When Kevin Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors, the franchise was crucified by dozens of former players and millions of basketball fans across the globe. Even the commissioner of the NBA took his shot. You don’t ever see four All-Stars on the same team, which means nobody wants to see the Warriors win championships anymore. Sports fans don’t like predictability. What’s the point in watching if you already know the outcome?
In turn, the “villain” label has become attached to the Warriors. This fun-loving, smiling, three-point shooting team will fully embrace this sinister role in 2016-17, right?
“It already started kind of by the end of the year, we could feel it a little bit,” Kerr told ESPN about the word villain on July 8, just an hour after Durant was introduced in Oakland. “We’ve won at a really high rate, obviously, the last two years. At first we were on our honeymoon period and then we got married I guess. Reality kind of set in. We had that feeling of being the villain, or whatever. Now I’m sure we will be more so. But you want to be one or the other. You want to be either the darling or the villain. When you’re stuck in between and nobody cares, that’s when you’ve got a problem.”
Just one month later, Kerr — a gifted communicator and leadership tone-setter — has completely changed his tune about the perception of his team. In another interview, this one with Ramona Shelburne and Michelle Beadle on Sunday, he’s saying pretty much the polar opposite: my guys are the furthest thing from evil.
“To think of Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or any of our guys as villains, it’s kind of absurd. Especially Kevin,” Kerr said Sunday on ESPN radio. “This is one of the most likable people in this league. He’s just an awesome human being. What he did in Oklahoma City was just amazing for that community.
“Circumstances kind of dictate, I guess, that some people are going to see him as a villain. But it’s only because he decided to go elsewhere to play. He wanted to change his scenery, he wanted a new challenge. More than anything he wanted to play with our guys. He loves Draymond Green and Steph and Klay Thompson and Andre [Iguodala]. Seeing those guys in New York, he loved seeing the chemistry that exists and he wanted to be a part of it.”
Why is this a big deal? These comments represent much more than Kerr defending his players. The NBA’s coach of the year is trying to grab control of the narrative, the outside noise if you will, because history tells us it’ll have an impact on the Warriors on the championship stage in June.
Travel back to 2011 when LeBron James openly tried to embrace the villain role with the Miami Heat. Months after losing in the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, he admitted that burden got to him. After going up 2-1, James had an epic meltdown, going 3/11 with 8 points in Game 4, watching Dirk Nowitzki outscore him 29-17 in Game 5, and then committing 6 turnovers and grabbing just 4 rebounds in a Game 6 loss.
As the public ratcheted up their disdain for LeBron, he looked frozen on the court. Kerr hasn’t forgotten about that fiasco and neither has LeBron.
A few months after the crushing defeat, James was open about one thing: I’m not a villain and pretending to be one impacted me in a negative way.
“I play the game fun, joyful, and I let my game do all of the talking and I got away from that. That’s what I lost last year,” James told Rachel Nichols in December of 2011. “Going through my first seven years in the NBA I was always the ‘liked one’ and to be on the other side — they call it the dark side or the villain or whatever they call it — it was definitely challenging for myself. It was a situation I had never been in before, and it took awhile … it took a long time to adjust to it.”
If you add up all the clues, Kerr flip-flopping his stance makes so much sense. Playing the villain role is something Durant could grow uncomfortable with and the added pressure could be a stumbling block in the NBA Finals — especially against a more experienced LeBron. Durant hasn’t been to the NBA Finals since 2012; LeBron has been to six straight. The Warriors have the more talented superstars, but they don’t have the proper training in handling the burden of being the villain.
Even though he’s had his documented wars with the media, Durant is a person who wants to be liked. He wants to be adored. People will probably boo him on the court, but he isn’t the guy that clasps his hand to his ear, egging on his haters.
You’d like to say all of the outside noise doesn’t effect superstar athletes, but believe it or not, these guys are human beings. There is always pressure in a championship setting, but the Warriors will have more strain surrounding them than any sports team in recent memory.
This isn’t just about Durant, either. You can make a compelling argument that Curry’s so-so showing in the NBA Finals might’ve had to do with the extra scrutiny of no longer being “the darling” as Kerr put it in July. Yes, Curry’s knee was not 100 percent and Cleveland’s suffocating defense took him off his spots behind the three-point line. But it became clear the public and the media were rooting for LeBron James, and all of a sudden Curry looked like a shell of himself, not the scariest player in the league. The evidence here — in addition to several poor shooting night’s — is Curry throwing his mouthpiece and being ejected from Game 6. That act of frustration was completely out of character.
The dilemma for Kerr and the Warriors is that the public has already formed its opinion. Kerr can try and quiet the villain talk all he wants, but it’s likely already too late. Even if Durant and Curry give millions to charity, even if Klay Thompson is goofy and lovable, the NBA and the country has changed its mind on the Warriors.
Behind Kerr, the Warriors do have one player they’ll have to lean on to take on a large portion of the fire: Draymond Green. If there’s anybody who’s comfortable being blasted on television and social media, it’s the Warriors’ reckless forward. After being crushed for his suspension in Game 5 against Cleveland, Green delivered a 30-point performance in Game 7 — literally the only reason the Warriors were in the game at the very end. He will have to fall on swords this season, helping his All-Star teammates avoid overthinking and play more freely.
Green, like Kerr, is also a communicator. Perhaps he said it best in July when talking about how the Warriors will have to prepare for the season.
“Block out the noise,” Green said.
It’s just August. The noise is only going to intensify for the Golden State Villains.