NBA Oklahoma City Thunder

2014-15 Season Will Define the Rest of Kevin Durant’s Career

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By @DSchultz89

Kevin Durant NBA Oklahoma City Thunder

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Superstar Kevin Durant had the busiest offseason of his NBA career this past summer. The Oklahoma City Thunder star signed a 10-year contract with Nike which will reportedly net him around $300 million dollars, he played for Team USA before pulling out due to personal reasons, and he is also filming a reality TV show that will be broadcast on HBO.

Durant is taking the next step to enhance his brand, and you cannot blame him considering he is the reigning MVP. But for a guy who has a track record of being quiet and shying away from the limelight, this has been a surprising, eventful summer. In fact, you could argue that all this activity in this offseason is preparing him for possibly the biggest year of his life.

Unfortunately, it was announced earlier today that he will miss up to 6-8 weeks with a fracture in his right foot. Even before the start of the season, Durant is already facing conflict. At 26 years old and entering the second to last season in his contract, this year is already shaping up to be the biggest one in Durant’s career.

Individually, he has already accomplished pretty much everything a franchise could want from their franchise player. He was the Rookie of the Year in 2008, a five-time All-Star and four-time NBA scoring champion. It seemed as though he was destined to get back to the NBA Finals again after he won the MVP this past year, but ultimately he and the Thunder came up short against the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.

Considering Durant made the Finals for the first time when he was just 23 years old in 2012, when his Thunder were dismissed in five games by the Miami Heat, many expected to see return showings to this same stage, only with different results for KD.

But this has not happened yet, and with the Thunder losing some of their depth over the years, especially when they traded James Harden to the Houston Rockets before the 2012-13 season, many are questioning whether Durant will win a championship in Oklahoma City. In fact, rumors are already swirling that Durant, just like LeBron James, might leave to play for his hometown in 2016.

Durant is originally from the Washington D.C. area, and the Washington Wizards have already begun making a push for him after hiring his old high school basketball coach David Adkins during the summer. The cards are on the table, and the Wizards will throw everything at Durant when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2016.

Of course, a championship in 2014-15 would change all of this.

In my opinion, it is championship or bust for Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and the rest of the Thunder. The team had some leverage this past season despite losing to the Spurs after Ibaka missed the first two games of the Western Conference Finals due to injury. However, as long as everyone is healthy during the playoffs, Durant and the Thunder should believe that they have no excuse not to come out of the West with the talent they have on their roster.

I still see the Thunder being able to hold steady at the beginning of the season with Westbrook at the helms while Durant heals from his injury, and I think once he is healthy, Durant will start his season with a bang.

This upcoming season will be the defining season in Durant’s career. Will he come back strong from this injury and finally capture that elusive title? Or will he suffer another disappointing exit, sending him searching for answers about his future in Oklahoma city?

He now faces the biggest challenge of his career yet, and it will be fascinating to see if he rises to the occasion.

Dan Schultz is an NBA sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @dschultz89. “Like” him on Facebook and add him on Google.

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