As you might have heard, Kevin Durant announced yesterday he was joining the Golden State Warriors on a two-year deal. The Warriors come from two consecutive Finals appearances having won one and losing the other in the final minutes of the last-possible, series defining game.

Even though they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, they are widely considered to be the best team in the NBA, still counting with the likes of Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and two-time MVP, Stephen Curry. Durant was MVP in the 2013/14 season in a year the San Antonio Spurs won the title and is considered to be in the top 3 players, after Curry and 4-time MVP LeBron James.

If you visit subs such as r/nba, you will be amazed at the amount of hate Durant is getting from fans (and even journalists and personalities) all over the league, not just from the Thunder, the team he spent 10 years at. They considered his move to GS to be a chicken, "bitch", or soft move since in the NBA, staying with one team and building a title winning squad is morally preferred over joining a death squad, which is probably what Golden State is now. There are rules, in fact, for this to happen. Teams have salary caps which they can't, by any means, surpass to sign players. It's almost like a juiced-up, anti loop-hole version of FFP.

Now where the comparison lies is when you consider players such as Neymar/Suarez, Gundogan, Lewandowski, Hummels, Bale, etc., which join all-star teams in massive deals and most people seem not to care and the ones who do (bar the clubs where they were previously or the clubs they were linked with) seem to approve of such deals by saying "he deserves the move", "it's a step up in his career", "he was meant for that team all along".

What are the factors attributed to these behaviors and reactions when these moves occur? Why does Jamie Vardy get some stick for deciding not to join Arsenal and try to be a part of something in Leicester? Same with a few players who have stayed in their modest teams and rejected bids from top teams?