Brooklyn departure unlikely to be last for Durant

abrupt end.

How much of this has to do with the Warriors? Some observers think that watching the Warriors win a title two weeks ago was agonizing for Durant and might have prompted his desire to move on once again. The Warriors won a championship without him, they won two with him and now, they have won another title after Durant dumped them. All those eulogies about “the end of the Warriors championship window” when Durant left turned out to be wildly premature.

Maybe Durant had bought into that kind of talk, and thought the Warriors couldn’t succeed without him. He knows that by agreeing to a sign-and-trade, that ultimately brought the team Andrew

Wiggins, he actually helped the Warriors win another title. He obviously saw how joyful his old teammates were as they won No. 4 in the past eight years and heard all the commentary that this Warriors title was more meaningful because it came without Durant. We know he hears and monitors everything.

Should he have left the Warriors and their cohesive culture? Does he listen to pundits like Charles Barkley who say that until Durant wins a title as the undisputed leader of a team — which he never was on Stephen Curry’s team — he won’t get universal respect? Barkley thinks Durant has to be “the bus driver.”

Reports say Durant is interested in a trade to Phoenix, meaning he’d land right back in the Warriors’ sphere. If Durant joins a team that had the best record in the league this year but fell short of its goals of a championship — losing in the Western Conference semifinals to Dallas — won’t he go through much of the same criticism that he faced coming to Golden State? Criticism that seemed to affect him and his happiness.

He left to create his own team and it badly backfired. Durant tore his Achilles just days before leaving the Warriors for the Nets, and played in just 90 regular-season games with Brooklyn. He played in 16 playoff games, losing in 2021 in the Eastern Conference semifinals in seven games to eventual champions Milwaukee and the Nets were swept out of the first round this year by Boston.

His partner in supernova building, Irving, derailed much of the Nets season with his refusal to get vaccinated. He played only 103 games over three seasons. Irving and Durant played only 44 games together.

The big winner, oddly, in the implosion of the Nets, may be the Houston Rockets. When the Rockets traded James Harden to Brooklyn in January of 2021, they received three first-round draft picks (2022, ’24 and ’26) and four firstround pick swaps (last year, ’23, ’25 and ’27). Harden wanted out and is now in Philadelphia. Those draft picks may set up Houston for a decade, with smart drafting.

Meanwhile, Durant hasn’t even begun the four-year contract extension he signed last offseason. At the end of it, he’ll be almost 38 years old. How many times, during the course of this contract, will he want to move on from wherever he lands? Searching for some elusive happiness and chemistry.

Once again, for the third time in six years, Durant has upended the league and sent teams and speculation spinning.

Meanwhile, the Warriors sit calmly on their throne. Their homegrown superstar is not demanding anything. Their chemistry and culture remain intact. Their core unit has proved to be its own kind of superteam.

Durant may land in the Western Conference. The Warriors may face him several times a year. That would be a challenge. I doubt they’re worried.