Some pictures explain things better than words. In this case, it’s a meme, which means it’s a photo (or five of them), along with words, giving everyone another run down of why Kevin Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder is much worse than LeBron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers.
We’ll explain the meme’s logic: James was playing on a Cavaliers team that made the finals in 2007, but in the next three seasons was knocked out twice by the Boston Celtics in the playoffs. Overall, LeBron didn’t see how the Cavs build a championship worthy team around him, after two MVP awards for him, dragging them to the best record in the league in 2009 and 2010.
So an opportunity came, and James joined the Miami Heat, along with Chris Bosh, to play with Dwyane Wade. So he can beat the Celtics, finally. So he can win an NBA championship, finally. The Heat made four NBA finals in a row with James and the big three, winning two titles. The Celtics? The Heat beat them in the 2011 and 2012 playoffs, as their time was coming to an end, while the Heat were reaching the zenith of their big three era.
Kevin Durant, in the meantime, was playing next to a superstar like Russell Westbrook. He and the Thunder have made the finals before (2012) and the conference finals in 2014. They had a 3-1 lead over the Golden State Warriors a few months ago in the conference finals. The NBA finals were just around the corner. But the Thunder collapsed. Was it more Westbrook or more Durant? Doesn’t matter. The Warriors broke and beat them. Durant joined the Warriors, which would have been like James joining the Celtics. Instead of beating them, joining them.
When you ignore the meme-troll logic, there’s nothing wrong with anything LeBron or Durant did. But everything has to be labeled and compared in sports. And so, when it comes to who did the meaner thing to a fanbase? Who committed the bigger act of treason? Durant, it’s not even close.