CLEVELAND — Ski goggles hanging around his neck, black “Back 2 Back Champions” T-shirt covered in so much Moet Champagne that the residue dripped into every handshake, Kevin Durant was prepared for his press junket victory lap Friday night with his NBA Finals MVP trophy in one hand and a small of bottle of Modelo in the other. When he realized that one of those items probably wasn’t going to travel well, Durant took a giant swig of beer, placed the half-empty bottle on a table and commenced to gloating about having flipped the league upside down once again with the Golden State Warriors’ 108-85 Game 4 victory.

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Where the first time as a champion was an overwhelming, difficult-to-process moment, the second time gave Durant the opportunity to let loose and inhale the joyful fumes of a more hard-earned victory. Durant spotted David West, raised his hand for a high five and shouted, “Two-time!” When Draymond Green crept in from behind to interrupt Durant’s interview for “Good Morning America” with a pom-pom mimicking, pump-it-up dance, Durant looked over his shoulder, laughed and started doing the same move. And, when he finished his podium session with reporters, Durant paused with his father, Wayne Pratt, to watch a Nike commercial that captured his journey from running that high hill in his hometown of Seat Pleasant, Maryland, to capturing a second NBA championship.

These moments, this unbridled happiness, are only part of what Durant had hoped to experience when he made the still-controversial decision to join the Golden State Warriors in 2016. Durant has gained so much more with the move — personally, intellectually, entrepreneurially and beyond — that he has stopped wasting his time worrying about how others feel about the move. Though well aware of the complaints, Durant is prepared with better retorts instead of heartfelt defenses. So, go ahead and tell him he took the easy-resistance setting to these titles. Tell him that he somehow ruined the NBA.

“My responsibility is to my skills. My responsibility is to myself,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “I’m not worried about the NBA. That’s their job. They make too much money. They ain’t paying me enough to dictate the NBA. I should be making more money if all that’s on me. My responsibility is to whatever team I play for. All that other stuff, that’s on y’all.”

Two Larry O’Brien trophies into an experiment to determine whether a superstar-laden NBA team can function without traditional, alpha-male dominance or dissension, the Durant-infused Warriors remain difficult to digest for some observers. Golden State has gone 8-1 in the past two Finals and became the ninth team to sweep its opponent on this stage — and the first franchise to record two sweeps. But instead of accepting the dominance, the Warriors have had to experience pushback — sometimes from current and former players — about being so good that they’re bad for the league.

Never mind that two franchises own 33 of the 72 championships in the history of the league, or that the Warriors needed to rally from a 15-point deficit on the road in Game 7 in the Western Conference finals to even have a chance to beat LeBron James for the third time in four years.

The Warriors don’t have to be embraced — fans can side with or against whatever they choose. A backlash generally follows sustained success, and Golden State was accumulating haters before Durant added another layer of resentment. But to Durant, being a part of a superteam with four All-Stars and two former MVPs probably doesn’t feel so odd when his previous organization, Oklahoma City, once had three future MVPs on the same roster before financial concerns led to a premature — and now regrettable — breakup after that trio’s only Finals appearance together in 2012. With ambitious owner Joe Lacob willing to do what’s needed to make sure the Warriors stay on top for as long as possible, Durant sees no reason to leave.

“The Bay Area allows me to be who I am, as a city, to just blend in, and the team allows me to do the same thing,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “All I want to do in my life, while I’m healthy, is to work on my game and enjoy the game and not worry about nothing else. This place gives me that. This is the best place for me to just play ball, work on my game, play ball, and not care about [expletive] that normal NBA superstars are supposed to care about.”

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