Kevin Durant is his own Achilles heel

Kevin Durant hasn't played in the NBA Finals since 2019 when he was with the Golden State Warriors, but you couldn't avoid him before or during Game 7 of the Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.

Prior to the game, news broke the Durant was traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets for shooting guard Jalen Green, forward Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in this year's draft and five second-round draft picks that are becoming the basketball equivalent of the proverbial "bag of balls" as a worthless return in any baseball trade. When they're handing out second-round draft picks like free samples at a trade show, how valuable can they be?

The news of the imminent trade broke an unwritten rule – or perhaps a written rule — that NBA teams not conduct any business that would detract from the Finals — a particularly important request with the Thunder-Pacers series already already battling a lack-of-interest narrative with low television ratings. For all anyone knew, the Durant trade might have helped the matter. Even if it re-directed the conversation, it probably reminded people that the NBA season isn't over yet. With the NBA, you never know.

But even after Game 7 began and the focus was totally on the Thunder and Pacers playing for the NBA Championship, it wasn't long before Durant again became part of the conversation. Pacers all-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton fell to the floor with a torn right Achilles – ending his night and all but dooming the Pacers to defeat.

It wasn't a random injury. Haliburton had previously been playing through a right calf injury that appeared debilitating in Game 5 before Haliburton gamely overcame the injury to help the Pacers win Game 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. But just when it looked like Haliburton was himself again — or close — he went down early in Game 7 and it was over.

That scenario was painfully similar to what Durant went through with the Warriors in 2019 when they were looking for a third consecutive NBA title. Durant suffered a straight right calf in Game 5 of the Warriors' second-round series against the Rockets.

The Warriors breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't an Achillies and Durant returned for Game 5 of the Finals against the Toronto Raptors at ScotiaBank Arena in Toronto. But 11 minutes into the game, Durant also went down with a ruptured right Achilles and was done for the series. The Warriors — already down 3-1 in the series — won Game 5, but lost Game 6 at home. The Raptors won the title, beginning an NBA-record string of seven different champions that continued regardless of which team won this year.

That Durant was part of the Game 7 story — at least the trade part — was fitting for a league that has thrived on drama, particularly since LeBron James started the superteam era by signing with the Heat in 2010. Durant is supremely, if not uniquely, talented — a terrific, versatile offensive player with a willowy three-point touch who defends well and can match up with almost any player on the floor.

Kevin Durant has drawn undue criticism — like this headline in The Oklahoman while in the midst of a shooting slump during the Thunder's playoff series against the Grizzlies (the sports editor apologized).

The San Francisco Examiner played off the Oklahoman's controversial headline when Durant was the Finals MVP in leading the Warriors to the NBA title in 2017.

But Durant can't seem to avoid the drama that both fuels the NBA but also detracts from it at the same time — and often creates his own. After the Thunder lost a 3-2 series lead and lost to the Warriors in the Western Conference Final in 2016, Durant bolted the Thunder for the Warriors — an overt episode of ring-chasing unbecoming a player of Duran't stature. (Let the record show that while Durant was a huge reason why the Thunder were in position to beat the Warriors, it was his breakdown in the fourth quarter of Game 6 at home — 1-for-7 from the field as the Thunder lost an eight-point lead — that contributed to their demise.)

But if joining the Warriors was poor form, Durant outdid himself by leaving the Warriors. A player who bristled at always being No. 2 and always coming up short was finally with a winner, and it still wasn't enough for him. The Warriors won NBA titles in 2017 and 2018 and Durant was the Finals MVP both times. Durant was 10-0 in playoff series when healthy (40-10 in games) with the Warriors.

And yet, when Durant recovered from the injury, he left the situation he seemingly craved and signed with the Brooklyn Nets. And despite being a top-10 NBA player since the torn Achilles, Durant's career has waned as he finds himself in bad situations — with the Nets in 2020-23 and the Suns in 2023-25 — that his tremendous ability can't overcome. He's played for five coaches in the last four seasons, including some really good ones (Steve Nash, Jacque Vaughn, Monty Williams, Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer.

Since leaving the Warriors, Durant's teams are 2-4 in playoff series and 13-18 in playoff games. He seems like a nice guy, but almost goes out of his way to be miserable. He's sensitive to criticism and not only hears everything but breaks the cardinal rule of professional athletes by responding to some of it. He lets the lunatic fringe get to him. And while the lunatic fringe of criticism admittedly is much more pervasive in the social media era than it used to be, you still have to 1) ignore it; and 2) not let it bother you.

Too many times, Durant fails on both accounts. Even when presented with the positive, he only sees the negative. While appearing at the Fanatics Fest sports collectibles show in New York City this weekend, he was told during an interview with Media Personality Kay Adams that there were "heartbroken" Suns fans after the trade, Durant said, "I doubt it. ... They wanted me to go. I'm glad they got what they wanted and I got what I wanted. We can move on and good luck to them going forward. I'll always remember my time there, but we're on to something else."

Again. The Rockets, who went 50-32 but lost in the first round of the playoffs as the No. 2 seed to the No. 7 seed Warriors (hmmm ...), give Durant another chance to prove he can take a team to a championship level — or further burnish his reputation as a drama-king whose only NBA titles came with a team that won before he got there and after he left.

The Rockets will be Durant's fifth NBA team. Of the top 20 players on the NBA's top-75 list from the 75th Anniversary Team in 2021, Durant is one of just five to play for more than two teams in his NBA career — along with James (4), Wilt Chamberlain (3), Shaquille O'Neal (6) and Moses Malone (8). Durant could become the first to be an all-star with five different teams (Thunder, Warriors, Nets and Suns so far). If that's all he does in Houston, that will be a knock on his career more than a credit to it.