Lakers Rumors: Kevin Durant to join LA, but do the Lakers need him?
By Ronald Agers
3. Kevin Durant doesn’t believe he’s respected for his accomplishments
Kevin Durant has a reputation that will dog him for a while, and if it is true, he will get exposed in Los Angeles.
Kevin Durant cannot get away from the stigma that he is soft and he ran to join the Warriors after blowing a 3-1 lead in the playoffs playing with the Thunder. Fans have dogged him in a sense worse than what LeBron James dealt with long-term when he went to Miami back in 2010.
Understand LeBron James did go through a rough patch but he eventually won the fans back over after the Heat won the title two years later.
With Kevin Durant, it seems that he made the right decision if he is looking for championships. He has two NBA titles in two years with two MVPs to boot. But all it took was one bad joke from management to get the media and every social platform that is known to man to get started on a player that was caught having Twitter burner accounts to monitor what was being said about him.
For Kevin Durant to actually team up with LeBron James and keep his sanity, he’s going to have to get past what people think of him and his decision.
I mean, LeBron James himself said he almost “cracked” after a 2-5 start to this season. What does that tell us? The pressure of playing with the Lakers is intense. Everything is different. LeBron James had to find out that this was not Cleveland or Miami which are smaller markets. In Los Angeles, their fans want results…FAST!
Kevin Durant had better know that and quick. He played in a small market in Oklahoma City where he wouldn’t be under as scrutiny. In Golden State, it seems this is his problem…
"KD's gone. Period, the end... it's tough to be somewhere where they feel like they saved you. He knows in Golden State, they feel like, 'We saved you. You wouldn't have these rings if it weren't for us.'"@Chris_Broussard on Kevin Durant's future in Golden State pic.twitter.com/2R08ayUyzz
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) November 16, 2018
If what Chris Broussard says here is true, Durant may have to take a long look at what he wants. It’s obviously not winning, because if that was the case, Durant would have stated his commitment to the Warriors after confirming he was going to get his max deal. The Lakers would have moved on.
But the fact that there is an open door still for the Lakers to make a move for Durant shows that there are issues Durant has that winning can’t solve. If the best team in the NBA can’t keep him content, what makes anyone think the Lakers can do it?