An NBA superstar’s legacy can be broken down into four stages and there are four players in the league who are currently summarizing each of these stages perfectly. As the playoffs approach, all of these stars should be getting their fair share of attention in the near future.
Stage One: Ascent to Greatness
Kevin Durant made it clear in his one mind-blowing year of college ball at Texas that he’s a cool, confident customer who wants the rock and can do incredible things with it. His progress and dominance has never stopped growing since the moment the Portland Trailblazers selected Greg Oden with the first pick of the ’07 draft, making Durant a no-brainer for the Seattle Supersonics who didn’t see the results until they moved to Oklahoma City and changed their name to the Thunder.
Durant’s always-gaudy numbers are even better than ever. More importantly, he has his Thunder booming their way into the playoffs after an abysmal 23-59 season just a year ago. In the Western Conference, just making the playoffs is a big achievement, especially for a bunch of guys who are barely old enough to vote.
The Thunder won six out of seven games before last nights overtime heartbreaker in Utah, when Durant’s 45 points weren’t quite enough to beat the Jazz. The Durantula has had no fear, spanking the Lakers, 91-75, at home and dropping 37 in Boston, leaving left Kevin Garnett desperately blaming the refs, baffled how a kid young enough to be his grandson was able dominate his Celtics (more on that later).
Witnessing Durant’s progression reminds me of seeing LeBron and Kobe, and to a lesser extent Garnett, come into their own as legendary NBA superstars and team leaders. It’s already safe to call him one of the best players on the planet. At the ripe age of 21, and with an arsenal of young talent on his side, there is no limit to the level of greatness Kevin Durant is capable of achieving in his NBA career.
Stage Two: Nervous to Commit, but Eager for a Ring
As much press as LeBron gets for his highlight dunks and flashy entrance dances, he hasn’t received enough credit for leading Cleveland to the best record in the NBA this season. Maybe people are thinking they’ve seen this before: LeBron and the Cavs dominate the regular season and the first round or two of the playoffs, then fall apart to a less talented, less healthy team in the Eastern Conference finals or get swept by a squad of experienced veterans in the championship (not to be too specific). Or maybe people are more interested in gossiping about where he’ll be next year: back in Cleveland, off to New York, or maybe… no I guess that’s it…
There’s always talk about LeBron going to New York so he can be in a major market and hang out at Yankees games and kick it with his buddy Jay-Z. But LeBron James is a major market no matter where he goes. And isn’t he already hanging out at Yankees games and kicking it with his buddy Jay-Z despite living and working in Cleveland? LeBron can enjoy the celebrity life anywhere he goes. Could he really be a bigger deal than he is now?
If LeBron finds a way to lead the Cavs to a championship this year, I can’t imagine he’ll ever play for another team. He grew up in Akron, Ohio, he has been embraced as the most beloved athlete in the history of the state, and he has made the Cleveland Cavaliers more than just highlight reels of Craig Ehlo getting schooled by Jordan.
The King wants rings. Period. The only way LeBron goes to New York is if the Cavs fail to run the table this year and the Knicks convince him that his best chance to achieve his goal is in with them. Many people think there is no reason LeBron should to want to play for the Knicks, but I see two reasons, and they both had huge individual efforts in a loss to Golden state on Friday night.
David Lee’s epic 37 point, 20 rebound and 10 assist game was the first time any player has put up 30, 20 and 10 since the ABA-NBA merger in ‘76-’77. Danillo Gallanri’s 28 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists were nothing to scoff at either. Yes, the Knicks were playing the undersized and defensively challenged Golden State Warriors and they did lose that game to a very bad team (not to beat a dead warrior).
I’m not claiming these two are good enough to win games on their own, but David Lee is a better post-player and rebounder than LeBron has ever played with. LeBron would also benefit from Lee’s unselfish play, leading all centers in assist with 3.6 per-game.
Gallinari is a more promising rising star and offensive talent than LeBron has ever been teamed up with, and he has an arrogant swagger and intensity that the King would respect and relate to. The Knicks are not nearly as deep as the Cavs current squad, but if they resign Lee for a reasonable price, LeBron has to be thinking New York would be a few roll players away from handful of jewelry.
Stage 3: Getting Cozy
Kobe Bryant has been though a lot in his fourteen years as a Los Angeles Laker. With four championship rings and career numbers that are too big to fit in this blog, he has already established himself as one of the greatest basketball players ever to play the game. There are a lot of negative things that can be said about the relatively introverted superstar’s personal life, but Kobe certainly carries himself with a classy yet arrogant mystique that makes him very respectable on the court. After all his ups and downs in LA, he has now settled in as California’s most recognizable athlete on their most recognizable team.
Los Angeles and pro basketball have been great to Kobe Bryant, and Kobe Bryant has been great to Los Angeles and pro basketball. He reaffirmed his love and commitment to LA by signing a three-year contract extension that basically says he’ll finish his career the way he started it, as a Los Angeles Laker. The only difference is when he finishes it, he’ll be quite possibly the greatest Los Angeles Laker there ever was, and that’s an A-list, even for Hollywood standards… Oh, and he’ll have a lot more money… even for Hollywood standards.
Stage 4: Grumpy Old Man
When Kevin Durant singlehandedly beat the Celtics in Boston last week, it seemed to summarize their season and the lack of dominance that brought them a championship in ’08. Kevin Garnett looked exhausted and depressed in the postgame press conference and was quick to blame the loss on bad officiating.
"I thought we was playing Michael fucking Jordan tonight, the way he was getting the whistle," said Garnett in a slip up that cost him 25 grand.
Kevin Garnett isn't dealing with his descent into mediocrity very well. The old KG was an intense, confident, tough athletic specimen who wouldn’t let anything get in his way; swatting shots into the third row and pounding his chest as hard as humanly possible. He would enter the game with his signature chalk toss, th
at has since been ruthlessly stolen by LeBron James, and snarl like a pit bull after taking the ball from the top of the key with two dribbles and stuffing it down a defenders throat. But the new version seems worn out physically, emotionally and mentally, constantly acting frustrated with himself and his teammates, burying his head in his hands and literally looking down.There is no doubt Garnett has lost a lot of athleticism, like any NBA player in their mid-thirties, but more significantly he has lost the prowess, personality and attitude that made him the lovable KG that so many hoops fans cheered for throughout his career. Is it possible that the raw emotion he has always relied on has come back to bite him in his aging years? It seems like Garnett was so use to being a great player, he can’t get use to being a good player.
Note to Garnett: Durant's the real deal. Stop blaming the refs and give the kid some credit. If you keep acting so bitter, I'll give you a pair of extra thick glasses and a cane to wave at the cameras.
These damn kids and their calls, runnin’ around dribblin’ and dunkin’ all over the place. In my day you if you wanted a referee to respect you, you had to earn it!
