Draymond Green responds to Paul Pierce’s criticism of Kevin Durant: ‘No one cares what you did’

Kevin Durant’s decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder and join the Golden State Warriors was obviously going to get some blowback. NBA players didn’t hide their surprise when Durant announced his choice. The latest NBA legend to take Durant to task is Paul Pierce, who chalked it up to this generation’s lack of competitiveness.

“I’m an old-school guy,” Pierce said on Sirius XM Radio. “I’m a competitor. I never believed that - when you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. That’s always been something that’s driven me. Today’s day and age, a lot of these guys are friends. That’s like if Bird decided to go play with Magic or something. These guys, I think the competition makes the game what is.

“And Oklahoma, I felt like, was a contending team. They had Golden State on the ropes. I understand when you have great players on losing teams who are tired of losing, struggling in the playoffs every year. You’re the lone star. I’ve been in that position. I could have left Boston years ago, but I stuck it out. I just feel like when you’re that close, as a competitor, you don’t go join the team that just put you out.”

The circumstances surrounding Durant’s signing really opened him up for this kind of criticism, so it’s not surprising to hear this from Pierce. Most would say it’s understandable that he’s experiencing some backlash for it.

Not Draymond Green, though.

Durant’s new teammates told Pierce that “no one cares” what he did and used a tortured Silicon Valley metaphor to defend Durant’s decision:

“Nobody complain when somebody leave Apple and go to Google,” Green said, according to the Mercury News. “Aren’t they in competition with each other? Nobody talk junk about the CEO who leaves Apple and goes to Google. As a basketball player, you are the CEO of a business. You are a business. Kevin Durant is a big business. He is the CEO of that business. So him going to play basketball for a different team, the CEO decided to leave where he was at and go somewhere else.

“But there’s so many guys in this league that are so stupid they don’t think like that. They don’t think business wise.”

Green and Pierce disagree, but they are making the same mistake. While Apple and Google could be considered equals, the Warriors and the Thunder aren’t. Oklahoma City had a 3-1 lead in the conference finals, but Golden State came back thanks to its superior talent and depth. They managed to add Durant without losing any of their stars because they also had more cap flexibility. They have the edge in ownership and coaching, as well.

Durant’s decision seems more in line with someone leaving Lyft for Uber than Google for Apple.

If that’s the case, then Pierce’s criticism rings hollow and a little hypocritical. He also tried to get himself to a better situation at one point by threatening to ask for a trade if Danny Ainge failed to get him veteran help in 2007.

“I’m not talking about winning a few more games,” Pierce told the Boston Globe’s Jackie MacMullan in March of 2007. “I’m talking about getting into the playoffs, going deep into the playoffs. I don’t want to be a team that just sneaks in. I want to be on a team that everyone says before the season, ‘This is a team that’s going somewhere,’ like Detroit.”

Four months after he said that, the Boston Celtics added Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and Pierce didn’t have to worry about being called a ring-chaser. Had he gotten his wish and joined the Dallas Mavericks after asking Mark Cuban to trade for him, as he told The Vertical’s Chris Mannix (27-minute mark), his reputation would have been different. He certainly wouldn’t be criticizing Durant for changing teams.

Durant’s decision will continue to be debated endlessly. It was just unprecedented for a star to join the superteam that ousted him so deep in the playoffs. Dismissing any questions about his competitiveness outright, like Green did, seems disingenuous.

Yet it’s also curious that players who have themselves used their leverage to team up with stars typically come down so hard on others who are doing exactly the same.

Unfortunately, it’s guaranteed to keep happening unless Durant manages to change the conversation with his play.