Barber: Kevin Durant answers the critics and doubters with a game for the ages

OAKLAND

Kevin Durant dribbled out the clock on Monday night at Oracle Arena. He’s been bouncing that ball his whole life, and he kept bouncing it as time ran out on the 2016-17 NBA season. This was his 10th year in the league, and his first that ended as a champion.

When the buzzer sounded on the Warriors’ 129-120 victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals - the clinching game of the “trilogy” - LeBron James, the great Cavalier, made a beeline to Durant and offered what looked to be sincere congratulations. James, like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and other returning members of the Warriors, knows what it’s like to be a champion. James understood what this moment meant to Durant, and what Durant had done to make it possible.

Then the court became a crush of humanity. Players and coaches and relatives of players and NBA reps and camerapeople all flooded onto the floor. It was hard to keep track of individuals. Except Durant, who always seemed to be the center of attention. The cameras stayed on him, and teammate after teammate came to pay their respects.

Wanda Durant stopped by for an embrace, too. No one knows better than Kevin’s mother the hours, the weeks, the years her son stacked one upon the other to earn this opportunity.

As the network crew began to assemble a massive stage on the court, no one looked happier than Kevin Durant. He hopped up and down, hugged Andre Iguodala, hugged assistant coach Bruce Fraser. By the time he climbed to the stage, he had shed his No. 35 jersey and was wearing a black T-shirt.

A little later Durant was announced as NBA Finals most valuable player. His mom gave him a celebratory slap and the crowd - virtually no one had left the arena - serenaded him with chants of “M-V-P!” as he accepted the award from legendary Celtics center Bill Russell.

Finally, Durant was able to exhale.

It’s hard to imagine an athlete playing under more pressure than he did this season. When Durant announced on The Players’ Tribune that he was leaving Oklahoma City to sign with the Warriors, he invited waves of backlash that must have surprised even him.

The reaction of Thunder fans was understandable. He was beloved in OKC, part of the original team that moved from Seattle in 2008, when Durant was only 20. He grew up before the eyes of Oklahoma City, becoming a man with deep connections to local charities. When he left the team, they burned his jerseys and limbered up to boo him when he returned.

But even disinterested observers had problems with Durant’s move. People beefed that his decision was bad for the NBA, that it made the rich richer and diminished competition. On a personal level, some called Durant’s business decision cowardly. He couldn’t beat the Warriors, they said, so he joined them.

It never made much sense; who among us wouldn’t opt for the best job opportunity possible? But it made a lot of noise. And the hubbub only increased when the Warriors won their first 15 games of the postseason, tearing through the rest of the NBA as if were made of wet paper.

Warriors management had constructed a Frankenstein, and Durant was its square head.

All season long, Durant carried this burden stoically, graciously and frequently with humor. Such skinny shoulders to carry so much weight, but it didn’t crush him.

“I mean, he hears what people say,” general manager Bob Myers said in the postgame locker room, which reeked of champagne (Moet & Chandon, only the best for Joe Lacob’s team) and cigars. “But he just wants to play basketball. I’m happy for him. Life doesn’t usually work out. Most times it doesn’t. But for him tonight, it did.”

Then Durant made the long walk to the interview room, stopping in the hallway to have his picture taken with Warriors executive Jerry West.

He carried the Bill Russell MVP Trophy with him, plopping it down on the podium with a “Can I sit this right here?” when he took his seat.

Durant recounted his thoughts when it became apparent the Warriors were going to win.

“Yeah, it was 55 seconds left, and I went over the half-court line and I bent down, and I’m like, is this really happening?” Durant recapped. “And Draymond was like, ‘Keep playing to the end.’ Andre (Iguodala) is like, ‘Keep playing.’ We have like 50 seconds left. And I’m like, ‘Bro, we’re about to win the title.’ ”

He talked about coming to the West Coast and trying not only to assimilate in a team that had been to the two previous NBA Finals, but to help his accomplished teammates get better.

“Proving haters wrong - like, that’s cool. That’s cool for me to talk about it on Instagram or Twitter,” Durant said. “But, like, you don’t concern me. I’m coming in and working every day, seeing how I can be the best teammate I can be, the best player I can be.”

And he dug down a little into the adversity that he created for himself when he decided to sign with the Warriors.

“Yeah, I heard all the narratives throughout the season that I was joining, I was hopping on bandwagons, I was letting everybody else do the work,” Durant said. “But then that was far from the truth. I came in and tried to help my team. Like I said, tried to be myself, be aggressive and sacrifice as well.

“There’s some games I might not get shots, as many shots as I’m used to getting. Some games where Steph is going to go off and hit 13 threes or Klay might hit 60 (points) or Draymond might get a triple-double with no points. But nobody cared, as long as we won.”

By the end, Durant was free-associating, jumping around as he recounted a conversation he’d had with Iguodala.

“I’m talking too much at this point,” he said. “I had a couple too many beers. I haven’t had a beer since February. So to have a beer right now and come talk to you guys, it feels great.”

Then the MVP of the 2017 NBA Finals was unfolding his impossibly long frame and leaving with the trophy. He snapped a selfie with the usher outside the door and headed out to the court one last time. Before he got there, though, he allowed himself one final, silent fist pump. Durant has done so much to please and to contradict those around him. That gesture seemed purely for him.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter:?@Skinny_Post.