Jae Crowder hasn’t gotten over the fact that Kevin Durant chose the Warriors over the Celtics, and he’s letting his opinions on the matter be known.
He had assumed that if Durant were to leave Oklahoma City, it would be for an up-and-coming team with the potential to topple Golden State and Cleveland as the premier teams in the NBA.
Not only was Crowder upset at Durant’s decision to join a “super team”, but he elaborated on how the Celtics based their recruiting pitch around how they were able to beat both the Warriors and Cavaliers on their home courts.
“We were the only team in the league to beat [Golden State and Cleveland] on their home court,” Crowder said. “We told him that. We played him clips from both games and told him basically the scouting report of how we guarded Steph and Klay- our entire game plan, basically.”
Crowder is angry that the Celtics gave Durant what he’s clearly viewing as insider information and then joining the team it was meant to exploit.
Kid asks Jae Crowder toughest player to guard. Says Kevin Durant. Fans boo. Crowder: "Yeah, I'm with you guys."
— Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) July 21, 2016
First of all, Crowder is acting as if the Celtics are the only team in the league with the technological capability to film games. Anybody in the league has access to that footage, so it’s not as if the Celtics possess this secret key to stopping the Splash Brothers.
Second of all, it’s laughable that a team bases their pitch around 2 games out of an 82 game regular season to try to lure a superstar like Durant.
The Celtics lost in the first round of the playoffs last year. They were going up against a team in Golden State that won 73 games, a San Antonio squad that won 67 games and has one of the greatest coaches of all time, and an Oklahoma City Thunder team that could not only offer Durant way more money than other organizations, but were talented enough to come a game away from an NBA Finals berth.
The Celtics are certainly a team on the rise, and play in a weaker Eastern Conference landscape, but Crowder is delusional when he doesn’t acknowledge the unlikelihood that Durant was going to chose the Celtics.
The fact that he’s acting as indignant as he is over Durant not choosing the Celtics is a bit ridiculous. Durant didn’t owe Boston anything. He was gracious enough to have a meeting with them. He wasn’t obligated to join Boston just because they told him “secrets” to how to beat the Warriors. That was their choice, and it wasn’t even information that other people couldn’t already access through game tape.
If Crowder is bitter about Durant taking the “easy way out” by joining the Warriors, it’s pure jealousy, because if there was a way that Durant could get out of his contract with the Warriors and join the Celtics tomorrow, Crowder would surely embrace the guy who he has been attacking the character of with open arms.
The Warriors are going to have a huge target on their backs this entire season, and these Crowder comments are going to make the Warriors games against the Celtics even more interesting.