If you're not happy with Kevin Durant's decision to join the Golden State Warriors, you probably fall into one of two camps:
A) You live in Oklahoma.
B) You believe legacies are written in stone by age 27.
Many will charge that Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder will cheapen his legacy and how we'll remember his basketball career. I'd suggest ignoring all that noise.
Durant's legacy almost certainly will change dramatically over the next decade or so. Why? Because his basketball career likely isn't even halfway over yet. And titles always seem to sway the public in time, no matter how you get them.
It seems foolish to write Durant's legacy now and blame him for leaving OKC. Have we learned nothing about starting up the legacy mill too soon after watching LeBron James since July 2010?
By taking ownership of his career in ways that other NBA greats hadn't before, LeBron paved the way for Durant to leave OKC and enjoy the occupational autonomy that most people in this world take for granted yet still try to withhold from NBA players. As Cleveland fans burned LeBron's jersey and owner Dan Gilbert wrote that he was "former hero" and a "coward" in a Comic Sans font, the masses thought James' move to Miami in 2010 cheapened his legacy.
And holy cow, has it turned out pretty good for LeBron. With three championships (two with the Miami Heat), a northern Ohio parade and four MVP awards by age 31, we're wondering if he will go down as the greatest ever to do it. And much of that adulation can be traced directly to James' outrageous decision to leave and increase his odds of winning basketball games.
But there's another former great that Durant should be thinking about.
Karl Malone and cost of no titles
When Durant announced his decision on The Players' Tribune, I thought of LeBron and how he made Durant's decision a whole lot easier. In many ways, he is the logical comp for Durant going to join Stephen Curry and the Warriors.
But I also thought about Karl Malone.
Look, The Mailman's résumé is astounding. He finished his career with the second-most points in NBA history. The difference between his scoring total and that of the Kobe Bryants and Michael Jordans of the world is measured by the thousands.
Malone won more MVPs (two) than Kobe, Shaquille O'Neal or Oscar Robertson, and he finished in the top three in voting five different times. If you like advanced measures, he ranks third all time in career win shares (WS) behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
He owns two gold medals and made the playoffs in every season of his NBA career.
Malone was great, and historically so. But here's the question: Why doesn't Malone get more love in the GOAT conversation?
Probably because he didn't do what Durant just did, until it was too late: join another team to improve his chances of winning a championship.
The only thing missing from Malone's track record is a championship. And that unchecked box no doubt has hurt his standing in the larger conversation of greats.
The parallels to Durant are eerie in some ways. The 6-foot-9 forward spent 18 straight seasons starring for the Utah Jazz, a small-market team that selected him in the 1985 NBA draft. The Louisiana native lived in Salt Lake City and dominated alongside his version of Russell Westbrook in John Stockton. Despite coming close to a couple of titles, the pick-and-roll duo just couldn't get past the Chicago Bulls and grab the ring.
How much did not winning a championship cost Malone in the public domain? Consider that in ESPN's all-time rankings from earlier this year, Malone ranked 16th -- 13 spots lower than his win-shares rank of third. In fact, the 13-spot decline is the largest in ESPN.com's top 20 outside of, you guessed it, Stockton, who dropped 14 spots from fifth in win shares to 19th in #NBARank. I don't think it's any coincidence why those two names lag the most: They didn't win a title.
It's also instructive to look at the other side of the equation. In the top 20 of All-Time #NBArank, who did we love most as compared to win shares? Larry Bird (sixth in #NBArank; 26th in WS) and Magic Johnson (fourth in #NBArank; 23rd in WS). It's not hard to see what those two have in common: They won a boatload of titles.
When ranking individuals, we place a whole lot more weight on team accomplishments, such as titles, than on individual feats, such as MVP awards and All-Star nods.
Durant apparently noticed.
Legacy of Oklahoma?
Looking at Malone, those two decades of loyalty to the team that drafted him earned him what, exactly? Sure, he'll be worshipped forever in the state of Utah, but it's difficult to imagine what that's worth to a basketball player from the South. Just like a Washington, D.C.-area native in Oklahoma.
That's what stood out when I read the words of OKC general manager Sam Presti from back in October, as chronicled by ESPN's Royce Young:
"Knowing that the future is coming, we are incredibly excited about that because it is an opportunity for us to keep him in Oklahoma City, a Hall of Fame player, a legacy player," Presti said. "I should say, a legacy person, in Oklahoma."
That last sentence always fell flat to me. Is Oklahoman immortality really the pitch? That's going to lure a man who grew up in Maryland and played collegiate ball at the University of Texas?
Oklahoma is the 28th-most-populated state in the United States, just ahead of Connecticut. Durant's allegiance to the state of Oklahoma is warranted because Thunder owner Clay Bennett ripped it away from Seattle -- where Durant began his career with the SuperSonics -- and the Portland Trail Blazers preferred Greg Oden instead?
The Thunder have been extremely good to Durant. Presti has surrounded him with more talent and strong individuals than most general managers can possibly imagine: Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams and others.
The organization's training staff helped Durant rebuild his broken foot and reclaim his throne as one of the best players in the game. They've earned every bit of Durant's line in his announcement: "I'm from Washington, D.C., originally, but Oklahoma City truly raised me."
But it was encouraging to see Durant take ownership of his life and choose another team, even if folks think it's "chasing" a ring. It's something that Malone didn't do until he was almost 40 years old, when he joined a Los Angeles Lakers team that lost to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals.
With the Thunder coming up short so many times and struggling to lure free agents in a tiny market, it's understandable if Durant looked at his career and wondered if he'd ever win a title in Oklahoma City. With Door No. 1 as LeBron and Door No. 2 as Malone, Durant chose wisely in terms of his historical standing.
Many fans think they value loyalty above "chasing a ring," but Malone's legacy says otherwise. The almighty championship total prevails.
One more thing: All-Time #NBArank placed Durant at 22nd and Stephen Curry at 23rd on the all-time list, much higher than their career win-shares totals would suggest. I guess we thought they'd win a bunch of titles over the rest of their careers.
We just didn't see it as teammates.