Kevin Durant is 27 years old. Don't forget that. Here is a former NBA MVP who is widely considered one of the three best players in the world, hitting free agency and changing teams to go to a powerhouse. This does not happen very often.
Let's be more specific. It's happened eight other times in NBA history — well, minus the part where the in-his-prime super-duperstar is going to a 73-win team.
Sporting News' Adi Joseph examined the entire history of the NBA to pick the 25 best players to change teams in their primes. (That meant double-counting a few players, LeBron James and Wilt Chamberlain most prominent.) The debate is fascinating, though, because all these free agency signings and trades were absolutely monumentous — as big as Durant's, in some cases.
Special thanks for some contextual help to Basketball-Reference and ProHoopsHistory.net, which is run by SN contributor Curtis Harris. Also special thanks to the dozens of NBA history books that we've read over the years, and to SN's Sean Deveney, David Steele and Mike DeCourcy, who helped compile the list that you can read by sliding right now.
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