Kevin Durant earned a lot of hate and criticism after signing with the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016. After spending nine years with the Oklahoma City Thunder -making one trip to the NBA Finals in 2012-, Durant was tired of not finding the same success he had during that magical season.
He joined a team with three stars, raising a lot of eyebrows around the league. The Warriors went to three straight NBA Finals with KD on the roster, making it five total. They already were a dangerous team in the association, but the 2014 NBA MVP believed he needed to go to the Bay to help those ‘underdogs.’
Talking on “Million Dollaz Worth,” the 2x NBA champion made a controversial claim, saying he perceived the Dubs as underdogs. This was a key reason to go there and join forces with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green (27:15).
The organization never been a winning organization. When I was in the league, nobody liked Golden State. So, it felt still like an underdog to me. Because I’m looking at the totality of the franchise. I ain’t looking at what happened these last five years. You’ve never been a perennial winner in the NBA – from the 50s on up. So, I’m like, “D***, that’s an underdog franchise to me. This feels good,” like, “S***, this feels like where I’m supposed to be.” It ain’t L.A. It ain’t New York. It feel like where I’m supposed to be. And I think they’re going to give me that experience that I want, that run of like, “S***, we’re about to go on a run trying to win 16 games.” I wanted that feeling again. We did that s*** three times. I was on that high three times. Man, s***, I don’t want to go nowhere else. I wanted to do nothing else in the NBA besides go on a run like that. We might not win it. But to know we can go on a run to be one of the last teams, that s*** is fun.
Well, it’s hard to agree with KD on this one. The Warriors were a 73-9 team the prior season; they had won the NBA championship in 2015, so they were anything but an underdog.
Kevin Durant has played in superteams during his entire career, getting a lot of help since he was a young player. His tenure with the Warriors wasn’t the exception.
Still, that move paid off, and he became a champion, winning two Finals MVP in the process. Nevertheless, this remains one of the most controversial free agency moves in NBA history. Even after five years, people are still talking about Durant’s decision to join the team that had previously beaten him.
