Keeping Kevin Durant in perspective

Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images

By J.M. Poulard
Special to Daily Thunder

The use of perspective has become the most difficult task in sports. It’s all about instant gratification and the failure to provide it can often be treated like an epic collapse.

The Thunder’s Kevin Durant lives in this world. Fans stop looking at what he’s accomplished and instead start asking, “what have you done for me lately?”

Durant’s Thunder fell in six games to the San Antonio Spurs in last season’s Western Conference Finals, and it would seem that the series ignited a fire.

“I’m now convinced [Serge] Ibaka is the Thunder’s most important — and sometimes most underutilized – player,” wrote ESPN.com’s Skip Bayless after Game 4. “And I still consider [Russell] Westbrook’s intangibles — his fearless clutch guts — superior to Durant’s. (See Durant’s four straight late failures in playoff losses last season to Memphis without Westbrook.) So yes, I consider the new MVP the Thunder’s third-most important player.”

Is it possible that the defeat at the hands of the Spurs prompted a lack of vision?

Some believe that the 25-year-old’s legacy will be defined during the 2014-15 campaign. A failure to win a title would make him a choker of the highest order in the eyes of a few and perhaps drop him to the status of No. 2 option behind Russell Westbrook. It’s highly logical… except it’s not.

I’m not sure one can look at KD’s career through any prism and come to the conclusion that this upcoming season is make or break. Durant’s team has been a championship contender for four straight years, and he’s been a huge part of that.

Kevin’s collected four scoring titles, an All-Star Game MVP and a league MVP trophy.

What’s more, Durant helped Team USA capture the gold in the 2010 World Championships and 2012 Olympics. With the exception of Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, few active players are more decorated than the Slim Reaper.

And yet, there are people opining that his career – a mere seven seasons in – is at a crossroads.

Title or bust appears to be the main theme, and that completely misses the mark.

When his career is over, we can judge Durant’s legacy for what it is. Whether he has rings attached to his name or not, it shouldn’t take anything away from his greatness, and that’s especially true at what likely is the midpoint of his career.

If that’s the standard at which Durant is going to be held, that means every season will become a referendum on why KD is a failure until he wins a title.

This sensibility was applied onto generational athletes such as Michael Jordan and LeBron James. It was unfair then and is unfair today. Marginalizing the consistent excellence of players during the 82-game grind seems excessive and shortsighted.

LeBron is already one of the all-time greats, and Durant is closing in on him at a time where James is supposed to be the undisputed king of the league. Heck, KD feels as though Kobe Bryant is in play as well.

“Individually, I feel I’m as good as those guys,” Durant said, per the Washington Post’s Michael Lee in June. “I’m not saying that in an arrogant, cocky way at all, but I feel I can compete with those guys any given night and I’ve worked tirelessly to be able to say that. They’re champions, and I want to be a part of that group. I got a long ways to go.”

The fact that KD is closing in on LeBron should trump just about every other topic.

“If you go out today and say, ‘KD is the best player in the world,’ that’s a conversation,” Durant shared with USA Today’s Sam Amick. “That’s not the tell-all, be-all. So when people say, ‘Oh, he might have been MVP, but he’s not the best player in the world.’ Well, I can argue it. We can all argue it.”

KD is certainly right, although some might want you to believe everything regarding the Thunder starts and ends with Westbrook

Sure, Russ could be something along the lines of OKC’s leader or its heart and soul, but his ascension corresponds with Durant’s. Much of what Westbrook does occurs because defenses focus most of their attention on his teammate.

Kevin, much like Jordan and LeBron, is a once in a generation type of talent. He’s a 6’9’’ small forward with the shooting touch of Larry Bird and the playmaking skills of Tracy McGrady. In addition, he possesses a great amount of mental toughness despite the fact he rarely gets credit for it.

Indeed, in the face of mounting obstacles, Durant has never taken his foot off the gas. Lose James Harden to the Houston Rockets after a 2012 Finals appearance? KD made up for his departure by improving as a player.

Westbrook goes down in the postseason with a knee injury? Durant stepped up his game and took out the Rockets in the first round before ultimately falling to the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2013 playoffs.

Being subjected to a headline calling him Mr. Unreliable in The Oklahoman during the 2014 postseason? No big deal.

All Durant did was ball out and help OKC make it to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the eventual champion Spurs.

Durant displays his brilliance on a nightly basis, and the lack of championship hardware shouldn’t overshadow that.

Could the perception of him change with a title? Probably.

The more interesting question is whether it should. I prefer to think not. Don’t get me wrong, performing and delivering on the biggest stage counts for something, but getting your team to said stage is just as valuable.

Thus, please refrain from judging KD in absolutes. The 2014-15 campaign won’t be any more important than the previous one, and a failure to win a ring won’t be an indictment of his character, talent or intestinal fortitude.

He’s one of the very best talents in the NBA, and watching him perform as such will be how I process this upcoming season.

Perhaps you should too.

J.M. Poulard is a regular contributor to the TrueHoop Network. Follow him on Twitter — @ShyneIV.