Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry
 

Sorry, Drake. You already have an outdated lyric on Views, released April 29, in "Weston Road Flows."

"A lot of people just hit me up when my name is mentioned,
Shout out to KD we relate we get the same attention,
It's rainin' money, Oklahoma City Thunder,
The most successful rapper 35 and under."

According to Genius, an annotation of this lyric explains "the biggest names in their respective cities have a friendly relationship."

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook

Well, not anymore.

Durant has left Oklahoma City, where he was perhaps the town's most famous resident. He was even offered a cabinet position in the state of Oklahoma if he had stayed with the Thunder.

And yet, Durant is not hated.

Sure, there are some jersey burners and Stephen A. Smith gave his hot take. But the basketball world is not turning Durant into the villain it turned LeBron James when The King went to Miami.

Let's get this straight: Durant going to the Warriors is more savage than James going to the Heat. In 2010, the Heat were coming off a first-round playoff exit to the Celtics. As a trio, James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were big names, but unproven together. The Heat, which did not even have the best record in the Eastern Conference during the Big Three's first season together, lost to Dallas in the 2011 Finals.

Durant is joining a team that just set the record for regular-season wins, won a championship in 2014-15 and made a second straight NBA Finals. The Warriors already had three 2016 All-Stars, four former All-Stars and the two-time reigning MVP. Steve Kerr won the 2015-16 Coach of the Year Award and was not even on the bench for a half season.

Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant

One day after the Cavs knocked off the Warriors in Game 7, while J.R. Smith was waving his shirt at a Las Vegas club, 2017 NBA title odds came out. The Warriors were favorites at 3-2 odds. On Monday, those odds jumped to 2-3. Meanwhile, the Thunder's odds went from 8-1, opening at fourth, to 30-1.

So why don't we hate Kevin Durant? He left Russell Westbrook out to dry. He left Oklahoma City out to dry. He left NBA parity out to dry.

Because America loves the Warriors. A December piece by the San Francisco Chronicle, "Warriors’ popularity sweeping nation, world," revealed the following details:

--On Nov. 27, the largest Black Friday sales day in NBAstore.com history, seven of the top 10 items sold were pieces of Warriors merchandise. On the following Cyber Monday, six of the top 10 items sold were Stephen Curry-specific.

--As of December, the Warriors' Facebook page had increased in likes from 700,000 to 5 million. The Warriors were No. 1 in "talked about NBA teams" on Facebook with about 1.4 million fans. At the time, that was 500,000 ahead of Kobe Bryant's Lakers.

--The Warriors became the first NBA team to surpass 2 million Instagram followers in October.

--Sales of Stephen Curry merchandise increased 453 percent in the first two weeks of the 2015-16 season compared with 2014-15. His jersey sales increased 581 percent.

Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green

--AskMen.com ranked Curry the most influential man in the world, ahead of Pope Francis, LeBron James and Barack Obama, among others. Three of the NBA's most popular jerseys are those of Warriors: Curry (No. 1), Klay Thompson (5) and Draymond Green (15). Durant ranked No. 11.

The gist is the Warriors are currently America's Team. Americans love an underdog, and at the start of this run, that is what the Warriors were.

Golden State built an NBA power out of the draft and savvy business moves. Going back to his high school days, when he could not land a scholarship at Virginia Tech, Curry was under-appreciated. Derrick Williams, Jan Vesely and Jimmer Fredette were all selected before Klay Thompson in 2011. Draymond Green dropped all the way to the second round in 2012. When the Warriors began their rise in fall 2014, they were a young group with a rookie head coach and a recent history of mostly futility.

The Warriors are the American Dream. A powerhouse was constructed out of hard work and maybe a little luck.

The reward is Kevin Durant, a competitor who recognizes the value of this brand. The Wall Street Journal's Sports Twitter captured the Durant news in clever form, writing: "Talented Millennial Accepts High-Paying Job Offer From Innovative Bay Area Company." It is the truth. The Warriors are the Apple or Google or Facebook of the NBA.

Kevin Durant

Let's be real. The Thunder overachieved last season with 55 wins -- 12 fewer than the Spurs and 18 fewer than the Warriors. The team hit a spurt in the playoffs, sneaking up on the Spurs and nearly knocking off the Warriors. But even if Durant returned to Oklahoma City, his team would have been the underdog behind the Warriors and Spurs. He still would have been expected to lose. His personal brand would have still been aligned with that of a weaker franchise.

So he went to the sexier and more substantive team. He rewarded himself -- not in maximizing his dollars, but in enhancing his brand value for nine years of NBA stardom. While James left his home city, Durant leaves a town he was gifted to in 2008. He sacrifices a shot at enjoying the fulfillment of bringing a title to the franchise that devoted a decade to him. But he has also earned the opportunity to find an easier path to a ring, even if it comes less personal glory.

"The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player — as that has always steered me in the right direction," Durant wrote in The Players' Tribune on Monday. "But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man."

Basketball is a business, and for Durant, this decision is not just about putting a ball in a net. It is about public perception, brand equity and personal stress. Durant found Oakland to be the destination that best accommodates all three.

The NBA's most exciting team just added another entertainer. It is hard to complain about that. And besides, we already got all our anger out at the first superteam. Durant can thank James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for that, just as he can thank LeBron for protecting him from fan blowback. After the disastrous way that LeBron executed The Decision, there was almost nothing Durant could've done to make the fans hate him, even if he had opted to go to a team without the insane popularity of the Warriors.

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Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.