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Kevin Durant compared to MJ: 'I'm just not obsessed with winning championships'

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Golden State Warriors All-Star and NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant made some interesting remarks regarding his legacy in an interview with ESPN.

“I mean, I’m crazy about winning, don’t get me wrong,” Durant said. “I’m just not obsessed with winning championships. It’s not the only reason I play. I play for my individual growth.”

His comments came after his name had begun getting linked with Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan.

“He’s not chasing a ghost,” Durant’s father, Wayne Pratt, told ESPN. “He’s not trying to be MJ, or pass MJ.”

Durant and Jordan are the only two players in NBA history who have won at least four scoring titles and two NBA Finals MVP awards. It was a feat that reportedly surprised even Durant when he found out following the Warriors’ sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

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It’s certainly an interesting departure from the narrative surrounding more recent NBA superstars. Players like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have played under the constant scrutiny of being compared to Jordan and chasing his championship ring total.

Durant has been weirdly immune to that narrative, despite being on the first team since James’ Miami Heat and Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers to win consecutive championships.

Apparently, winning championships has been a secondary goal for him for a while now.

“‘It’s not about championships. This is about challenging myself and learning new things,'” former NBA MVP and current Warriors consultant Steve Nash recalled Durant saying when he first joined his new team. “That answer, for me, is beyond reproach.”

Do you believe Kevin Durant is "just not obsessed with winning championships"?

But many basketball fans might find issue with Durant’s alleged mentality, considering he left Oklahoma City to join a 73-win Golden State team that had just beaten his team in the playoffs.

How can he say he doesn’t care about winning championships when the biggest decision of his career all but guaranteed him several?

The Warriors have won two titles in a row (and three of the last four, although Durant wasn’t on the initial title team) and haven’t lost a playoff series since their de facto swap of Harrison Barnes for Kevin Durant.

Choosing to leave one All-Star (the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook) to join three All-Stars (Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green) is taking the easy way to a championship. It’s virtually inarguable, despite the best efforts of those around Durant.

“I don’t understand why people refer to this as the easy way,” Durant’s business partner, Rick Kleiman, said. “Isn’t being beloved easier? Every story about his business interests, 80 percent of the comments are about him being a snake or a cupcake. How is that easier?”

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That’s a bit of a false equivalency that Kleiman’s peddling. Yes, being loved would certainly be easier. But criticism is unavoidable when someone is as prolific of a public figure as Durant. Isn’t dealing with criticism easier when you can wave around championship rings?

And while being somewhat of a subjective claim, it’s hard to argue against the fact that not all championships are of equal import and value. LeBron James’ one championship in Cleveland has significantly more cultural heft than the two he won in Miami.

Similarly, had Durant just won one measly championship with the Thunder (after all, he apparently isn’t obsessed with titles), it would mean far more than the likely four or five titles he will win with this current iteration of the Warriors.

Durant can claim that he doesn’t care about championship totals all he wants. At the end of the day, his actions speak louder than his words. And the action of joining a 73-win Warriors juggernaut is designed with one thing in mind — winning titles.

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Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics.
Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He is an avid fan of sports, video games, politics and debate.
Birthplace
Hawaii
Education
Class of 2010 University of Arizona. BEAR DOWN.
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, Korean
Topics of Expertise
Sports, Entertainment, Science/Tech




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