For years, everyone agreed that the biggest free agency move of all time occurred when LeBron James joined the Miami Heat in 2010. However, Kevin Durant would take that crown six years later by joining the Golden State Warriors after the franchise was coming off a season where they set the NBA’s regular season wins record and completed a 3-1 comeback to eliminate Durant’s OKC Thunder in the Playoffs.
Durant joining the Warriors made them an unbeatable superteam as they won the 2017 and 2018 Championships with ease. While appearing on ‘The Draymond Green Show,’ Durant spoke honestly about if fans would ever forgive him for his move.
“I’m sure some people are not gonna, like, let it go. I don’t wanna say they’re mad but they’re still angry about it. I don’t think they’ll forget that I went to the Warriors, it’s always gonna be a talking point when it comes to my career.”
“But I don’t give a sh*t because we did some incredible things and it was some of the most fun times of my life moving around as a Warrior. It’s gonna be people that love, it’s gonna be people that hate it. At the end of the day, it happened.”
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Durant’s discussion on his time with the Warriors prompted Draymond Green to say that the move forced everyone in the NBA to level up and beat the Warriors, leading to the greatest era of basketball according to Green.
“2015 to 2019 is, in my opinion, the best era of NBA basketball. You may say… It’s somewhere in the top-three. The number of guys coming in the NBA was a big deal. You coming to the Warriors elevated it so much, which is why it became that.”
“We never experienced the era of basketball we saw had you not come to the Warriors. That’s actually what elevated the game because it elevated teams. We got to build to beat that team, so it elevated teams and skillsets. I think it elevated so much.”
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The move to join the Warriors in 2016 won’t be easy to get over. It killed the competitive stakes of the budding rivalry between the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Warriors beat an injury-riddled Cavs for the 2015 title before the Cavaliers completed a 3-1 comeback of their own to win the 2016 title over the Warriors. Everyone was eagerly anticipating a third iteration of this rivalry with identical cores, but the addition of Durant ensured the Cavaliers simply couldn’t compete.
Durant would win Finals MVP in 2017 and 2018 as the Warriors easily beat the Cavaliers in both Finals. Their hopes of a three-peat failed when they lost the 2019 NBA Finals to the Toronto Raptors after both Durant and Klay Thompson suffered season-ending injuries.
The era would end with Durant leaving the franchise in the summer of 2019. He hasn’t come close to winning another championship outside a few second-round appearances since leaving the Warriors.
He turned down an opportunity to join them with a winter trade as well, so it’ll be interesting to see what Durant’s next move will be.
He’s widely expected to be traded by the Phoenix Suns in the summer, so the Warriors could be a potential destination although it seems they’re satisfied with Jimmy Butler for now.
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