Shohei Ohtani announced Saturday that he will sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers on a free transfer. He will receive a 10-year, $700 million contract, the largest guaranteed contract in professional sports.After Ohtani’s pick was announced, Kevin Durant began trending on the social media site X. In particular, the phrase “KD to the Warriors” began trending.
For what? People compared Ohtani’s decision to sign with the Dodgers to Durant’s 2016 decision to join the Warriors.To be fair, some of these responses were responses to a request for people to weigh in on Ohtani’s basketball decision. Contrary to what people think, there is no comparison between what Durant did and what Ohtani is doing.Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder nearly beat the Warriors in the conference finals before KD left OKC to join Golden State. He was close to eliminating them on his own team with Russell Westbrook. So if he joins the team that eliminated him, that would obviously be much better. On the other hand, with Ohtani on the team, the Angels not only failed to reach the playoffs once, but they never had a winning season. He won the MVP award in 2023 and the Angels still finished the game 73-89. To be fair, some of these responses were responses to a call for people to weigh in on Ohtani’s basketball decision.Contrary to what people think, there is no comparison between what Durant did and what Ohtani is doing.Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder nearly beat the Warriors in the conference finals before KD left OKC to join Golden State. He was close to eliminating them on his own team with Russell Westbrook. So if he joins the team that eliminated him, that would obviously be much better. On the other hand, with Ohtani on the team, the Angels not only failed to reach the playoffs once, but they never had a winning season. He won the MVP award in 2023 and the Angels still finished the game 73-89.In basketball, stars dominate the game much more than in baseball. When you have three stars on the same team, like the Warriors did with Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, it’s over. Even if one or two of their players have a bad game, they still have enough stars to make up the deficit and win the same game. In baseball, a better pitcher can eliminate a number of stars. Your best baseball players still fail to score 7 times out of 10. You can add as many stars as you want, but the probability of winning a championship in baseball is still not as high as in basketball . Dodgers stars Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts were excellent during the regular season. But in the small sample size of a five-game playoff series, anything can happen. Freeman and Betts fell to Arizona in the playoffs this year and the Dodgers were eliminated.Over the course of Ohtani’s 10-year contract, the Dodgers are expected to win one or two World Series. However, it is completely unrealistic to expect a run like the Warriors’.
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