Kevin Durant's future beyond this season remains a mystery, but if he wins a third title in a row, and third consecutive Finals MVP with the stacked Warriors, there's only one destination that might salvage a legacy many will write with an asterisk.
While the Knicks have been a bit of a punchline since 2013, the lone season over their last 19 where they advanced out of the first round of the playoffs, a lot of bread crumbs point toward KD in the Big Apple. That trail got even stronger when Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes dropped this prognostication on Undisputed:
Co-host Jenny Taft wasn't wrong when she introduced Haynes as an expert on the two-time defending champs; Few reporters are as connected to the team as the former ESPN scribe, but a lot of what he said is already pretty well known. Here's his full riff on the matter:
This could get me in trouble. When was the last time the Lakers and the Knicks were relevant at the same time? Some millennials don't even know anything about that, haven't even experienced anything like that. Look, I will say this, the New York Knicks have a very good shot at luring KD away from the Bay area. The reason I say that is his business partner, Rich Kleiman, is based in New York. [Kleiman is] a huge Knicks fan. Their business is based in New York. KD's dad is a big New York Knicks fan. The same allure that LeBron had towards the Los Angeles Lakers—just the building, the culture—the same thing, the same way, I know that KD feels about the Knicks. Now, I will say this. Golden State does have the edge, obviously. But, I think for Golden State Warriors fans—I was arguing about this with a fan recently—it will always be Steph Curry's team. And, if he were to bolt, this wouldn't be a situation like LeBron was with Cleveland. So, I will say the Warriors have the edge, but the Knicks will be in play.
As previously noted, the Kleiman stuff has been covered pretty extensively already. And the idea the Warriors are Steph's team isn't a new idea either, ask any Warriors fan born before the turn of the millennium. But the parallel with LeBron and the Lakers is a new slant on the story, and Haynes is dialed in enough it's worth considering along with the other tidbits laid out.
However, James Dolan still owns the Knicks, and his reprehensible tenure in that role is like an emergency brake on any KD-to-the-Knicks momentum. Unless we hear Durant purchased a JD & the Straight Shot album of his own accord, it's hard to imagine anyone electing to join a team with such a reviled boogeyman controlling the purse strings.
