Kevin Durant may no longer be a Golden State Warrior, but he has nothing but love for the city and the fanbase. Speaking at the NBA All-Star game, which was being held in San Francisco, Durant talked about his connection with the fanbase and the city where he won two NBA championships. Durant noted that despite what the media says, he feels the love from the fans who acknowledge what he did for them.
“I always feel the love from the fans in the Bay Area. Never thought for a second that I ain’t get no love out here. And I heard people saying that I might not feel that love and I might not know it was this much love, but everywhere I go all around the world, countries have Warriors fans.”
“And they always showed me love. Of course, I heard [the cheers]. Especially Oracle, that’s my home. We had a lot of great memories in the Bay Area so we have a tight relationship, the fans and myself.”
While it is good to see Durant being positive about his time in the Bay Area, the timing of these comments is interesting, to say the least. Just a few weeks ago, the Golden State Warriors inquired about bringing Durant back to the franchise to pair him with Stephen Curry.
After an initial refusal from the Phoenix Suns to play ball, the Warriors got the go-ahead to pursue Durant. However, in a surprising move close to the trade deadline, Kevin Durant rejected the chance to return to the Golden State Warriors. One of the alleged reasons for this rejection was because of his tumultuous relationship with Draymond Green, which was one of the reasons he left in 2019.
Draymond Green did not hold back when responding to these reports. As for the Warriors, they went and got Jimmy Butler instead, who funnily enough, wanted to go to the Suns and play alongside Kevin Durant.
One might assume that because of this rejection, there would be hard feelings between the Warriors and Kevin Durant. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Steve Kerr clarified a few days ago that he does not hold anything against Durant for turning down a return, especially because of the fan vitriol he received for joining the franchise in the first place.
Stephen Curry also tried to aid the Warriors’ pursuit of Durant, with the two having conversations, but he got an idea that the Slim Reaper didn’t want to come back and he wasn’t going to try and convince his former teammate to do anything he didn’t want to do.
For fans of the Curry-Durant pairing, this weekend was a brief glimpse into what could have been, as the duo led Shaquille O’Neal’s OG Squad to victory in the inaugural 2025 NBA All-Star tournament.
With Durant, much like any other player in the NBA, you can never say never when it comes to a return to the Warriors. But fans should probably move on from the idea, as it appears the player already has.
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