I live in New York City. Unfortunately, sometimes I turn on the sports talk blah blah blah radio, you know just for kicks and for the accents. It’s a mishmash of screaming, hot takes, and more screaming. New York sports radio is basically like living in an echo chamber of regret, surrounded by bad teams.

But there’s one thing that keeps coming up and coming up and being rehashed and reworked and oh man, I’m not sure if I can take it anymore.

Seriously, if I hear one more person say that the Warriors, with Kevin Durant, are “ruining basketball,” I’m gonna shave my head, put my fist through a brick wall, and tear out my own heart Indiana Jones style.

RUINING BASKETBALL??

Really?

Ugh, you people disgust me.

When Durant joined the Warriors, he did so because he wanted to get away from Russell Westbrook’s stupid ballhog ways. Did you see how Westbrook played this year? That was so boring! Yeah, sure, the dude put up a triple double. Okay, whatever. That’s the statistical equivalent of [edited so I don’t get fired] in front of a mirror by yourself. The Thunder were overmatched, eventually bowing out in the first round to the frickin Rockets. Durant wanted to get away from that situation, wanted to come to a place where he would be loved and respected, and where he knew his game and his own life could grow and thrive.

Draymond: If you shooting well. Your PG will get you the ball.



KD: Don't tease me man. Seriously? I'm not used to this. pic.twitter.com/znODsrGH7K — justin (@WeNotSocks) May 21, 2017

Hahahahahahaha, oh man. That meme is never getting old. But, yeah. C’mon. We saw a bunch of years of Westbrook and Durant. They made it the Finals once, lost to LeBron, and then stupidly (SOOOOOO STUPIDLY) gave up on their young core and traded James Harden away. Ugh. Stupid. So stupid. You really wanted to see four more years of that? Really??

Are you saying you want the Warriors to be more like the Oklahoma City Thunder? You’d rather they don’t have good players? You’d rather they panic-trade, say, Draymond Green for nothing because the owner is cheap and doesn’t want to go into the luxury tax?

Hell no. I don’t want that, and neither do you. Not as a Warriors fan, obviously, but also not as a student and fan of the game, either.

The Warriors have been built by masterful hands. They drafted Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson. Sure, they convinced Durant to join them, just as they convinced Andre Iguodala to join them, but the key here is that those guys wanted to be here. They wanted to come to this team because they saw a future where the ball was shared, the shots were shared, and people played loose, free, and easy.

C’mon! You’re telling me you’d rather Harrison Barnes was still on the team? Or would you rather Cohan still owned the team? Or are you telling me you’d rather Mark Jackson was still here running his dumb ass boring plays? You’d rather that?! Just for the sake of “league parity?!”

Y’all are crazy.

Ugh.

There’s precedent here. When LeBron James left Cleveland and joined forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, I was one of the few people who was frickin stoked. You wanna know why? I am a basketball fan, first and foremost. I want to see GOOD BASKETBALL. I want to see things on the court that I’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. I want to be amazed. I want to be enthralled. LeBron and Wade and Bosh gave us four straight years of super interesting basketball! I mean, seriously, this was some of the most heart wrenching, gut wrenching stuff I’ve ever seen!

I remember watching that game live and quite literally falling out of my chair when Ray Allen hit that shot. C’mon! If you hated that, you hate life. In fact, if you’re still hating on the Warriors or on the Heat, or whatever, go hate somewhere else. I don’t want you here. Your anger and misunderstanding really turn me off.

Ugh.

Kevin Durant did not ruin basketball by coming west to join the Warriors. If anything, he freed himself from a downwards-trending cycle of failure and regret that he’d been experiencing for years in Oklahoma City. The town only loved him for what he represented, which was relevancy. They had a ticket to the big boy table, suddenly, with two super marketable guys in their prime sharing the court. As soon as he spread his wings — dreamed to imagine a world where the ball was shared, where he could pursue his own life goals in a gorgeous, sunny place near the ocean — the fans turned on him. They wore cupcake costumes. They hurled slurs at him. They burned his jersey. You want more of that? Really? Just for the sake of “league parity?” Not me. Nope. No way. We saw how Westbrook and Durant panned out. Why not wish to see something new, something different?

I am a basketball fan, first and foremost. I want to see GOOD BASKETBALL. I want to see things on the court that I’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. I want to be amazed. I want to be enthralled.

You’re telling me you wish you could have forced Kevin Durant to make a career decision that wouldn’t best suit his needs, either on the court or in life? Just so you could pretend that there is meaning and balance in the world? If we’ve seen anything these past few months, it’s that there is no balance, anywhere.

Everything is out of whack. Everyone is confused. The world is burning and y’all are complaining about the Warriors? But, at least there’s a few teams — a few squads — out there being dope AF. We don’t have much these days, but at least we have the hope and ever increasing chance of seeing a third straight Cavaliers/Warriors Finals.

You’re telling me you don’t wanna see that? You’re telling me you are bored?

Ugh.

Stop being bored and open your eyes. We are witnessing some of the most magnificent basketball, ever. Stop complaining and soak in the reality that we may never see a team like this again. No matter if you are a Warriors fan, Knicks fan, Cavs fan, whatever: As basketball fans, we should embrace the Warriors. They are on another level. It’s like a fever dream come to life.

Sit down, shut up, and let’s see what happens.