend over backwards to the wishes of their two stars, even if it goes against their best interests. but the noise died down. it didn’t matter. kevin durant and kyrie irving would both be healthy to kick off the 2020-21 season, and the hype that built was entirely justified. durant looked impossibly unphased by his achilles injury, and kyrie was playing out of his mind. but following an injury to starting point guard spencer dinwiddie, the nets’ start wasn’t as hot as they’d hoped, going 7-6. and so, management decided it was time to tempt fate.

the nets had hardly seen a dozen games of durant and irving together, and still yet decided that better than a few around the margins moves to improve the supporting cast, it would be ideal to stare history dead in the face and spit in it. in a familiarly all-in move, the nets mortgaged the next 7 years of first round picks, and further gutted their depth by sending jarrett allen, caris levert, and taurean prince out in order to acquire james harden.

make no mistake—this was not 2013. james harden, at 31, had just come off 4 straight top-3 mvp finishes. there was no doubt—james harden was the man. on paper, this was one of the deadliest big 3’s we’ve ever seen, and likely will ever see again. the problem, however, was the complete disregard by the nets organization of the admonishment the 2013 trade left them. the lesson to be learned from that trade was not “do not trade for washed up stars”, that much was clear to most not in brooklyn’s front office already. the real lesson that was to be learned was to be wary about putting all your eggs in one basket. nonetheless, just seven years later, they did just that, and put themselves at risk of being stuck in the same never-ending hell they’d only just escaped. but hey, fuck it, a recent mvp is available, someone’s gotta take the swing, right? maybe just make sure your team doesn’t employ a cursed dude before taking it.

to start, yet again, none of that mattered. the team’s depth was thin. durant and harden both missed half the season. irving missed 20 games himself. one of their key free agency depth signings in an aged lamarcus aldridge retired just a couple of weeks into the season after an irregular heartbeat scare. the big three only played 8 games together the entire year. with all this, there is no reason that it should have been anything but a failure—but it just didn’t matter. the team went 48-24, securing the 2nd seed in what was a testament to just how talented the three stars were as individuals. they could have won 60 games or more if it weren’t for injuries, but it wasn’t of much concern—as long as they were healthy for the playoffs, that’s all that mattered.

and that’s what happened. remarkably, all three stars were ready to go heading into the playoffs, and they came in as heavy championship favourites. that belief was only bolstered when the nets crushed the injured boston celtics in round 1 in five games, with an average margin of victory of 16 points in the four wins. it was a bludgeoning that evaporated any doubt that this nets team was destined for a championship.

many have attributed kyrie irving stomping on the celtics’ mascot, lucky, to what happened next. but lest we forget—kevin durant walks this earth as a cursed man.

the curse reared its ugly head with near comical frequency in the second round series vs milwaukee, the first being on the very first play of the game, when james harden re-injured his hamstring, forcing him to miss games 2-4. then, in game 4, all hope brooklyn had left crumbled when kyrie irving, too, went down with an injury. not dissimilar to the 2019 finals, with their backs against the wall, durant’s team once again rolled out a hobbled star: this time james harden. it was almost enough, too, as the nets took the bucks to game 7, in which the defining moment of durant’s time in brooklyn took place: his toe was on the line.

in yet another instance of the unfathomably terrible luck that followed durant, the same gift of size that was so pivotal to his success as a player became his downfall. what was thought to be the game-winning bucket instead only sent the game to overtime, where the bucks took care of business, sending home the championship favourite in just the second round.

still, there was hope. fans imagined that after an offseason of rehab for harden and irving, the team would be right back to it. surely, they couldn’t have three seasons in a row ruined by injuries…

oh, hold on, i’m getting a knock at my door. oh, hey kyrie! what are you doing here?

this era aligned with the height of the covid-19 pandemic. just a month before the 2021-22 season was to start, new york city mandated vaccines for pro athletes playing in the city. kyrie irving refused. seemingly, this was the last straw for the nets front office, who refused to bend to their star’s will any longer. despite the fact that they could have let irving play in road games all year, they instead decided to ban irving from all team activities until he was vaccinated. durant seemed mostly indifferent to irving’s decision, but james harden appeared frustrated. harden even said jokingly in an interview that he’d give irving the vaccine himself if he could. despite this, by the turn of the calendar year, the nets were the 1st seed, and the brooklyn front office had decided to give in, allowing irving to play road games going forward. things appeared to be looking up for the nets, and it was only a matter of time before they were in the postseason competing for a title once more…

and then it happened again. kevin durant went down with an mcl sprain in mid-january, causing him to miss the next 2 months of action. the nets were abysmal in this stretch, going 5-16 without durant. harden, already disgruntled and upset with the irving situation, had had enough. ultimately, he demanded a trade to the philadelphia 76ers, the final nail in the coffin of this nets big three. after giving up the huge haul they did for harden just a year prior, all they got back for him was ben simmons, seth curry, andre drummond, and two protected first round picks. the ben simmons swing seemed like an okay idea—until simmons was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back before he was ever able to suit up, and was out for the rest of the season.

the nets stumbled into the playoffs as a 7 seed, going up against the monster celtics who were whole this time around, and got stomped. brooklyn never stood a chance—they got swept.

that summer, kevin durant requested a trade from the nets. demanding that either the nets fire head coach steve nash and general manager sean marks, or trade him. the nets, though, didn’t give in. ultimately, durant rescinded the trade request.

just 8 games into the 2022-23 season, kyrie irving was suspended from the team for posting a documentary that contained antisemetic messaging on twitter. another one of the many unnecessary headaches causes by irving in his nets tenure. nonetheless, he returned to action after 8 games and things started to look up until, you guessed it, kevin durant got hurt again. another mcl sprain that would force this era in brooklyn to limp to its bitter end, with irving demanding a trade a few days before the traded deadline, and kevin durant following a few days later. this time, the nets front office obliged, and decided to wipe their hands of the situation.

while you may have scoffed at the comparisons i drew between the garnett and pierce trade to the building of this big three, and while i’m certainly not arguing that it had a higher chance at success, it’s hard to argue that the results weren’t eerily similar. just like the garnett-pierce trade, the big three experiment ended with one playoff series win, and with the team in purgatory for years to follow, outgoing first round picks and no wins to show for it. the nets had clawed themselves out of one hell in the late 2010s, only for kevin durant to arrive and throw them right back into another.

ultimately, the big three ended up playing a total of 16 games together. an era defined by injury luck so bad that if it had been fiction it’d have been critically panned for lacking realism. durant’s pursuit of greatness instead resulted in him plodding through seasons surrounded by a cast of elite hoopgrids pulls—whenever he wasn’t injured himself. it was, of course, always destined to be this way, after durant’s gods-angering decision in 2016. the curse he bears follows him everywhere he goes, and it does not discriminate.

part iii: new owner syndrome

with his brooklyn days behind him, kevin durant was ready for yet another fresh start, this time in phoenix. the suns sent out 4 first round picks and a swap, as well as mikal bridges and cam johnson in order to acquire durant—another instance of a team gutting their future and depth.

durant’s half-season with the suns was marred by injury—but when he played, everything was clicking. the suns were 8-0 in games durant played that regular season. in the playoffs, the suns easily knocked out an injured clippers squad in round 1 before losing to the eventual champions in the denver nuggets in 6 games. considering durant had next to no time to gel with the team, taking the champions to 6 couldn’t be considered anything but a fantastic sign for things to come.

unfortunately, new suns owner mat ishbia was not satisfied with just the huge swing for durant at the previous year’s deadline. we see frequently when a new owner purchases an nba team, they immediately want to make a massive change to establish their presence. what would be enough to satisfy these urges for most, a kevin durant trade, was apparently not enough for ishbia. in a genuinely unfathomable turn of events, the suns traded for bradley beal. not only was beal’s fit alongside durant and booker more than questionable, but it was the assets that were sent out that made this trade so confounding. the suns sent out chris paul, who was admittedly declining, four first-round pick swaps, and six second round picks, for bradley beal. the same bradley beal who had a no-trade clause in his contract. the same 30-year-old bradley beal who had played just 90 games across the previous 2 seasons, averaging only 23 points per game, a far cry from his peak of 30.

the wizards had no leverage. not only was bradley beal hardly an asset worth 4 first-round pick swaps and 6 second-round picks, but he was owed an absurd $191 million over the next 4 seasons, which on its own would have been one of the worst contracts in the league—but he also HAD A NO TRADE CLAUSE ATTACHED TO IT! if washington wanted to trade him, he had to approve it. there was absolutely no reason for phoenix to feel the need to offer up such a ridiculously oversized package in this scenario. take those assets and go look somewhere else. but for whatever reason, ishbia had his eyes set on beal, and he was willing to throw away, quite literally, the rest of phoenix’s assets to get him.

with no depth, and no future, the suns were desperately in win-now mode, and… they kind of did? look, 49 wins in the 2023-24 season, good for the 6th best record in the west, is pretty solid. unfortunately, when you threw away every single future asset you have to build your team, settling for “pretty solid” feels wildly underwhelming. still, the belief among many was that they had just as much of a shot as anyone at winning it all. durant with his multi-time championship experience, booker with his finals experience, and beal with his… experience, were looking like a formidable opponent to a young timberwolves team that had yet to get out of the first round. not only that, but the suns were 4-0 against them since durant got there. to many, the suns eyes were set on whoever they’d be facing in the second round.

and then they got swept.

it was an embarrassment. they could coast off of their top 3 in the regular season all they wanted, but in the postseason, they didn’t have the depth to match up. it wasn’t close, with the wolves clobbering them by an average margin of 15 points. they got exposed.

phoenix stumbled into the 2024-25 season, making no real notable changes to their roster (locked into salary cap hell between booker, durant, and beal), while the league got better around them. the exposing continued, as they won 36 games that year, and were the 11 seed—failing to even make a play-in appearance.

that off-season, kevin durant requested a trade yet again, this time to houston, marking the end of another short-lived attempt at a big three. oddly enough, yet another one that ended in just one playoff series win.

the funny thing is, durant’s curse manifested differently this time around. the suns were fairly healthy throughout his entire tenure—this time, the devil took the form of a new owner, suffering from new owner syndrome, making one of the worst trades of the last decade.

part iv: god damn, already?

kevin durant had hardly just touched down in houston when the devil decided to get to work early: the rockets, struggling deeply with guard depth, their main concern going into the 2025-26 season, lost fred vanvleet to a torn acl before play even began.

panic began to set in among fans, wondering how houston would make up for this loss. not only were they without vanvleet, but they had also just traded dillon brooks and jalen green, two of their few floor spacers, in the durant deal. the rockets took 36 threes a night the prior season—and the three they just lost were responsible for 22 of them.

nonetheless, as often the appearance is early on in durant’s stints—it didn’t matter. the rockets were flourishing, with their incredible defense and their uniquely quality offense, which was not brought on by a litany of offensive weapons and efficient shooting. instead, it was by just how many cracks at the basket they got offensively, due to their offensive rebounding. leading the league in offensive rebounds by a wide margin, they were able to reach the 2nd seed in a stacked western conference, trailing only the defending champion okc thunder. this offensive rebounding clinic was a group effort, to be sure, but clearly led by one man: steven adams. the man who may go down as the greatest ever in that category when it’s all said and done, had led his teams to #1 in offensive rebounding in 8 of the last 9 seasons. he was, despite not being their star, the crucial pillar of what made this team run.

this far in, i’m sure you can see where this is going.

32 games into the season, steven adams went down with a left ankle injury that will force him to miss the remainder of the season. the rockets, 21-11 with adams, are 12-9 without him. they fell as low as the 6th seed, though at the time of writing they sit shakily at 4. quicker than ever, the kevin durant honeymoon phase was over—this time not even lasting half of a single season.

the vibes were terrible, especially centering around houston’s homegrown star alperen sengun, who, after a terrific start to the season has been massively struggling. head coach ime udoka has called him out publicly in shockingly candid fashion on multiple occasions, and public opinion on sengun further soured when he was ejected for calling a female referee a bitch multiple times. another clip made the rounds, from the same game, of kevin durant being vocally upset at sengun’s lack of defense. amen thompson, too, can be seen visibly dejected in the clip.

luckily for houston, all-star break was just around the corner. at the end of the day, even though the adams and vanvleet injuries appeared to cap their ceiling for this season much lower than before, they were still winning games. the terrible vibes that had recently cultivated could no doubt be culled by everyone getting a week off, for a good, refreshing reset.

part v: ohhhhhhhhh no

surely you didn’t really believe, despite everything we’ve detailed to this point, that the basketball gods wouldn’t turn a much needed break into yet another catastrophe, right?

on february 15th, twitter user pranav sriraman called out kevin durant’s investments into skydio, a company that develops surveillance drones that have been used by the idf in israel’s genocide of the palestinian people. this is not the first time that this has happened, though—kevin durant has frequently been pressed by people on twitter in the months since this story came out.

what was a first, was durant responding. for whatever reason, he decided to respond multiple times, ducking the question with each reply and deflecting to the original discussion about championship designs. somebody—perhaps multiple people—seemed to take issue with this, and the floodgates were open. screenshots upon screenshots of kevin durant’s messages in group chats on his burner account.

it has long been an open secret that kevin durant has been a part of these group chats. so much so, that many people with even a little bit of ties to the basketball industry—such as the members of the deep three podcast, for example—have, when discussing these screenshots, stated that they knew folks who were in these group chats with durant, and that they had even seen some of these messages before. many of the messages, though, were new.

what most are appalled by are just how thorough durant was in his lambasting of anyone he’s ever shared the court with. complaints about curry, kyrie, westbrook, steve kerr, ben simmons, chris paul, booker, and more. more worryingly, there are insults toward teammates durant currently plays with in houston, as well.

referring to the team on the whole as a “shitty ass team”, saying that alperen sengun can’t shoot or defend, and most abhorrently, calling jabari smith jr., a young player who idolized durant growing up, r***rded.

i do what i can to avoid psychoanalysis of players, and writing that is overly personal. but this article has already toed that line (ha), and at this point durant has kicked the door wide fucking open to let it in, so allow me a moment, if you will:

basketball-wise, this is despicable. there’s no two ways around it. at every single turn, durant has played the blame game. claiming westbrook was the problem in okc, curry and kerr were the problems in golden state, kyrie, harden, and simmons were the problems in brooklyn, booker and chris paul were the problems in phoenix, and that sengun, jabari smith jr, and the rest of the team are the problems in houston. frequent blame-shifting and accountibily dodging, such as “when we win, it’s curry’s team, when we lose, it’s my team”, and “ima turn the ball over with this shitty ass team… that’s a wayyyyyyy bigger issue than my turnovers.”

it paints the picture of a man who has never once said “my bad”, or looked inward, wondering what he himself can do to improve. it’s not hard to see when you look at history, too, with durant’s constant tail-tucking and running off to new teams when things don’t work out. the whole debacle leaves one wondering: who would ever want to play with kevin durant now, knowing all this?

personally, i have much less interest in his insults toward his teammates than i do one particular, non-basketball related message. one where, when another member of the group chat sent a tweet about durant’s drone investment, he responsed: “if they need drones!! we got ya".

with this, durant lost all plausible deniability. there is no longer a world where kevin durant’s money was invested by people in his camp he entrusted it to, without him individually having a full understanding of where the money is going (still incredibly irresponsible, by the way). there is, instead, only a world where kevin durant has been faced head on with the fact that he is actively funding a company whose products are being used to aid in genocide, and not only does he not care, but he cracks jokes about it. it is nothing short of reprehensible and disgusting. if you were, for some reason, still placing millionaire celebrities on a pedestal, i hope this (among the many, many other examples) moves you toward ending that practice.

but the basketball world at large will move on. a league that still champions players like karl malone, with a fanbase that would likely wear a benito mussolini jersey, had he averaged 30 for the lakers. that’s, disappointingly, how it is. a concept that lead to my aforementioned consideration of canning this article on the whole—knowing things had turned this serious, is it disingenuous to now release a lengthy article detailing the back half of durant’s career with a tongue-in-cheek “deal with the devil” metaphor? truly, this i still do not know.

as far as the basketball goes, the writing is on the wall as clear as ever for kevin durant’s houston tenure to end the same way as his last two stints—at this point it would be more surprising if it didn’t poetically end yet again with just one playoff series win. he signed his soul to the devil, and for that he will pay.

but at this point, it has expanded past basketball. in the world of hoops, the takeaway is, of course, to never to commit such a god-defying act like kevin durant did signing with the warriors, lest it place an eternal curse on your career. past the constraints of basketball, i’ll leave you with this:

look up to a revolutionary. find a hero in somebody you know personally. admire activists. dear god, please find better personal idols than men who get paid hundreds of millions of dollars to put a ball in a hoop.