Kevin Durant recently denied an opportunity to rejoin the Golden State Warriors, and the reason why is still a mystery in the NBA community. According to the latest reports, Steve Kerr was the reason for Durant’s rejection, but the 2x champion recently denied that claim in a statement on X.
“We still on this??? Obvious opportunity for Logan Murdock to gain even more attention and try to revive his career by using my name and the Warriors,” said Durant. “The audience is SICK AND TIRED of the same b*llshit narrative. Be better, my man.”
Kevin Durant’s future is uncertain in Phoenix, and the Golden State Warriors have already tried to reunite with their former champion on several occasions. The first was back at February’s deadline, when the Warriors were closing in on a trade with the Suns. Durant himself halted the talks by refusing to commit to a new deal with the Warriors.
This summer, while the former MVP was pursued again by the Warriors, he ultimately joined the Houston Rockets after naming them as one of his three preferred landing spots. While the Warriors fought hard for Durant recently, he’s rejected them several times, and it says a lot about how he felt during his brief time there.
After joining the franchise in 2016, he found a lot of success right away, winning two straight championships in his first two years. It wasn’t until his third and final season there that the cracks started to show. With the excitement of winning a title having worn off, the Warriors were feeling the pressure once again, and they had to endure being targeted every single night.
Behind the scenes, players started rubbing shoulders with each other, and Kevin Durant began to feel out of place as he was overshadowed by Stephen Curry’s legacy. Things took a turn for the worse that season when Durant and Draymond Green got into a heated altercation that got personal.
Draymond bruised Durant’s legacy and reminded him that they had won long before his arrival. As he vented his frustration and anger, he made some regrettable statements to Durant, and their relationship never recovered.
Toward the end, Durant had grown distant from his teammates and no longer felt the connection with them like he had before. When he left in free agency that summer, it came as a shock to everyone, and people are still debating over what went wrong.
Today, many believe that Draymond is what kept Durant from returning there when he had the chance, but others believe the fault is with Steve Kerr. As a controversial voice in the locker room, his decisions haven’t always gone over with the fans, and there were rumblings that Durant wanted no part of his coaching.
But Durant has nothing against Steve Kerr, and they worked together in the Olympics years after his move from the Warriors. At this point, we may never know the full story of why Durant refuses to go back to the Warriors, but after the backlash he received when he first joined them nine years ago, you can’t blame him for thinking twice about the move.
