The entire Kevin Durant saga at Brooklyn Nets has been the highlight of this off season. Durant came up with a shocker with his trade request. He wants to win the NBA Championship and after getting swept in the first round against the Boston Celtics, he wants his way out of the Nets. Since then there have been several rumours and links involving him and Kyrie Irving. But none of that has materialized yet.
After the trade request came in, several people criticized Durant for jumping ship and not sticking by when the franchise is going through a rough phase. Among the people who criticized KD, former NBA Champion and analyst Shaquille O’Neal was the flagbearer as he felt that Kevin Durant was not a good enough leader and is leaving the house that he decided to build. Recently on the “Rich Eisen Show,” he said, “When you put a house together, you should live in it … You, as a leader, should make it work. But, you don’t want to make it work. I guess, you go buy another house.”
However, hearing Shaquille O’Neal’s comments on KD, NBA Analyst and a staunch Durant supporter Skip Bayless slammed the former Lakers legend and highlighted how Durant was never the leader and he made a mistake following the wrong person who was supposed to lead the Nets. Recently on the Skip and Shanon: Undisputed podcast, Bayless replied, “I don’t think Kevin put this house together at all. Kevin is more of a follower than a leader, and for reasons beyond me, he made one huge mistake in his career. He followed the wrong ‘leader.’
Bayless highlighted how Kyrie Irving was a stronger personality and had a great ‘besties’ relationship. “Because Kyrie was the dominant personality and the force in that ‘besties’ relationship of theirs, and we saw at the All-Star game as they were standing up the tunnel, and he was talking about the Brooklyn Nets.”
Bayless then explained how Durant was ready to join the New York Knicks but as soon as Kyrie shared his plan with him, Durantula decided to follow the point guard to Brooklyn and that led to the entire fiasco.
The argument around Durant being a leader or follower is very interesting considering how things always worked around him at the Brooklyn Nets. He was also the centre of everything at Oklahoma City Thunder when he had teammates like Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Overall it will be interesting to see where Kevin Durant ends up at the start of the season as there are many teams looking to oblige to Brooklyn Nets’ enormous trade deal.
