By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In the aftermath of Kevin Durant reaching an agreement to stay with the Brooklyn Nets after a long (and rather dramatic) trade saga, Charles Barkley ripped the 12-time All-Star forward, questioning his leadership qualities and dubbing him “Mr. Miserable”
In an interview on the Brickley & Marmotta show of Arizona Sports, Barkley heavily criticized Durant’s behavior from his days in Oklahoma to his current stint in Brooklyn, and said that his legacy will ultimately be defined by whether he can get another championship or not.
Here’s what Barkley said on KD and his legacy:
“It depends on if he wins again. He piggybacked on the Warriors to win his first two championships. But if you go back and look at his career as the best player, being a leader and all that goes with that, he’s been an abject failure. Every time he’s been the guy who has to be the leader and the best player, he doesn’t have success… Until he becomes a leader and best player on the championship team, Unless, he has to deal with all the responsibility, all the media stuff that goes with it, and expectations. But man, he just seems like a miserable person man. I call him Mr. Miserable. He’s never going to be happy.
Everybody’s given him everything on a silver platter. He was the man in Oklahoma City, they loved him, he owned the entire state. He bolts on them and wins back-to-back championships [with Golden State], and he’s still not happy. Then he goes to Brooklyn, they give him everything he wants and he’s still miserable.”
Regardless of how the remainder of Durant’s career goes, it’s a fact that he has already established himself as one of the best to ever play the game and that he has secured his place in the Basketball Hall of Fame a long time ago.
Durant indeed won his two championship rings as a member of a star-stacked Warriors team but he was named Finals MVP in both cases. He was also a season MVP with the Thunder and led the team to the Finals in 2012 where his team lost to a much more stronger and experienced Miami Heat squad.