Kevin Durant, Ring Culture, and Why Championships Are Not Created Equally

The Phoenix Suns forward has two championship rings and all the stats to backup claims on basketball Mt. Rushmore. His exclusion from the conversation highlights the complexities of greatness in the lore of basketball

Kevin Durant is one of the most impressive NBA players that we have ever seen. He is 7 feet tall, handles the ball like a point guard, shoots 38% from three, and can score from anywhere on the court. He is the archetype of the modern player, and 16 years in is still one of the best offensive players in the NBA. When it is all said and done, he will likely finish in the top 10 in points scored all-time (he currently sits at 12th). And yet despite all that he has achieved he is left out of conversations about the games greatest player, something that he recently wondered about aloud.

Durant and most basketball fans know why he is not as revered as his contemporaries, however. When Durant joined the Golden State Warriors after nine seasons in Oklahoma City, many viewed it as stacking the deck. The decision to join a team that eliminated his team and had the best regular season record of all-time was interpreted as gutless and anti-competitive. The result has been the devaluing of the two championships that Durant won in Golden State, which is particularly damaging in a sport that…