How Durant’s decision affect the NBA’s social network
With just a month until the NBA season opener, many basketball fans will be boycotting the ‘17-‘18 season due to a decision made by one Kevin Durant back in July 4, 2016 to join the Golden State Warriors. On its surface, his decision to join a team that had just broken the NBA record for most regular season wins and almost won a championship without Durant’s assistance may seem cowardice, selfish and weak, but there is more to this than meets the eye. His departure shifted the social network paradigm among NBA fans and their star players. Fans who once admired Durant found rooting against him and cheering for his enemies on the court, namely LeBron James and former teammate Russell Westbrook. The same can be said for the other way around, where Golden State fans, who disliked Durant and LeBron, were quick to embrace their novel player and continue to hate LeBron. Beyond the fans’ relationship and feelings toward their stars, we also have players’ relationships being affected as well.
LeBron, who recognizes Kevin’s greatness on the court, never saw Durant as a huge threat to his legacy, given that Durant always had trouble making his team greater than the sum of its parts, thus never beating James in the Finals. However, LeBron had lost to Stephen Curry, the point guard of the Golden State Warriors, that previous year and in fact felt threaten by him. Once Durant joined the Warriors, fans of LeBron’s disliked Durant, yet Durant and LeBron are still friends. Furthermore, LeBron has a negative relationship with Curry and a positive relationship with Durant, yet Durant and Curry have a positive relationship with one another. Both of these relationships turned from balanced to imbalanced.
In addition, we have Westbrook, the former teammate of Durant’s. Most fans saw Durant’s departure as a betrayal and turned against him. Russell also felt the same way for most of the season until nearing end when there were alleged rumors that they had reconcile their friendship. This resulted in an imbalance social network, leaving fans confused and feeling strange.
In conclusion Durant’s decision has had a catastrophic impact in the NBA’s network paradigm, turning balanced relationships to imbalanced ones. We have yet to see whether this is good for the NBA or not.