Kevin Durant’s move to the Golden State Warriors was immensely controversial at the time. To ditch the team that drafted him for a roster with three All-Stars was akin, according to many fans, to quitting for the sake of winning an easy Championship.
Years later, and much of the world still hasn’t gotten over that move, even despite the fact that Durant is playing elsewhere now.
But in a recent chat, Durant did reveal his motivations behind that move to the Warriors, citing his desire to make another deep playoff run.
(via the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast)
“At 23, my fifth year in the league, we went to the Finals. After that, we didn’t go back again. But that first experience of me going there it was just like ‘nah, I need to experience that again, I wanna be on that stage again.’ That run that we went in 2012, from that first round to the Finals, that was the most fun I ever had playing basketball. And I was like ‘I need this experience again.’
I don’t care who it was with. I just needed to experience that again, cause I felt more alive, like this is what I should be doing on earth at this point.”
The Thunder’s first, and only, run to the Finals was in 2012, when they lost to the LeBron-led Miami Heat. And while Durant lost that year, the feeling of being there and getting that far was something he craved at the time.
Of course, by 2016, the Thunder hadn’t made another Finals run, and he was faced with giving it another try there or moving to Golden State to win big. He chose the latter, a decision he probably doesn’t regret at all.
Had OKC been able to keep James Harden that offseason, we might have seen a different ending to the KD saga in Oklahoma.
