Kevin Durant’s departure from the Golden State Warriors was full of speculation and contradicting reports. The 2014 NBA MVP joined the Dubs in 2016, going to three straight NBA Finals, winning two championships and earning the Finals MVP on each occasion. However, it felt like KD never adjusted to being in that team, which ultimately led to his departure last summer.
Durant joined the Brooklyn Nets in free agency, and he’s yet to make his debut with the New York team, but there are still things we don’t know about his time with the Warriors and how things developed in the Bay.
Ethan Strauss of HoopsHype explained in his book ‘The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty,’ how the Warriors created something huge in the NBA, the biggest force in the league and how all of that fell apart from November 12, 2018, the day Durant and Draymond Green got into a heated argument, which changed everything for KD and the Warriors.
Moreover, that wasn’t the only incident Durantula had with a teammate. For instance, he tried to throw some shade towards Klay Thompson, claiming he was treated better than he’ll ever be in Golden State. One day he asked reporters if they were going to talk about Klay snubbing his media obligations after having a great night on the court.
“You guys gonna write about that? You’re not, are you, because anything Klay does is okay because it’s Klay. But anything I do is not okay because I’m Kevin Durant.’ That wasn’t the only time he complained about how Klay was treated..he felt Klay got a free pass for everything,” Durant said.
Strauss recalled how KD also took a shot at former teammate Marreese Speights after he had a big night and was bragging about it, with KD trying to play him down.
“When former Warriors bench scorer Marreese Speights returned to Oracle Arena, he got a hearty ovation from the crowd…“KD—who once complained to a Warriors fan account over Twitter DM that Speights was among the players more accepted by Warriors fans than he—was not pleased.
After the blowout Warriors win that followed, as he waited to take the podium stage, Durant was fixated on a TV that hung from the wall. Speights was with the local TV guys, yukking it up. “Mo Buckets,” Durant loudly groused, shaking his head. “How can you call yourself ‘Mo Buckets’ when you never averaged twenty points a game.”
A lot of things were happening in the background in Golden State while they were making their way to the NBA Finals for three straight seasons. Many could say that incident with Draymond changed things for KD, but it never felt like he was comfortable with the Warriors. There were a lot of things that caused him to leave San Francisco; that wasn’t a spontaneous decision.
