Jerry West says Adam Silver's aversion of Durant's turn to Warriors is "harsh grapes"

"I don't believe it's useful for the alliance, just to be truly clear. I will say whoever is the restrictive top choice, have a go at advising that to the 430 different players who aren't on those two groups. That is to say, we have the best accumulation of ball players on the planet in our class, as I'm not making any forecasts, but rather doubtlessly, when you total a gathering of extraordinary players, they have a superior possibility of winning than numerous different groups… . In any case, just to be totally clear, I don't believe that is perfect from a group point of view. That is to say, for me as I talked about before, a portion of it is planning an aggregate haggling understanding that empowers the dispersion of awesome players all through the group."

That was NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, discussing Kevin Durant's turn this late spring to the Golden State Warriors. Silver is basically the voice of the proprietors, he works for them. He went ahead to say he and the proprietors would like to alter a portion of the "peculiarities" in the framework to keep a hotshot from heading off to a 73-win group.

Jerry West, the Golden State advisor who did his part in the pitch to Durant, is having none of that. West was on The TK Show, a podcast facilitated by San Jose Mercury News sports journalist Tim Kawakami. Here are West's remarks (cap tip Zach Harper at CBS).

"It's sharp grapes. We (when he was with the Lakers) marked Shaquille O'Neal and it wasn't as large a commotion as this. Tune in, the proprietors make the principles. They arrange with the players. Furthermore, for them to say something to that effect, to me it's wrong on their part. The magistrate said something to that effect and I called him about it. I let him know I didn't think the remark was reasonable. It's not reasonable to Kevin. It's not reasonable to the Warriors. It's not reasonable to any group going ahead who will sign a free operator of this stature.

"The players anticipated this. They have an opportunity to go play where they need to. I just wish I had that open door in my vocation and I'm certain a considerable measure of other individuals felt the same way."

For the record, there wasn't free office in the NBA, as we comprehend it, until 1988 (which is the reason you never saw Magic or Bird or Bill Russell, and so forth leave in their prime — they were trapped). West would never have left the Lakers.

West is right. Both that there were some acrid grapes from different proprietors, and that what Durant did was well inside his rights as a player. He earned the privilege to be a free operator and go where he needed to go, play with who he needed as partners. Much the same as you or me, he ought to have the privilege to change workplaces in the event that he needs.

However, that is by all account not the only protestation of proprietors — they like smoothing out the ability pool. The moves of the last CBA were to a great extent about keeping another LeBron-time Heat group from shaping. We can get into how this is misinformed — the NBA has been at its most famous when there are maybe a couple prevailing groups — yet it is the thing that proprietors need since they think accomplishment in the NBA ought to be simpler than it is. The dissatisfaction from fans — that Durant took the simple course to a title — likewise presumably bothers West, who might be upbeat to tell everybody exactly that it is so difficult to win a ring.

No one is truly scrutinizing Durant's entitlement to do what he did — including Silver. The Commissioner said in that same articulation Durant had earned the privilege to be a free operator and settle on his decision. It's simply that the proprietors didn't care for it.