2014 NBA MVP, Kevin Durant recently withdrew from the Team USA FIBA World Cup of Basketball team. Durant’s news came shortly after Indiana Pacers forward Paul George broke/fractured his leg. George was forced to miss not only the remainder of the FIBA World Cup of Basketball but it forces him to miss the entire 2014-15 NBA season.
Durant has a deal with Under Armour on the table which could be as big as 10 year/325 million dollars. A big jump from his current seven year/60 million dollar deal with Nike that expired recently.
Durant’s future is so bright that there are a few factors that are going to be heavily affected by this decision. Durant’s choice to leave Team USA is shocking of course, but it makes sense to an extent.
A player of Durant’s caliber CAN NOT risk anything at all by playing in a tournament that is not the Olympics. Granted, playing overseas and in these world cups do help every players star power overseas. Every player travels overseas and plays different international teams and players and when they do, the different regions they play in, go insane for the NBA players. The international appeal is there and with international appeal, brings big international money.
The problem with that is playing in this tournament may be, in some aspects, beneath KD. The team is very young and new to international play. There are only two other players besides Durant that had a gold medal from the 2012 team in James Harden and Anthony Davis. Davis is still only 21 years old and James Harden had something to prove a little bit coming Into these games. Harden now, with Durant leaving, has become the new leader of Team USA.
Durant feels compassion when it comes to Team USA and leaving the team in a statement he released.
“This was an extremely difficult decision as I take great pride in representing our country. I know that I owe it to my USA Basketball teammates to be totally invested in the experience. After going through training camp with USAB, I realized I could not fulfill my responsibilities to the team from both a time and energy standpoint. I need to take a step back and take some time away, both mentally and physically in order to prepare for the upcoming NBA season. I will be rooting for USAB and look forward to future opportunities with them.”
Replacing a former scoring champion and MVP is not easy but Coach Mike Krzyzewski and Director of Team USA basketball Jerry Colangelo came to an agreement to bring in Sacramento Kings forward Rudy Gay to try and supplement the losses of both Durant and George. Team USA still is highlighted by players like Harden, Davis, another former MVP Derrick Rose who himself is recovering from injury and Stephen Curry. The talent is there, that’s for sure, but can it dominate like fans of Team USA are used to? Against teams like Brazil, host country Spain, Greece, Lithuania and Australia, it sure will be a challenge.
The final piece to this confusing yet understandable Durant puzzle is his potentially new deal with Under Armour. This is one HUGE contract, so it would be understandable as to why Durant would want to take a step back and re-evaluate what is going on in his career.
Now the talks of Durant returning to the Baltimore/Washington DC area are very interesting and the fact that Under Armour’s main office is located in Baltimore adds another nice little piece to the “Durant Return” puzzle that is far from finished. Under Armour’s contract offer might have sent Durant a message to seriously step back and not risk it, not risk the money he can potentially make when healthy. Granted, injuries can happen at any time, anywhere doing anything as small as moving a box. Now that doesn’t mean risk it all by playing in a tournament that in the grand scheme of things might not be an intricate part of Durant’s career when it’s all over.
Making over 30 million dollars a year included with what will absolutely be a max contract in a few years sets Durant up to make a ton of money, especially when healthy.
