As a kid I never watched basketball. I was a Bulls fan only because I liked Michael Jordan. In fact, I never watched a single basketball game until I was maybe seventeen. The good thing about that was I got to choose my own team to root for.

Growing up, like most kids, I followed my dad in rooting for the New York Giants and the New York Yankees, which I am very happy about because they were good teams when I was growing up. However no one in my family watched basketball so I never became a Knicks fan. So in 2010 when I finally started to enjoy the game of basketball, I got to pick my own team. Lucky for me around that time the Seattle Supersonics had recently moved to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder. So I thought new we're both new to basketball, this is now my team. And to be honest it worked out great because they were good almost immediately. And of course my favorite player was none other than Kevin Durant.

Now, some six years later, Durant has left Oklahoma City for the Golden State Warriors in hopes of finally getting a championship. Now I have had a few days to cool down and really get my thoughts together after the news officially dropped, and I have a few thoughts. The biggest issue is that, despite the fact that a championship is a championship and no one can ever take it away from you, it just won’t mean as much. It’s like he is buying the ring by going to a team that’s already got arguably two hall of famers on it. It’s like putting a chip down on every roulette number. You’re going to win, but it doesn’t really mean much.

I strongly believe that in order to be the best, you have to beat the best. You can’t just join the best and think it carries the same weight. And for anyone who believes a ring is a ring, you watch LeBron James win his first ring with the Heat versus when he finally brought a championship to Cleveland and you tell me there isn’t more meaning and emotion behind the Cleveland ring. If Durant wins with the Warriors this year there will always be an asterisk next to it until he wins for a team that really matters. Someone is always going to say, “Yeah he won, but he had to go to a team that was already champions to do it.” But after all that if you ask me if I’m mad or upset about it I will say no. the reason is I understand why he left.

Athletes today don’t care about legacy, they don’t care about loyalty to the team that drafted you; they care about the ring and the check. And once that’s in hand, then they will backtrack to the things that are really important.

But as much as I say I am “okay” with this, I still can’t bring myself to think why the league would allow this. This won’t be good for basketball. A super team is nice for the first few weeks but if there is no competition then who is going to watch the playoffs? I know I won’t. You ask anyone from the 80’s and 90’s and they will tell you that the Super Bowl was dreadfully boring for a long time. People want to see a good competitive game, not a blowout. And I can’t imagine that there is anyone who is going to challenge the Warriors this year. They won 73 out of 82 games last year. Now they have another future hall of famer on the team in Durant. Unless they have a colossal meltdown this year, I probably won’t be watching the playoffs.