Browns DE blasts Kevin Durant for taking 'easy way out' to title
Two years, two rings and two finals MVPs later, Golden State forward Kevin Durant is still getting flack for his decision to join the Warriors in 2016.
He’s heard it from fans, the media and even other players over the past two years.
Somebody beat you ! And you go there… ? Superstar not doing that man..
— Jusuf Nurkić 🇧🇦 (@bosnianbeast27) July 4, 2016
If u can't beat um join um 🤔
— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) July 4, 2016
Now he’s getting blasted by an NFL player: 2017 first overall draft pick Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns.
“KD broke the league,” Garrett said on WKRK-FM in Cleveland when the topic turned to the NBA and the hometown team’s 4-0 loss to the Warriors in the 2018 finals.
“You hopped onto a 73-9 team and he took the easy way out in my mind,” Garrett said, according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It’s different when LeBron left. He went to [Miami to join Dwyane] Wade and [Chris] Bosh, but it wasn’t something that was already guaranteed, something you already knew was going to have immediate success. [James] had to gel and work things into place.”
Durant and his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, had the Warriors down 3-2 in the 2016 NBA Western Conference finals and lost Game 6 at home after being up by eight at the start of the fourth quarter.
OKC went on to lose Game 7 in Oakland and the Warriors advanced, only to lose to the Cavs in the Finals 4-3.
🔥💀😲 Myles Garrett bringing the 🔥 on Kevin Durant pic.twitter.com/3WTv9QwBfX
— Fanatics View (@fanaticsview) June 14, 2018
A few weeks later, Durant joined the Warriors, a team that had set an NBA wins record by going 73-9 in the regular season.
“With KD, you just stick him in and he scores. You already knew what they had. They were 73-9 before and you put the second-best player in the world on an already all-time great team and of course you’re going to have success, pretty easy success. Anyone can have an off night and they can still find a way to win,” Garrett said.
So Warrior fans hate Myles Garrett now?
— Pudge 🤟 (@DpudGe3) June 14, 2018
Garrett, whose team went 0-16 last year, had an injury-plagued rookie season but showed flashes of reaching the high expectations the Browns have for him. He missed the first four games with an ankle injury and then suffered a concussion that caused him to miss two more games.
But in 10 games, the defensive end recorded a team-high seven sacks, and the Browns expect big things from him this season.
Don’t expect him to go off and join the Patriots or the Eagles.
“If I were him I would’ve never made a move like that in the first place,” Garrett said, reported The Plain Dealer. “Me, I’m too competitive to try and ride on somebody’s coat tails to get a W. But for him, you might as well stay at the spot you’re at now. There’s no point in leaving since you’ve already taken that moniker where he’s been called the snake and cupcake and all that. You might as well stay and just keep on winning.”
https://twitter.com/smashmouth/status/1007347839721037824
He said the NBA needs hard salary caps to limit the ability to form superteams.
“It focuses more on team play, being able to have chemistry instead of getting the big player and who’s going to change the game. You can get a couple of guys like Boston, who didn’t have their two star players and yet they went to the [Eastern Conference] Finals because they all gave a collective effort. Everybody pitched in and were almost successful,” Garrett said.
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