MIAMI - Welcome, Kevin Durant, to LeBron James 's world. Enjoy yourself, while being mindful of every competitive stumble. Someone is liable to knock you over, kick you when you're down.
The N.B.A.'s worst-kept secret since Donald Sterling was revealed to be undeserving of an N.A.A.C.P. award was made official Tuesday when Durant was named the most valuable player for the 2013-14 season. In claiming 119 of 125 first-place votes, Durant prevented James from winning the league's most prestigious individual honor for the third straight season and fifth time over all.
'He deserved it for sure, big time on his part,' a gracious James said before attending to more pressing matters, the continuing pursuit of a third straight championship, with the Nets in town for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
As Durant demonstrated with an emotional acceptance speech, it's career-affirming to be voted, in effect, the best player in the world, at least for the duration of an 82-game N.B.A. regular season. But accompanying that prestige is a heightened scrutiny, a demand from critics for the recipient to prove he's worth it in the playoffs.
Thank goodness, for Durant's sake, that he pulled the Thunder back from the brink of first-round elimination in Memphis last weekend, or there would have been some serious defense played at Tuesday's news conference in Oklahoma City.
For those anointed as the N.B.A.'s most gifted and talented, there is only so much patience when it comes to the deliverance of a title, only so much time allowed to get everything - the right teammates, conditions and coaching - in order. That most of these players turn professional as teenagers is of little consequence against unrealistic expectations established for them - until they learn to set their own.
'Expectations for me have always been about winning and being a leader to my teammates around me every day,' James said. 'There are no days off when you want to be the best and want to be a leader.'
This is James at 29, as the proud owner of two championship rings. Back when he carried an otherwise pedestrian Cleveland team to the league finals in his fourth season out of high school, he was deified despite a San Antonio sweep. But when the next three seasons produced his first two M.V.P. awards and three stinging Eastern Conference playoff failures - two at the hands of Boston's taunting tandem of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett - James, in his mid-20s, was treated by many as a failed monarch, a counterfeit king.
Like James, Durant was hailed for leading the Thunder to the finals relatively early in his career, in his fifth year, only to fall in five games to James and the Heat. Without his injured co-star, Russell Westbrook, he got a pass for losing in the second round last season to Memphis. But the anvil of accountability was about to land on Durant's head, mocked as he was by The Oklahoman newspaper as 'Mr. Unreliable' for playing poorly last week in a Game 5 defeat to Memphis at home.
Durant, a humble assassin, thanked his critics for motivating him to do better.
'He's the M.V.P., there's more expectation now, more pressure on him,' said the Nets' Shaun Livingston, who played parts of two seasons with the still-developing Thunder in 2009. 'But I don't think he's a guy that has trouble performing under the lights.'
That said, the Thunder were routed by Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers to open their Western Conference semifinal on Monday night. The shine could soon come off the trophy.
It wasn't always this way for N.B.A. elites. Back in the day, Jerry West lost in eight of his nine finals appearances. His nickname, mind you, was Mr. Clutch.
In an expanded and watered-down league, the best players could be isolated and exposed on teams without enough supporting talent. And even on those with greater depth, the standard for how much the franchise star should shoulder was distorted by the shoe-company-affected coverage of the Michael Jordan dynasty years in Chicago. Jordan's more than capable teammates - including the Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen - were derided as the supporting cast, or, worse, as Jordanaires.
There are times, of course, when a leading man must command the spotlight, carry the day. James did that two years ago in the Eastern Conference finals, carrying the Heat to the same kind of season-saving victory at Boston in Game 6 that Durant had in Memphis. In their black Nets uniforms, the old Celtics warriors, Pierce and Garnett, are no doubt hoping to coax some deep-seated James insecurities to the fore over the next two weeks.
Good luck with that. Consecutive titles have made James exceedingly self-assured, the most valuable persona.
'I think he loves that responsibility, that challenge and everything that comes with it,' Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. 'It's a game, but he truly treats it as a profession, the time and thought he puts into it, his commitment to it, and when you win an award because of that work, it's gratifying.'
That is how Livingston described Durant, saying: 'I saw Kevin's work ethic firsthand. I just have an incredible amount of respect for what he puts in his craft. He a guy who's a great talent, but because of his work ethic, it puts him in an elite field.'
All true, well and good. But if Durant - who watched video of James's first acceptance speech before making his own - falls short of the finals as the newly knighted M.V.P., he can expect a few unflattering comparisons to James. And if James should fail to win a third straight title, he will surely be reminded that Jordan did it twice.
'Everybody's journey is different,' James said when asked about what came with his M.V.P. trophies. 'I can only comment on what I went through.'
Without elaborating, he sure made it sound like a burden as much as a blessing. Fair or not, it's the world they live in, the terms of being the chosen ones. Win it all, or else.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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