Kevin Durant: Colin Cowherd Says KD Made Mistake Choosing Nets

Colin Cowherd doesn’t think Kevin Durant will have a legacy on the Brooklyn Nets.

As the NBA bubble prepares to reopen in Orlando, there’s not much of a focus on the moribund Brooklyn Nets — except if you’re Colin Cowherd, desperately in need of a way to fill up the take cannon.

After the loss of Rajon Rondo, coupled with Avery Bradley’s opt-out, Cowherd began a discussion of the downfall of LeBron James’ Lakers on Monday’s show. His thesis statement, that LeBron will be unable to bring home a title without his defensive burden being removed by two key guards quickly veered into a separate discussion of legacy, and what it takes to win at all costs.

Midway through tearing down LeBron’s late-career roster depth, Cowherd then pivoted to Kevin Durant, who he still believes made a grave mistake moving to Brooklyn, for reasons besides the game.

“You’re not choosing Brooklyn for basketball,” Cowherd spouted, in his trademark twang. “You may be choosing it for…happiness … Less of a coach, less of a point guard, less of a roster, less stability, less winning, less of a culture … So it’s a bit of a cautionary tale.”

Cowherd then continued by discussing Michael Jordan’s outright exhaustion at the end of each one of his six titles, as displayed in “The Last Dance,” America’s favorite quarantine watch. Durant, he claimed, is still several levels below Jordan and LeBron’s tier, legacy-wise, and doesn’t have enough at his current stop to match that output.

To be fair, most of the Durant discussion thus far has been about him taking a continued break, and raising his investment profile during the interim.

For Nets fans, this is still likely surreal. Suddenly, we’re in legacy discussions surrounding the game’s greats? When did we get here? As much as Cowherd’s argument stings, in many ways, that’s his point.

If Durant really intends to leapfrog the legacies of the greats, he and Kyrie Irving are going to have to do an unholy amount of work, with the burden of creating an entire franchise’s footprint. If he’s not up for pushing himself to his absolute limit, coming off a devastating injury, then Brooklyn’s not the place for KD.