NBA alternate reality: 17 ripple effects of KD's sneaker on the line - ESPN

Kevin Durant's career arc is littered with what-ifs. What if the Portland Trail Blazers had selected him first in the 2007 draft instead of Greg Oden? What if the Seattle SuperSonics hadn't moved after Durant's rookie season? What if the Oklahoma City Thunder hadn't traded James Harden after making the Finals? What if Durant hadn't signed with the 73-win Golden State Warriors? What if he hadn't ruptured his Achilles in the 2019 Finals?

Durant hasn't returned to the conference finals since that injury and his subsequent departure from Golden State. But he has continued to reach milestones in the meantime: Earlier this season, the 37-year-old Durant passed Wilt Chamberlain and Dirk Nowitzki to move into sixth place on the career scoring leaderboard, and fifth-place Michael Jordan is only 158 points away.

There's an additional, more recent what-if on the long list of hinge points in Durant's career. Five years ago this spring, trailing by two points in Game 7 of the Brooklyn Nets' second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, Durant made a 23-foot turnaround jumper with his foot on the 3-point line and one second left. Durant was playing without injured teammate Kyrie Irving and was sharing the floor with a compromised Harden, who was dealing with a hamstring injury. Durant never rested in Game 7 and scored 48 points. But after his jumper tied the score, the Bucks won in overtime, en route to raising the Larry O'Brien Trophy a month later.

But what if Durant's foot hadn't touched the line? What if he wore properly sized sneakers instead of going one size too big, and what if his turnaround had been worth three points and clinched a dramatic victory for Brooklyn?

In reality, Durant, Harden and Irving played only two more