As If I Wasn’t Already a Kevin Durant Fan

First of all, before I start this, I would like to apologize for the general lack of postings around here recently. Truth be told, I have been assiduously avoiding non-sports related websites and internet news owing to the fact that apparently plot spoilers and possibly even a full-text pirated version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have been floating around online. I have absolutely zero desire to see any of this, and thus, have simply avoided it altogether. And if someone tries to give shit away to me before I have read my copy (which I will be picking up on Friday night, and fuck you for laughing), I’m gonna have to choke a bitch. Literally. I will find you and choke you.

In any case, I am also in the process of reading all the previous editions continuously to look for clues and prepare for the new edition. While it is perhaps fruitless to look for clues given the fact that I have already read them all at least 8-10 times each (fuck you again, they’re engrossing), I thought that if I read them sequentially in a short period of time I would see some patterns. And I have, to some extent. Sometime tomorrow or Friday will be the Harry Potter Preview post.

Now, the point of this post, however, is my growing respect and increasing excitement for Kevin Durant.

The impression one may have received from previous posts notwithstanding, I don’t dislike Greg Oden. I think he’s going to be a very great center, and I have always appreciated centers who prided themselves on their defensive abilities (and I mean really prided… having a propensity to leave your man for some spectacular weakside blocks is just bullshit… Oden plays great straight up man on man defense, and I really respect that). With that said though, I’m kind of in the Bill Simmons camp on this. The greatest thing about Durant is that you have no idea how good he can be.

It’s kind of like John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” In the poem, he talks about (among other things) an urn where some guy painted a young couple who are about to kiss. Frozen in time just pre-kiss, the couple never gets to know exactly what that kiss will be like. As Keats points out, however, in their imaginations, the kiss is great, and since they’re frozen before they’ve failed to live up to each other’s imagination (and while they’re still young and beautiful), it’s totally cool (I’m paraphrasing there).

My point here is that right now, Durant is the beautiful couple before the kiss. He has literally unlimited potential. When you go on nbadraft.net, part of their scouting reports on each player include a comparable player to whom, if things go right, the young player can become similar. Durant though? Nobody has any idea. And I think people are totally seduced by that potential. I’m not knocking those people (I’m basically one of them). But I think that’s a huge part of why people are a lot more excited for Durant than Oden.

Oh btw… don’t look now, but Durant had a horrifically bad summer league run with regard to rebounding…  I’m not jumping off the bandwagon (hell I bitch more than anyone about small sample size), but I’m just saying.

In any case, leaving all of that aside, the point here was that Durant recently decided on his shoe deal. 7 yrs, $60 million from Nike.

First of all, I would like to point out that it’s pretty absurd that he will make more money to sell shoes than to actually play. When I say “absurd,” of course, I don’t actually mean that I think it’s a ridiculous amount that he’s making. I mean, it is a ridiculous amount, but in the context of an environment where Tiger Woods gets (I think) $20 million a year from Nike and where LeBron’s original shoe deal with Nike (signed, like Durant, before he had played an NBA game) was for $90 million over the same 7 years (3/2 what Durant got), it’s not that crazy. And I’m sure Nike does their math and marketing projections competently; they wouldn’t offer him all that money if they weren’t reasonably certain they would recoup it through his marketability.

No, what I think is absurd is that when it comes down to it, if he has to choose between doing something that his coaches with Seattle tell him to do and what his handlers at Nike tell him to do, what does he choose? Seriously… he’s getting like $7 million over 3 years from Seattle. Where should his loyalties lie? How is this an acceptable (potential) situation?

Second of all, and this is where the respect thing comes from, he turned down Adidas’s offer which was apparently worth $70 million or more over the same amount of time. Not only that, but he turned it down despite the prodding of his mother (who preferred the Adidas offer) and his agent (who preferred the Adidas offer as well). For much of the process, it was only Durant who was keen on Nike.

Why did Durant prefer Nike to Adidas? Because before anyone was paying him money to wear branded shoes, when he was buying his shoes based on what felt good on his feet and what he liked, when he was in middle school and high school… he wore Nike.

Basically, Durant chose being honest with himself and the public about his footwear preferences and the continued ability to wear Nike shoes over $10 million. I have a lot or respect for that. That’s a lot of money to turn down over just a personal preference. Like if I ever got insanely good at running and went to the Olympics and had to pick a running shoe to endorse, I’d like to think it would be New Balance, because I haven’t worn anything else on my feet since middle school. But if Asics or Adidas or Saucony came in and offered me $10 million more than New Balance, who knows? I like to think I’d turn it down, but again, that’s a lot of money, and I don’t know quite how I’d handle that. Durant, when faced with the decision, made the choice that I hope I’d make.

The economist in me is loudly decrying his actions (surely Nike shoes can’t be $10 million more comfortable than Adidas shoes), but the fan in me is roaring his approval. What can I say? I was a fan before I was an economist.

Also, in case you didn’t notice, Durant wants to endorse a shoe priced in the “mid-range.” Which means he appreciates how hard it is to convince your parents why you need a basketball shoe from a certain player even though it costs $150. He’s trying to be accessible to fans of all types, and I have a lot of respect for that as well. And depending on demand and price elasticities, it’s possible that the economist in me will end up supporting that as well.

So all in all, I’m very impressed by Kevin Durant, and looking forward to next year.