Kevin Durant did it his way. Good for him.

I'm glad he joined the Golden State Warriors. I'm glad this team has another legitimate shot at all-time greatness. I'm glad another superpower has arisen in an NBA that benefits and accelerates when stars come together.

So, to the haters and critics and former players calling Durant's decision to pair with Steph Curry & Co. cheating, cowardice, weakness or some kind of basketball crime, let me quote another guy who did it his way.

As Frank Sinatra said: "The best revenge is massive success."

Kevin Durant is about to get a heap of both, which alone is reason enough to justify his exit from Oklahoma City for the greener and brighter pastures of Golden State -- green as in money, bright as in the rings he'll start collecting in a year.

No, really. He's probably going to win a lot of championships. After he announced his decision, Bovada put out odds for the upcoming season. The second-most likely team to win the 2017 NBA Championship -- the Cleveland Cavaliers -- opened at 7/2.

The Warriors were 11/5 to win it all in 2017 and 2018.

That is astounding. Think about that.

The Warriors are now more likely to win back-to-back NBA championships than any other team is to win the next one. And Durant isn't a coward or cheater who's riding that stunning wave of possibility. He's a primary reason for it.

Super-villain team? No. Just super team, as in a record-setting 73 wins plus Durant about to equal some mesmerizing and beautiful basketball. And challenge LeBron. And unleash something doggedly great and gritty in the now left-behind Russell Westbrook. And make the West, yet again and even more so, some basketball circle of Dante's version of Hell for any team not utterly awesome.

This is great, great drama.

This whole idea of whether stars can or should cluster together to win a championship has already been litigated in the court of public opinion, throughout the league and in the legacy-building realm of who has and has not won a championship. The debate played out, and ended, with LeBron James and his Miami sojourn.

He went. He grew. He won it all -- twice. Then he left again, where in Cleveland he broke a city's curse and accomplished what seemed impossible -- in terms of that Cavs' crown and the first-ever 3-1 Finals comeback. LeBron is again revered, praised and back on all-time great pursuit. That is now the blueprint.

Verdict: Follow your dreams and leave behind those who would hate you for them.

But try as Durant just did to do so with grace, understanding and a resolve to ignore the hate and not feed it through arrogance or insouciance.

Because it's also true that much of the ridicule and criticism LeBron took back then was about how he left, not that he left. That was certainly true for me. It was "The Decision" that was the problem, not the decision -- how it happened, not that it did.

Kevin Durant is not burdened with that. He's simply a star who left the place that drafted him for a better opportunity. He's leaving a city he loved -- like many of us have -- a city that he needed to leave because what he wanted from life was waiting somewhere else.

He's not leaving his hometown like LeBron did. He's also leaving fans burning his jerseys and ridiculing his departure, as if their beloved team doesn't exist because of heartbreak and betrayal inflicted on Seattle by their owner, who ripped his team from the Emerald City.

Point being, this is not remotely the same as LeBron's first departure for Miami or Oklahoma City stealing Seattle's basketball team. By the way, neither of those happenings were bad -- just part of the game. It's the nature of this business in the NBA, and all the power plays, politics and self-interested decisions that should and will shape its future.

So let's not act like Durant committed some crime. Especially, of all places, in the fine state of Oklahoma.

Durant laid it all out in his brief, honest and well-crafted announcement at The Player's Tribune:

"The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player -- as that has always steered me in the right direction. But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: Moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors."

Good call. Because his game and legacy, like that of Curry and the Warriors, is about to rise to the level of legend.