Remember Silver said Durant going to Golden State isn’t “ideal from the league standpoint.” 

Mark Cuban doesn’t agree.  In fact, he thinks the formation of a super team in the bay is actually a good thing, telling ESPN: “they become the villain.  Just like when LeBron James went to Miami, I loved that there was a villain.  They become the villain.  I’m fine with that.  Everybody’s going to root for them to lose.” 

Cuban’s right and he’s wrong when he says that.  He’s right when he says everyone is going to root against them.  Kevin Durant essentially said as much himself in a recent interview when he admitted, the Warriors are being labelled as “villains’, adding, “obviously people don’t like me right now.”  He’s right.  People don’t like Durant right now.  And they don’t like Golden State right now. 

But GM Bob Myers told us recently, that it’s not even a Durant thing; that’s a success thing.  That’s an oversaturation thing: that if you keep banging someone over the head with how good they are, how good a guy he or they are, no matter how much you like them, it’s inevitably going to swing back the other way at some point.  Because you get so sick of hearing it. 

Myers is right.  That’s what happened to the Warriors: after more than a year, these guys are awesome on the floor and even better off it, folks were like, man enough; I’m sick of hearing it and the only way it’s going to stop is if someone kicks their ass. 

So Cuban’s right; people do hate them now that they’ve added Durant, and they’re the villains, and people will watch them to see them lose.  And that is good for the NBA. 

Where I disagree with Cuban is when he says it’s just like the Heat.  Other than some superstars coming together, it’s really nothing like the Heat. 

The Heat were bags.  The Warriors are class.  The Warriors will not catch the type of heat, vitriol and animosity that scorched the Heat.  Because they never bagged it up like LeBron and the fellas did back then. 

Durant didn’t stab OKC in the heart live on national television the way LeBron did Cleveland.  And then when he showed up in Golden State, he didn’t rise up through the floor, with a smoke machine, and promise not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7 rings: while some dope addressed them as “you three kings.” 

That’s why people hated the Heat so much; and Durant and Golden State didn’t do that.  They would never do that: that was a LeBron, WOW, Bosh, Heat thing. 

So Cuban’s right when he says folks will hate the Warriors: but ‘he’s wrong when he says they’ll hate them the way they did the Heat. 

And I think this is good for the sport.  Don’t tell me you’re not watching the Warriors this year: that you don’t want to see those four on the floor at the same time.  If you don’t like that, you don’t like hoops and you weren’t going to watch any way.