In 2016, a NBA championship means nothing.

The dust had hardly settled on a historically brilliant 2016 Finals, where LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame the Golden State Warriors (and one very meaningful Draymond Green crotch shot) to capture every team’s ultimate goal, the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

It was honestly an incredible series and even as a neutral when it came to the two participants, that Game 7 was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had as a sports fan.

‘The Block’, ‘The Shot’, LeBron’s otherworldly efforts, it had it all. Cleveland broke the curse and proves God doesn’t hate their city.

The celebration, the disappointment and the far-too-close-to-the-moment assessments of what it all ‘meant’ in NBA history, was all consuming as a basketball fan… for about a couple of days.

Without even getting to the end of the same working week, we had moved on. The NBA Draft was on the agenda, where young up and comers are dealt out like poker chips. They were dealt to the teams they’ll spend anywhere from the amount of time it takes to quickly waive their contract for an extra roster spot to the next two decades, carving out a career in a notoriously cutthroat business.

Then? The mad circus of NBA Free Agency.

I personally go nutty for this stuff, speculating how a bunch of 20 to 30 year olds simply deciding where they want to work will change the landscape of a multi-billion dollar industry. It sounds arbitrary, but it is fun hoping, finding out each signing as its announced and pretending to have an idea what the next player will decide and what it means for the season to come.

What made this year’s iteration so interesting was a superstar, Kevin Durant, had a decision to make, the likes of which would shift the state of the league the likes of which we haven’t seen since LeBron came home to Ohio in 2014.

The rumblings from the collective NBA organisation and fan-base have been getting louder the closer we’ve drawn to it, as teams were added and tossed from the decision making (sorry Lakers, Knicks and Wizards). The Heat, Celtics, Clippers and Spurs were all apparently were in with a shot, made great pitches and ultimately couldn’t convince Durant their desired situation was his best one. It came down to two on the eve of Kevin’s version of The Decision.

Thunder or Warriors? Loyalty or winning at a new level?

Home-grown hero or potential dynasty?

Wait, stop, why are the Warriors – a 73-win, record-setting, horrible-fourth-quarter-cold-streak-that-cost-a-second-championship-having team – even able to be in with a shot at Durant without gutting their team like Starks at a Game of Thrones wedding?

A $25 million dollar cap spike, unprecedented and even ill-advised since the NBA asked the Player’s Association to spread the rise out but were refused. Stephen Curry’s (although appropriate at the time given injury history) now absurdly cheap contract and a bunch of departing but inconsequential free agents. These things left Golden State with the remaining flexibility to add a top three player to a historically good roster.

Golden State’s proposal, spearheaded by good friends Curry and Andre Igoudala, played out over the last year as they were in his ear about joining, preaching the clearly successful organisational culture, team-focussed approach and the improved off-the-court opportunities.

The deciding factors in Durant choosing to leave the Thunder and running mate Westbrook were, seemingly, a phone call from NBA great Jerry West about how his finals losses haunt him to this day.

Then there were three questions posed by the Warriors. “How many championships do you think we can win without you? How many can you win without us? How many can we win together?”

In the end, as many of us NBA fans preach despite its Catch-22, only championships matter and that competitive mindset, fixed on ultimate victory at any cost, was why the Warriors could really be the only team to catch Durant’s interest.

Given the epic series that played out between the Thunder and the Warriors barely a month ago, I have to admit I thought Durant would stay.

The Thunder had a watershed moment breaking through against the favoured Spurs and were 3-1 up in the seven-game series before Golden State ultimately rode an avalanche of three pointers from Thompson and Curry. They were three games of the inefficient isolation-heavy offence we thought OKC had finally grown away from, into the NBA Finals.

The defeat was painful and avoidable, but being so close to victory yielded promising signs for the Thunder so the majority of us thought there was enough for at least one more go around of the Russ and KD show.

Apparently not. That Game 6 may go down as a historic NBA game for more reasons than we thought.

Kevin Durant is a Golden State Warrior, along with his new super friends in Curry, Thompson, Green and Igoudala. This turns the much hyped ‘Death Lineup’ into basically a supernova of basketball destruction by replacing the middling Harrison Barnes.

The team has holes for sure. Outside of the four stars, recently signed Zaza Pachulia, the backup point in Livingston and a bunch of question-marked rookies, the roster is a blank canvas with no cap space to speak of – although I’m sure you’ll find a long list of capable guys lining up to help out at the veteran’s minimum.

Still, never has a player this good, a 7-foot, scarily efficient and monstrously effective scorer and recent MVP, joined a team nearly this spectacular.

The result will be obviously uncertain. The last two super teams – in the ‘Big 3’ Celtics and Heat – gelled as vastly different speeds so probably putting the brakes on any undefeated season talk is a good start.

A championship ring will be expected, not aspired for, and widespread ridicule will meet any outcome short of that.

This undeniably incredible collection of talent on one team is exactly the outcome the league tried to avoid during the 2011 CBA negotiation, motivated mainly by the intense backlash from owners, players and fans alike at the Heat’s coalition of three superstars.

It didn’t work and the mountain of fortunate outcomes for the Warriors have led them to assemble a line-up that makes that Miami team look pedestrian by comparison. Two of the top three players and arguably four of the top 15. A ‘Big 4’ whose like has not been seen since the stacked Lakers-Celtics match-ups of the 1980s.

Aside from any on-court achievements to come, the most significant thing Durant might have done is trigger another lockout as the owners will surely call for another method to stop such star hoarding by any one team in the future.

Kevin Durant handled his free agency with unparalleled grace and professionalism this year, giving his all for the Thunder, as he consistently has the last nine years, to the bitter end.

He did not give other teams false hope, he heard out the organisations he felt would harbour the best situation for him and he announced his decision in a classy, if manufactured, letter in the Player’s Tribune, but not before calling his former GM, Sam Presti, to inform him first.

A 27-year-old man performed his job as well as anyone has performed at any job, he assisted the transition of an infant Thunder organisation (after his rookie season played out in the team’s final year in Seattle) to create a winning culture, was a huge presence in the community with philanthropic work and fulfilled every contractual requirement asked of him.

He then decided to change his place of work to give him the best situation to succeed while being completely within his rights to do so. Wouldn’t you do the same?

The narrative that will be peddled in the coming days, weeks and months, and one being driven toxically right now by some members of the media and NBA fan-base, is that Durant is “weak”, “soft”, “traitorous” and “a coward” for leaving the Thunder in search of greener pastures.

He should have stayed and built his legacy with one franchise like Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson before him.

The talk that he was irreversibly damaging his legacy. He should have continued with his successful but clearly tumultuous relationship with Russell Westbrook to finally get this 1-2 punch over the line, even though Westbrook’s free agency next year meant there was no long term assurances in Oklahoma.

Never mind that the value of championships in NBA circles vastly overshadows the entire body of work of players’ careers, or the millions of dollars at stake for players and organisations in their pursuit of them. Karl Malone, the NBA’s second-place all-time scorer and third all-time win leader – who played the majority of his career in small market Utah without winning a championship – does not come up in ‘Greatest of All Time’ discussions nearly as much as his champion peers of equal ability.

There are those sports professionals who fit the description of ‘coward’, but those come in the form of drug cheats, domestic abusers, rapists and perpetuators of violence who also happen to be pretty good at sport.

This criticism of character is inappropriate for Durant, from all accounts a kind and generous human being. This character assault has happened before, when LeBron’s infamous decision rocked the basketball world, when he was judged a villain for lacking “loyalty, toughness and the willingness to win a championship himself.”

The narrative at the time conveniently forgot the utterly horrible job the Cleveland front office had done in surrounding him with any supporting talent, as no player has ever won the title without a strong supporting cast. We forgave him for the perceived ring chasing the moment he won and was hailed as the greatest player of his generation of bringing a title back to his hometown Cavs. The backlash for Durant will last only as long as it takes to bring success to the Bay Area.

Comparisons to the mindset of stars gone by are irrelevant in this new team-first era of great teams. Anyone really want to go back to watching 10-million iso plays of Kobe and Iverson? If so, be my guest. Durant is neither morally right or wrong here; he made a professional decision to exploit a tiny window to join a tremendous team without losing anything financially in the midst of his prime.

Narrative wise, the loss in the Finals also helps as now, he is the missing piece in the Golden State Warriors’ pursuit of greatness, rather than a title chaser along for the three-peat.

Now, the other 29 teams are left to stare in awe, confusion in how to topple the new juggernaut and just how pointless pursuing a championship might feel for the next three – five years.

The Thunder was both an incredibly fun and perplexing team to observe as they achieved some incredible highs, reaching four of last six Western Conference Finals. They had some tough periods populated with painful playoff losses, horribly-timed injuries and the bad luck of facing historically-dominant competition at every turn.

Led by Durant and Westbrook, this team had the ability to excite and frustrate like few others of the modern era. The trade of their third-best player, James Harden, for financial reasons will cast a shadow over this team’s legacy as the turning point toward this breakup.

Ultimately, it might go down as one of the best to never reach the ultimate promised land, but to can’t knock the two stars for effort, as they left it all out there on court.

Durant going to the Warriors should change your perception of him, that’s human and that’s natural. A guy who once stated his frustration at players teaming up and avoiding being competitive, pulling this move is obviously contradictory to what many of us thought would result in Durant wanting to win it on his own terms.

That was in 2010 though, and the challenges he’s faced on the court have clearly changed him as a player and man in many different ways.

As fans, we hold franchise stars to a double standard of loyalty that doesn’t apply to any other stakeholders in the sporting realm. We would never accuse an organisation of betrayal for making moves to better the team’s position to win or a role player who has yet to chase champagne for taking less money to join a contender, these things are often applauded.

I’m hardly crying for the plight of public opinion for millionaires who play a child’s game for a living, but those with the opportunity to maximise their happiness in this life by choosing their situation to live and work in should be free to do so.

While working through adversity to achieve something for one franchise should be rightfully celebrated, Durant made the smartest basketball, financial – Nike must be salivating – and personal decision for him, and does not owe anyone anything. The Thunder might have given him a shot at the one achievement he desires above all else, but the Warriors virtually guaranteed it.

In 2016, an NBA championship means everything.