The Seattle Supersonics drafted Kevin Durant in 2007. And stayed with the franchise for 9 seasons before leaving in the most distasteful fashion. He transformed from a promising talent to the 2nd best player in the NBA during his time in OKC. However, that never lead to KD winning any NBA titles and some level of the blame fell on him after his departure.
Years after his departure fans began to believe that Kevin Durant was ‘driven’ out of OKC due to multiple reasons.
Kevin Durant knew he couldn’t win with Westbrook
In 2016, Kevin Durant pulled off the weakest move in the history of the NBA. A Former MVP in KD joined a 73-win Warriors team that just kicked OKC out in the prior year. Kevin was hated by OKC and NBA fans alike.
But Kevin’s decision was deeper than ring chasing. The outlying problem was a lot more. In KD’s rookie season he was the best player on the Seattle Supersonics but was lied to and kept in the dark about the status of the team staying in Seattle.
After the move to OKC, they were able to get extremely lucky in the draft. In 3 years, the Thunder was able to draft Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka. Among these 4 players, 3 of them went on the win the league MVP and the other one was one of the best defensive players in the league.
Even with all this talent, OKC never won the NBA title. The closest they got was losing in the finals to Miami in the 2011-12 season. After that season the Thunder decided to let James Harden walk for nothing and began a run of seasons where OKC was very good, but never the best.
After Harden’s departure, Westbrook got really good but his style did not work with KD. His style of play cannot differ from other stars, something that we have seen every year since he left OKC.
After blowing a 3-1 lead to the Golden State Warriors, Kevin realized that he’s been wasting his prime on a team that had no roadmap or direction to success. He realized that he’d never win with Russell Westbrook as his co-star. And that he would not win in a team that did not find the talent in their youth. Which makes KD’s decision to leave the Thunder a little more justified.