Does Kevin Durant need to compete in the 2020 Olympics? Should he?
Does Kevin Durant have anything else to prove for Team USA?
At 27 years old, it completely makes sense to wonder whether or not Kevin Durant should participate in the 2020 Olympics. We all know Durant just wants to hoop, but the question is, does he NEED to hoop for team USA? Will Team USA need him?
Not one, not two, but three. Durant would be chasing his third gold medal should he elect to play in the 2020 Olympics. Is this necessary? Maybe to Durant, becoming the second player to win 3 gold medals means a lot to him. Or claiming the Team USA scoring title. Maybe he just loves representing his country on a world stage.
He might take a page from Carmelo Anthony’s book and seek to pad his stats and go at another gold medal. Or, he might need more therapy four years down the line. After all, who knows what the NBA landscape will look like in the year 2020.
Maybe this super talented Warriors squad simply will not capture a championship. Or maybe Kevin Durant leaves again to another team Maybe France and Serbia bolster their lineups and pulverize the USA. What if he has a few championships under his belt and decides to take the LeBron approach and rest.
The New York Knicks have been absolutely allergic to the playoffs in recent memory so Melo gets the benefit of the doubt. And unlike Lebron James, Kevin Durant has had a season where his health was a major concern. Such a concern that he was limited to just 27 games. Also, he is not the super human that is Lebron James who has played in six consecutive NBA Finals. Talk about durability.
Durant should take his long term health into account now as he will soon be entering his 30’s. This is even more so the case when it is very likely that over the next few years he will be battling deep into the playoffs. A luxury Carmelo has not had over the last few season.
Whether he wins a championship or not, Durant absolutely has no reason to participate in the 2020 Olympics. At age 31, Durant will have nothing left to prove to the world. Universally recognized as one of the best scorers to ever step into an NBA arena, at 31, Durant should be aiming to take full advantage of his offseason.
Durant is now entering his 10th season in the NBA. He has already logged 28,024 minutes in his career in the regular season and playoffs. With the exception of 2014-2015 where he played just 27 games, the seasons where Durant played at least 90% of the season he averages about 2909 minutes. Meaning over the next 4 seasons, barring injury, he will have logged at least 11,000 minutes (not including playoffs) and will likely be in the top 75 all-time in minutes played. And while he is not yet on the tail end of his career, he is surely getting up there.
I can hardly imagine Team USA needing him in four years. Although they relatively “struggled” compared to the 2012 squad I see no indication saying they will not hoist another gold in 2020. Kyrie Irving, DeMar Derozan, Klay Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan, and the rest will all have 4 seasons to further develop their games and will likely win again. After all, the NBA is loaded with talent.
To conclude, Kevin Durant regardless of his personal desires should take a more humble and intelligent approach to the next Olympic go around. He should take his two medals and call it quits and focus on his health and maintaining his health over the last half of his career.