I am a bad fan.
That isn't to say that I don't support my teams. My teams are my life, and I will follow them through the lowest lows (post-Rich Gannon, Oakland Raiders) and the darkest of times (2013 #BostonStrong Red Sox post-Marathon Bombing). I love them more than anything.
That said, I'm not that bitter that Kevin Durant decided to leave for Golden State. If anything, I'm closer to feeling like Demi Lovato—much unlike much of the fanbase.
In the above-linked Player's Tribune article, Durant said that Oklahoma City taught him valuable lessons that extend beyond the game of basketball. "There are no words to express what the organization and the community mean to me, and what they will represent in my life and in my heart forever," he said. "They have always had my back unconditionally, and I cannot be more grateful for what they have meant to my family and to me."
He added, "I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career."
Let's take a look at that career for a minute. Not counting the Thunder's last year as the Sonics in Seattle, KD has spent his entire playing career in Oklahoma City. He took a team that was plain awful, put it on his back (along with running mate Russell Westbrook) and carried it to power in the already-deep Western Conference. Outside of basketball, The City has since blossomed into one of the most up-and-coming cities in recent memory. As one of the young leaders of the team, KD helped give OKC another, more positive reason to remember the city by than the events of its darkest timeline.
He rose and fell, got hurt and healed, started small and ended as the big fish in the pond. But what happens when fish are still growing but the pond appears to be staying the same size?
This year, as of Durant's decision, the Thunder have signed a grand total of zero free agents outside of a draft-day trade. Durant aside, it is the same team whose "hero ball" antics cost them many fourth quarter leads. The same team who knocked off the Spurs and almost knocked off the Warriors before giving up a 3-1 series lead. The same city whose newspaper called him "Mr. Unreliable" for his play in crunch time but still lauded his play whenever they won. Not to assume what KD was feeling, but it seems almost as if he was starting to want more from life than what he had going in The City.
It's the kind of feeling one would get just as they're getting ready to leave home for college: They love what they had, but they want more. They want something different. They want room to grow - not physically, but emotionally. And small ponds do not have the room to grow.
That's not to say Oklahoma City is a small pond by any stretch of the imagination. That same team notorious for hero ball and blown fourth quarter leads also has one of the most explosive players in Westbrook, a developing young roster that just added three more young pieces, a head coach whose stock is on the rise, and slowly closing gaps in their game. Fan's should be excited for this year's Thunder team (provided Westbrook stays).
But when you're KD and approaching the adolescence of a career where the greats play 14-20 years (while the average player plays almost five), like real-life adolescence, you're bound to want some sort of change. You're bound to make decisions your parents (The City) and your family (the fans/community) aren't going to like in the process, and you won't know whether or not those decisions were the right ones until after you've made them and lived them. You might decide to start a relationship with the kind of person your parents hate (The Warriors), you may even achieve your goal (the NBA Championship)—even if it was in a way your parents would not have liked (leaving the Thunder).
Again, you never know those things unless you make those decisions and grow from the consequences. But you're doing it on your terms—an agency KD decided to exercise with this signing.
Maybe that's why he decided to leave his home in Bricktown and head for the Bay. Maybe it was the money and the ring. Maybe it was something completely different. But the thing to remember is that he made this decision for him - which, in the end, is what every parent wants their child to do.
I don't agree with the decision, but I can at least understand it from some angle. That may make me a bad fan, and so be it if it does. All I know is that I'm still rooting for my team this year as it becomes Russ' show amid young and promising talent (and Nick Collison). It's going to be one doozy of a year, one way or the other.
As for Kevin Durant:
