Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are best friends and there have been whispers the two could join forces in New York this summer and try to bring the Knicks back to NBA relevance.
Many wonder why Durant, who has won back-to-back NBA titles and NBA Finals MVP awards with the Warriors, would want to leave the cushy set up he has at Golden State.
Perhaps he’s more like Irving than we know.
In a piece filed to The Athletic on Tuesday, Frank Isola notes the opinion around the league is that the reason Durant would leave Golden State would be the same reason Irving chose to force his way out of Cleveland two summers ago: he no longer wants to play sidekick.
Via Isola:
The dark horse is the Los Angeles Lakers, who struck out on Paul George and Leonard last summer and failed to acquire Davis before the trade deadline. The feeling is that if Durant were to leave the Warriors he would do so to escape the shadow of Stephen Curry. So joining LeBron in L.A. doesn’t make sense.
Durant and Curry appear close on the court, but so did Irving and LeBron James before the former requested a trade to escape King James’ large shadow in Cleveland.
It remains to be seen whether or not Durant will ultimately turn his back on the Warriors and try to be the NBA hero the Big Apple has been yearning for. But if he does choose to join the Knicks, there’s a possibility Irving elects to head to Gotham City as well.
The two stars then will have to decide who is Batman and who is Robin.
