Durant takes a pass on proving himself

Some like to compete.
Some just want to win.
Yes, there is a difference.
A competitor is someone who lives to test himself. If he is the best, he wants to remain the best. If he isn’t, he wants to work to find a way to beat the best. A loss is not a failure, but simply an opportunity to learn what can be done better next time in order to change the result.
For those who just want to win, it’s not about the test. They are only concerned about the outcome. Rather than finding a way to beat the best, they’d rather join forces with the best. It’s not about proving themselves or getting better. It’s just about the result.
Of course, this is all about Kevin Durant.
Let’s first be clear, Durant did nothing wrong. He’s a free agent. He can sign with whatever team he wants for whatever reason he wants.
The Golden State Warriors also did nothing wrong. Who can fault them for wanting to bring in one of the most talented players in the NBA?
It just goes against everything a competitor stands for.
In the past, struggling against the best before becoming the best was a right of passage.
The Detroit Pistons had to struggle against the showtime Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics before breaking through to win a title. Michael Jordan’s Bulls had to battle through each of the aforementioned squads.
And yes, there are those teams that struggled, but never got there. The Cleveland Cavaliers had great teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s but were unable to overcome the Bulls. Patrick Ewing’s Knicks and Reggie Miller’s Pacers suffered the same fate.
There’s something noble, however, in the effort. We can’t always be the best. But we can always benefit from the effort.
This building of super teams, superstars teaming up together rather than going through the struggle, betrays that ethic.
This, of course, isn’t the first time such players have teamed up in an effort to win a championship.
Karl Malone and Gary Payton went to the Lakers to team up with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.  Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen (both via trade) joined Paul Pierce in Boston. LeBron James bolted Cleveland to “take his talents to South Beach.”
Each of those left a bad taste in the mouths of most who weren’t already fans of the Lakers, Celtics and Heat.
But this takes it to the next level.
Malone, Payton, Garnett and Allen were all relatively late in their careers when they made their moves. The Celtics and Heat created what they felt would be super teams, but neither was already established as one of the best in the NBA.
Durant has taken this a step further.
He is not old. Though he’s been in the league for about a decade, he’s still only 27.
And the Warriors are not coming off of a 24-58 season or a first-round playoff loss, as the Celtics and Heat respectively were. No, they just put together the best regular season in NBA history and came one win, and perhaps one Draymond Green suspension, from a second consecutive NBA title.
So what we have is a top-five NBA player passing on the opportunity to prove he’s the best and instead joining an already stacked squad.
Golden State was already one of the favorites to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2016-17. This move — assuming Durant signs later this week — makes the Warriors the clear team to beat.
And as much as a competitor might hate to see Durant taking the easy way out, it also creates an opportunity. 
After all, the Kobe, Shaq, Malone, Payton Lakers didn’t win an NBA title, getting swept by the Detroit Pistons. The James, Wade, Bosh Heat lost to Dallas in their first trip to the finals together.
True competitors upstaged fabricated “winners.”
That opportunity is there again, created by Durant taking his talents to the Bay Area.
It’s a chance for the rest of the NBA to test itself.
It’s a chance to go toe-to-toe with the team everyone thinks is the best and prove them wrong.
It’s a chance to compete.