Kevin Durant on the start, we continue our little files concerning the events that marked the career of the winger with the Nets. Today, focus on the match that might have changed everything, Game 7 once morest the Bucks during the 2021 Playoffs says the match of the “excess size”. Let’s imagine for a moment a scenario where KD didn’t walk the line.
For those who have forgotten this famous match between Milwaukee and Brooklyn, we give you a quick summary. We are playing the Eastern Conference semi-finals in 2021 and the Bucks / Nets duo are neck and neck with a seventh round to play in… Brooklyn. The meeting keeps its promises and we then arrive at the last possession. Brooklyn is down two points but has the ball to tie. The game of feints and screens does not bring any delay but the ball finally arrives in the hands of Kevin Durant. Well taken by PJ Tucker, the winger will take us out with a shot as difficult as it is legendary to put his team in front with one second from the end of the game. Before ? No because Kevin Durant’s toe touches the 3-point line and the Nets just tie the game. The extension which will follow will turn to the advantage of the Bucks, which will then spin towards the title a few weeks later.
KEVIN DURANT FUCKING SHIT pic.twitter.com/FubjSIGLYg
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) June 20, 2021
So why talk regarding this match on July 8, 2022? Quite simply because we think that the scenario might have been very different if fate had turned in favor of the Nets during this Game 7. If Kevin Durant does not bite the line, Brooklyn finds himself at +1 with only one second to play on time. Isn’t it the future champion Bucks who goes by the wayside then? If so, it’s the Nets who find Trae Young and the Hawks in the Conference Finals and potentially the Suns in the NBA Finals. Obviously, we can’t redo the past, but this shoot opens up a new range of scenarios, including seeing the Nets become NBA champions in 2021. And if so, isn’t everything different? James Harden has his first ring and he doesn’t need to go so fast where the grass looks greener, Kevin Durant has proven he can win a title without being at the Warriors, that makes a hell of a difference. Even if Kyrie refuses the vaccine and complicates things for the defense of the title in 2022, the essentials are already assured for each other. Afterwards, we can say a lot of things by rewriting history with “if”. It’s possible that Chris Paul and the Suns will take care of the Nets in the Finals and that the mess of this 2021-22 season will happen once more but with a slightly different prequel, huh. We leave the lovers of the what if enjoy.
What if Kevin Durant hadn’t walked the line in Game 7 once morest the Bucks in 2021? Would the Nets have been champions? Would we meet a year later with everyone jumping ship in Brooklyn? Amazing how a shoe size can make a big difference sometimes.
