Here’s a fun fact: Stephen Curry has never been swept in the postseason.
Now, he’s certainly lost in the postseason. And yes, he and the Warriors failed to make it last season from the play-in tournament.
But not even when he was a fresh-faced third-year player in 2013 has Curry exited a postseason series in four games.
Kevin Durant carried that same distinction until Monday night, when his Brooklyn Nets were swept out of their first-round series against the Boston Celtics.
Now, when I say that the Nets are Durant’s team, I don’t mean that in a cavalier statement to acknowledge his on-court excellence.
No, the Nets are Durant’s team. In a way that only LeBron James can match, Durant’s sway in Brooklyn is unchecked.
The head coach was his guy. The front office does his bidding. And so you can lay this embarrassing first-round exit at his feet.
As former Bay Area News Group Warriors beat writer Wes Goldberg told me on my KNBR show Monday night — “there’s a difference between player empowerment and player entitlement.”
You can make the argument that Durant and his hand-picked cohorts Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons have all crossed that line.
And if the conversations around this league cannot progress above consistently comparing Steph Curry to Durant, then we need to also acknowledge that Curry has never once come close to crossing that line between empowerment and entitlement.
Perhaps that’s why the Warriors sit one win away from the second round, looking at a road to the NBA Finals that is much smoother than it appeared to be only a few weeks ago.
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Nets were a bold experiment in the history of the NBA. One that, to this point, has miserably failed.
Three years ago, Nets owner Joe Tsai and his general manager Sean Marks, in an effort for market relevancy that is yet to come, made Durant and Irving a deal they could not refuse:
Here’s an NBA team. You might not own it, but you two will call the shots. And since Irving’s head has seemingly been anywhere but on the court, it’s really Durant’s team.
Tsai and Marks must have seen the Heat’s success with LeBron James and the Warriors’ success after that and thought, “Building a super team can’t be that hard.”
Acquire shot creators, put a laid-back but competitive guy named Steve in charge, and fill the rest of the roster with role players who want to live in New York and play for the minimum.
If only it was that easy.
Now, Durant was unable to play that first year in Brooklyn because of his Achilles tendon tear. Irving only played 20 games because of a shoulder injury.
But what is the Nets’ excuse for their postseason failures the last two years? How can they explain away the fact that the trio of Durant, Irving and James Harden played 16 games and won one playoff series together before Harden decided he wanted out of Brooklyn one year after arriving?
Surely Durant and Irving would never blame themselves for their team’s shortcomings.
And while Durant is smart enough to not give away the game, his partner in basketball crime, Irving, had no problem copping Monday night:
“When I say I’m here with Kevin, I think that it really entails us managing this franchise together alongside Joe and Sean,” Irving said after the Nets’ Game 4 loss. “Just our group of family members that we have in our locker room, in our organization.”
Could you imagine Curry saying such a thing?
The Warriors guard has serious sway with the organization. More than he lets on, in fact. But the only time there has been any real angst with or around the Warriors since he became one of the league’s top players came when Durant was around.
No, I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
And no matter what level of control a player has over a team, star players set the culture for their teams the NBA. It’s natural.
But winning is hard. It takes incredible talent, no doubt, but it also takes selflessness that is becoming ever rarer in today’s league; hell, in today’s day and age.
It still exists, in guys like Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo — brilliant players who are happy to play the role of superstar, but who don’t need to be showered with credit for their team’s success. These are players who empower others, not just themselves. They trust other people in the organization to do their jobs, too.
They are talented to the point of being truly indispensable, but they’re also smart enough to know the truth:
They can have anything they want in this world. But no one — not even Curry or Durant — can have everything they want.
Perhaps the Nets will figure it all out in the years to come. I’m skeptical.
Perhaps this is as good as it gets for the Warriors with Curry on the back nine of his career. We’ll see.
But when the two great players parted ways, I don’t think anyone foresaw this future with the Nets a perennial disappointment (if they’re making anyone feel anything at all) and the Warriors, after a couple of truly lean years, back in a position to seriously contend for a title.
Durant should have his number in the rafters at Chase Center. In Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, too.
But if you’re wondering why Curry will have the statue out front of the arena one day — probably with Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, because that’s how he rolls — this season, the difference in these two teams, is why.
