Durant knows wild ride looming
Star grounded as free agency nears
There’s a unique aspect to Kevin Durant’s free agency, one that he said “makes everything just wide open at this point.”
Because the NBA’s salary cap is set to spike from $70 million to about $92 million, top-tier teams such as the Golden State Warriors that otherwise would have had no chance to lure Durant threaten to steal him away from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The key question, one that likely can’t be answered until this season ends, is how he sees other opportunities vs. Oklahoma City, where he has been so beloved for the last eight seasons.
Despite Durant playing at an MVP-caliber level and the Thunder, until recently, playing like the elite team that they’ve long been when healthy, the Warriors’ dominance has mostly eliminated the non-stop Durant speculation we thought would define the 2015-16 campaign. His support team has plenty to do with that, as his agent, Rich Kleiman of Roc Nation Sports, and manager, Charlie Bell, have kept a tight circle while managing to keep information leaks to a minimum.
But, just as much, the Thunder star has always been grounded. His handling of the free agency frenzy that is less than four months away has been no different — never mind that it’s the biggest NBA story of the summer.
Ditto for this recent stretch of on-court struggles in which, entering Thursday, his Thunder had
lost six of their last 10 games.
But when he heard about the car crash that killed Ingrid Williams on Feb. 10, it was more than enough to remind Durant that the noise surrounding his future is its own kind of blessing.
The 44-year-old wife of Thunder assistant coach Monty Williams, a mother to their five children and the all-everything to the coach with whom Durant has grown so close in recent years, was killed in a head-on crash in Oklahoma City. Nine days later, Monty Williams – who also grew up in the Washington D.C. area and, they both agree, may even be a distant relative of Durant’s – delivered a powerful message of faith and forgiveness at the funeral that touched millions when video of his speech was shared.
“It really just put everything in perspective for you,” Durant told USA TODAY Sports. “All the guys felt for him. You could tell everybody felt for him and his family and wanted to be there and support him. But at the funeral, at his eulogy, (that) settled everybody down. Everybody there.
“I’m sure whoever watched it, they were settled down after that, because he showed so much strength and courage and resiliency in light of a tough moment. … I know I was crying a lot, but his speech calmed us all down.”
But then tragedy struck the Thunder again this week. Minority owner and former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon died in a one-car crash Wednesday, one day after he was indicted on charges of conspiring to rig oil and natural gas leases.
“All that stuff that goes on around you, sometimes you have to sit back and think, ‘Man, you’re playing basketball for a living. You’re enjoying it. You get to travel around the world. You get to meet new people, and it’s just a blessing to be here,’ ” Durant said. “All that other stuff may get to you sometimes, but if you stay rooted and really realize what’s important, you can kind of brush that all to the side.”
The conversation around the Thunder and the NBA will inevitably return to Durant and his future. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver admitted in a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports that the salary-cap spike will be “disruptive in ways that we can’t even predict,” but it’s fair to assume that the Thunder wish league officials would have built in protections to this problem in time to stop it. Once Silver failed to persuade the players to agree to phase in the salary cap increase over nine years, the free agency floodgates were opened.
According to an October report published by SB Nation before 2016-17 projections increased from $89 million to $92 million, teams could have more than $1 billion in combined cap space. Of the 30 teams, 25 are projected to have enough space to sign a maximum-salary player ($25.1 million in the first season). Yet for players such as Durant, this creates endless opportunity.
“I like the fact that our game is growing,” Durant said when asked about the issue. “That’s my whole thing, just to grow the game of basketball and leave my mark on it. … You could just look at it as a positive thing, that our game is growing and you can be able to do whatever you want as an owner, a (general manager), as a player, and ultimately that’s what you want: to make a decision on your own and to make a decision that makes you happy. That makes everything just wide open at this point.”
Yet unless 27-year-old Durant is asked to discuss such matters, it’s clear his focus is on the task at hand. He is engaged during this pivotal moment for the Thunder, well aware his leadership until season’s end will have everything to do with what comes next.
“I’m really not a guy for all the attention, and I know the attention is on me and the spotlight is on me as far as what’s going to happen and what the future holds,” he said. “But I put myself in a position where I worked as hard as I can (and) people respect my game, and, really, that’s what matters to me. My teammates, my peers, the fans of the game (who) respect how I play, and all that stuff comes with it, so I just try to look at it that way.
“I knew it was coming, you know? I wouldn’t be who I was if I didn’t know this stuff was coming, so it’s just a part of it. I try to stay around people who really care about me as a man, and as a basketball player, (people) who want me happy and my friends that I love every single day.”