No offense Kevin Durant, but NBA playoffs are better without you

If couches had feelings, I would have gone to jail for assault. The date was May 28, 2016, and the Warriors were playing the Thunder in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. A few months earlier, my love affair with Golden State had officially commenced.

The Dubs were an organically produced super team that had revolutionized basketball. They had a 6-foot-3 wizard in Stephen Curry who had morphed into the league’s best player.

Nothing about them was manufactured. Everything about them was exhilarating. So when it looked as if OKC might knock them out of the playoffs, my newly purchased piece of furniture took a beating with every shot.

If you don’t remember, that was the game in which Klay Thompson hit 10 three-pointers to lead the Warriors back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter. They’d go on to win Game 7 before falling to the Cavs in an equally epic series.

I didn’t mind the loss. I just wanted the ride. And I figured I’d be getting it for several years to come.

Then Kevin Durant came along … and ruined everything.

I imagine that Durant is Seattle’s favorite active basketball player. He shined as a rookie with the Sonics and speaks fondly of this city whenever he’s asked about it.

But when one of the league’s top three players joined a team that just went 73-9, it wiped the suspense out of the NBA.

The next two years were predictable. The Warriors went 16-1 in the playoffs in 2017 and 16-5 the next year. They’d open up as a better-than-even money favorite to win the championship every season.

There’d still be highlights, controversy and blowups from Curry or Thompson — but my couch never felt a thing. This was the epitome of manufactured.

That’s why Durant’s latest injury might be the best thing to happen to basketball this postseason. I never root for a player to get hurt, but if it were to happen, I’d want it to be a mild calf strain on a guy who’s already won two titles and was likely to coast to a third.

Did you see Game 6 against the Rockets on Friday? That was everything that drew the world to the Warriors in the first place.

Thompson scored 21 in the first half and knocked down seven threes. Curry dropped 33 in the second half after scoring zero in the first. Everyone who had deemed them underdogs had forgotten that this was the nucleus that won a title five seasons ago before notching 73 wins.

I believe that this is the Warriors group that most people want to see. I believe that I’m not alone in thinking that adding Durant was good for the Bay Area but bad for basketball.

The quality of the NBA has never been better. The only thing it was missing was parity. Now, if only for a few games, it has it.

I don’t want this to come across as a personal attack on KD. He seems like a good dude who regularly endears himself to Seattle. He donned a Sonics jersey when the Warriors played here this preseason. He helped renovate a basketball court at Powell Barnett Park.

I understand why he would want to join an uber-talented team in a big city after repeatedly falling short in Oklahoma City. But that doesn’t mean I agree with the decision.

Early reports say that Durant could come back to the Warriors by Game 5 or 6 of the conference finals.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind if it were longer.

The former Sonic may very well be the best basketball player in the world. But right now, basketball is better without him.