Kevin Durant makes Suns the latest super team pressured to win a championship
PHOENIX SUNS
UPDATED: FEBRUARY 16, 2023 AT 5:34 PM
Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant speaks as owner Mat Ishbia (left) and general manager James Jones (right) during an availability of an NBA basketball team Thursday, February 16, 2023, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Kevin Durant’s official introduction was not a press conference. It wasn’t a pep rally.
It was something of a hybrid. More like a press rally. Or a pep conference.
Whatever we’ve just witnessed, the Suns’ newest superstar seemed genuinely touched by the reception he was given by the roughly 6,000 fans who attended Thursday’s Durant unveiling at the Footprint Center. And he walked away with a pretty good understanding of the hunger that defines us all.
A reporter once asked Durant what it would mean for Phoenix and its legacy to bring a championship to this city.
Before he could reply, a fan from the lower bowl yelled:
“That would mean everything!”
The excitement is already palpable. Likewise the tension. The late Mikal Bridges just dropped 45 points for the Nets, a fresh reminder of how the Suns have mortgaged a large chunk of their future for that elusive championship banner.
That’s OK. Chris Paul is running out of time. The Western Conference is wide open and ready to go. Whatever team emerges from the brutal Eastern Conference will be worn to the bone once the NBA Finals arrive. It’s a great time to swing for the fences.
Besides, there is no future. It’s just a concept. It doesn’t exist and it never arrives. And unfortunately you can’t go back and change the past. Which means the time is only now. Time is always now.
And it’s long overdue for this abandoned franchise to cast out any playoff demons.
“Are we ready?” Suns general manager James Jones asked the crowd.
When Durant finally enters the court, the Suns will have a new target on their backs. In a way, they’re the NBA’s newest superteam, a term that carries malicious connotations. And yet the Suns are the rare super team assembled at the close of trading.
They must find a fast rhythm and microwave identity at a time when other competitors in the west are making a mad dash for the finish line. And we all know how playoff intensity increases dramatically, increasing the risk of injury, especially among older players.
There are also great expectations for a team that emerged from the playoffs last year, and Durant is acutely aware of the pressure he is under to help finish a job that began in 1968.
“It’s pressure because I’m one of the greatest players that has ever played this game,” Durant said, causing a howl of joy from the crowd. “Every time I step on the ground, people expect me to do great things and my team to do great things. But I enjoy getting better as a player every day and just waking up and doing that.
As a legion of young fans poured out of the arena cheering, many of them wearing jerseys of players who were no longer here, one couldn’t help but wonder: will this work? Will this really happen? And how will it feel when the Suns end a 55-year title drought with a team that’s been together 22 games by the time the playoffs arrive? With a team that will have many new faces after the All-Star break, and not just Durant.
Will it feel cheap? Will it feel like a mercenary? Will it feel all wrong, less than and not at all what we expected?
Judging by Thursday’s turnout, it’s going to feel good.
Reach Bickley at [email protected]. Listen to Bickley & Marotta on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.