Durant on losing Harden: ‘We were victims to the business’
This is a little tweet conversation from Monday night between Kevin Durant and ESPN the Magazine’s Chris Palmer that started because Palmer was doing that thing where he tweets random arbitrary positional power rankings and such:
@ESPNChrisPalmer financially it didn't work, we were victims to the business
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) July 23, 2013
@ESPNChrisPalmer they were a different situation, they were all free agents at the same time and it was a diff CBA
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) July 23, 2013
Three thoughts on KD’s points:
1) He’s right about the first part. I’ve written about the same thing before, how the league’s effort to create more competitive balance through a more punitive tax really just hurt its small market poster boy. The Thunder tried to keep Harden and they didn’t “choose” Serge Ibaka. It just didn’t work out in the end and newsflash, they’re still really good. The mistake the Thunder might have made was trading Harden when they did, but even at that time, it was justifiable.
2) He’s right about the second part, too. The guys in Miami made it work for a couple of reasons, one definitely being the previous collective bargaining agreement, the other being that they worked their contracts out so as to save as much money as possible. All three took just a little bit less, which is something Harden was never willing to do. As KD outlined here:
@lakeshowAK7 they were all free agents, I got mine before Russ, Russ before jH..we didn't know money would be a problem down the line
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) July 23, 2013
3) I find it pretty cool that KD knows his crap. And that he’s willing to say it. In conclusion, Kevin Durant remains awesome.
