Durant going to school

For all of their youthful promise, the Golden State Warriors cultivate and insist upon adult behavior. Out on the Chase Center court, the staples of sporting maturity — loyalty, brotherhood, sacrifice — come vividly to life. How it must amuse them to watch a kindergarten class take over in Brooklyn.

Kevin Durant figured he had a path to personal satisfaction when he hooked up with the Nets. He had no idea — and really should have known better — that Kyrie Irving and James Harden represent the comically dreadful flip side of getting to play with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. And what an awful mess they teamed up to create.

Let's drop in on the class, assuming we can get the kindergartners to stop throwing things around the room: Harden lasted all of 13 months with the Nets' socalled Big Three. Already known for quitting on the Houston Rockets, he orchestrated his way out of Brooklyn and landed in Philadelphia. He had a pretty good reason, actually: Irving, one of the worst teammates in the history of sports, was driving Harden nuts with his refusal to get vaccinated, dropping out of sight on a regular basis and “explaining” everything with incomprehensible nonsense. Ben Simmons is with the Nets, although we really can't be sure. He ducked out of sight for months in Philadelphia, and it wasn't strictly due to a bad back. Most everyone figured he would show up for Game 4 of the first round against Boston, with the Nets on the brink of elimination, but no such luck. Can Durant really be sure he would have Simmons as a teammate in Brooklyn? Who could assume that? There might be only one player in the NBA who could suffer through Irving's selfobsessed travails and actually want to keep playing with him. That would be Durant, although perhaps reality has prevailed. The day after Irving opted into his one-year player option with the Nets, Durant requested a trade. OK, fine, except that Durant changes his mind with effortless haste. Now, reportedly, he has told Brooklyn owner Joseph Tsai he'll stay with the Nets if they fire head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks. Nice consideration of Nash's feelings, by the way. Whatever his faults as the Nets' coach last year, this is a very good man, revered in NBA circles. So either Durant wants him out or he's just trying to prove a point. Such mindless cruelty. Respected NBA insider Ric Bucher said on his Fox Sports podcast that Irving, while negotiating his deal, “wanted it to guarantee he wouldn't have to play more than 60 games in a season and would not have to play any back-to-backs, which he apparently referred to as inhumane.” Responding on Twitter, Irving suggested he and Bucher discuss “what is truly happening” when “you're ready to break free from the media's control over your subconscious thoughts and emotions.” It's plausible to wonder whether Durant is intentionally trying to drive down his trade value, just to make sure he lands elsewhere. That's the new way of the superstar, if you haven't heard: be a complete jerk until you get your way. Imagine if Tsai calls his bluff, the Nets' trade demands are too unreasonable and they all show up for training camp: Durant, Irving, Simmons, Nash and Marks. That's a special brand of awkward. Agendas flying around like unwanted crayons.

The road to sanity

If the NBA's player-movement madness leaves you cold, there's no need to wait for the Warriors, about to win another title (write it down) because of their continuity and common sense. Plug into the WNBA right now, because it's getting good. Catch any of the four teams favored to reach the playoff semifinals — Las Vegas, Chicago, Connecticut, Seattle — and it's not just the exquisite pleasure of watching A'ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Candace Parker, Kahleah Copper, Courtney Vandersloot, Jonquel Jones, DeWanna Bonner, Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and so many others. It's a festival of ball movement, superior to the NBA in its technique, generosity of distribution and pursuit of the best possible shot. As a league, heading into the weekend, the shooting numbers were around 44-34-79 percent from the floor, 3-point range and the free-throw line, all comparable to last year's NBA season. Meanwhile, the intensity of play is downright fierce. We've been watching five to six WNBA games a week at the 3-Dot, because it's so easy to get hooked.

Some of baseball's luckiest fans are in Orange County, watching the masterful Shohei Ohtani play his home games for the Angels. The awful truth they face: While eternally gracious and respectful, Ohtani has made it clear he wants to play for a winner. He's never seen any sign of that with the Angels. He becomes a free agent after next season, and he's virtually guaranteed to leave. The Angels should trade him before that, but imagine the titanic loss of revenue on the business/marketing side. … Pablo Sandoval reminded fans that while it might be a bit unsightly to have an expanded waistline, it's no impediment to hitting. We're seeing this all over both leagues now, with the likes of Daniel Vogelbach, Alejandro Kirk, Rowdy Tellez, Willians Astudillo and Josh Naylor. Portly fellows and good hitters. A great baseball thing. … What we like about the Giants' Wilmer Flores, whose endearing coolness was so well examined by our Susan Slusser: More than any other hitter, when he really crushes one down the left-field line, he's in a full lean over the plate — a look more associated with off-field hitting — yet not even slightly off-balance.

There was nothing stale or repetitive about MLB returning to Dyersville for Thursday night's “Field of Dreams” game in the Iowa cornfields. The players were enchanted, speaking of “magical” experiences and a desire to return. Next year has been ruled out at this site, due to construction on a youth complex for baseball and softball, but there wouldn't be much opposition to an encore in 2024. … Any reasonable alternative, it would seem, would revolve about the rich and widely uncharted history of the Negro Leagues. Last summer, this column suggested the stillviable Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., where hometown sensation Willie Mays starred for the Black Barons in the late 1940s. Others have recommended Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J., currently undergoing renovation and fashioning a Negro Leagues history that includes the Newark Eagles and New York Black Yankees. In that setting, the “Field of Dreams” concept would resonate among young Black kids yearning to know more about what led to Jackie Robinson's breakthrough in 1947. It would also have to emphasize the disgrace of segregation for decades on end, not to mention substandard ballparks that hardly measured up to Yankee Stadium or Comiskey Park. You wonder whether sensitive MLB types would be willing to go down that road.