Longtime NBA players changing teams or retiring

Players synonymous with their cities and their franchises are now gone in a summer of upheaval the NBA has rarely seen, and the teams left behind begin their searches for new identities after saying the hardest of goodbyes.

“You never would’ve been able to convince me a couple years back that Wade wouldn’t finish his career in Miami or Durant would have moved on in his prime from that great Oklahoma City team, or Rose after his MVP year, four years later, he’s not in Chicago anymore,” ESPN/ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy said.

Duncan fell into their lap when the Spurs won the draft lottery in 1997, and head coach Gregg Popovich has long credited that bit of luck for the franchise’s run of success.

Five championships, two MVPs for Duncan, one of the most enduring success stories in American sports.

“Leadership can come from many different areas, but when your best player is the best leader, it’s amazing how everybody else falls in line,” said Minnesota general manager Scott Layden, who was an assistant GM with the Spurs for the previous four seasons.

Bryant beat Duncan out the door by a couple of months, ending 20 colorful seasons with the Lakers with a 60-point outburst in his final game.

Wade left the Heat for his hometown Bulls after 13 seasons and is perhaps the biggest sports hero in Miami history, having delivered three championships to South Beach and serving as an ambassador for the glitzy city by the bay.

Durant stunned the NBA by leaving Oklahoma City for the juggernaut in Oakland, ending a nine-year love affair between the low-key forward and a city he and Russell Westbrook put on the basketball map.

[...] his loss in the locker room, and in the paint, will be hard for the Spurs to overcome.

In some ways, things have only gotten easier for the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, who have met in the NBA Finals the past two seasons.

Durant’s move to Golden State gutted one of the Warriors’ chief rival in the West and assembled perhaps the most potent starting lineup in league history in the Bay Area.