Why Can’t the N.B.A. Move On from Its Old Stars?
Kevin Durant was drafted, second overall, by the Seattle SuperSonics, a team that ceased to exist seventeen years ago. After his rookie season, the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City, where they were renamed the Thunder. Since then, his influence has shaped not only every franchise he has been a part of, but the entire league. This is easily seen on the court: When he arrived in the NBA, big men were still primarily hitters. He was long and slender, with the grace and finesse of a guard; there was some confusion as to what position he should play. Today, the league is filled with talented big men who can pass, shoot and defend, and who cannot be easily stopped or shoehorned. Durant has been a protagonist in various narratives that have dominated conversations around the league, particularly those regarding team loyalty, individual action, how certain personalities interact and what motivates players. That such stories – not closer discussions of tactics or plus-minus estimates or anything –did seem to mean so much to so many people, depending on who you asked, for better or worse.
Durant, for his part, was often exasperated by the way he was portrayed. But he was never able to completely shake his protagonist status, and it’s not even clear if he wanted to. He became an MVP playing for the Thunder before turning a great Golden State Warriors team into a dynasty, then ending the reign by decamping for the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets were a disaster and his next team, the Phoenix Suns, failed even more dramatically. The way he played was never to blame: he always moved like water, with the same capacity for stillness or torrential force. Off the field, he has pursued media projects with his entertainment company, Boardroom, and pursued other interests, including responding to internet trolls. He likes the “dopamine hit” that comes from clapping, he explained. “It’s like my morning coffee.”
Last Tuesday on NBA opening night, Durant made his debut for the Houston Rockets. His teammates are young and on the rise, after a season of fifty-two victories, with eleven players under thirty, including three starters twenty-three or younger. Durant is thirty-seven years old. Much was made of how much his teammates would learn from his elite example: how to train, how to eat, how to rest, how to compete. But he’s not there just to teach. The Rockets signed Durant to a two-year, ninety million dollar extension – a team-friendly deal, sure, but the kind of money you pay the player you expect will always be the best on your roster. The Rockets are betting that Durant, despite being well past the retirement age of most players, can elevate them to true title contenders. He makes some things feasible, including a lineup full of bigs that the team’s coach, Ime Udoka, has started using, in an effort to thwart teams with more normal statures. I admit, however, that the narrative possibilities seem even more enticing to me. It’s an unpredictable chapter in the life of a complicated and fascinating man.
The outsized importance of the league’s longest-tenured stars is nothing new. LeBron James will be forty-one this year. Stephen Curry is thirty-seven years old and will play for the Warriors alongside Al Horford (thirty-nine), Jimmy Butler (thirty-six), and Draymond Green (thirty-five). And the Warriors aren’t even the oldest team in the league; that would be the Los Angeles Clippers, God help them. Athletes in many sports have extended their careers, placing greater emphasis on nutrition, training techniques and financial incentives. But the trend seems particularly visible right now in basketball.
This is surprising given the way the league is evolving. The pace of the game becomes more and more difficult. More and more teams are playing full-court defense and trapping ball handlers. These strategies favor fresh legs and less worn bodies, younger players who can endure the long regular season and hold up in the spring.
And several dominant players arrived in the league after the James-Curry-Durant cohort: Giannis Antetokounmpo, now thirty years old, was an unstoppable force. Nikola Jokić, also in his thirties, is widely considered the best player in the league. The current MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is twenty-seven years old, and Luka Dončić, one of the favorites to become the next MVP, is twenty-six years old. The champion Thunder’s average age is 25.6 this year, almost eight years younger than the Clippers — and the team the Thunder beat in the Finals, the Indiana Pacers, also played a rotation composed almost entirely of players thirty and under. The Thunder are the consensus choice to win the championship again this season.
