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In the summer of 2016, Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant had a major decision to make concerning his basketball future. Durant had become one of the most decorated stars in the NBA as a former league Most Valuable Player, scoring champion, and multiple-time All-Star. The only thing missing from his resume was becoming an NBA champion.
Durant had come closer than ever to his first NBA title that season after he and the Oklahoma City Thunder held a 3-1 lead on the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Golden State however pulled off a historic upset and stormed back to win the series in seven games. Durant then had to decide whether he was going to stick with the Oklahoma City Thunder in hopes of delivering the franchise its first-ever NBA title or try to win elsewhere.
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Durant Responds to Claims That He Had Beefs With Warriors Fans
Durant shocked the world when he decided to sign with the Golden State Warriors that summer. It was a controversial decision as the Warriors were the team that had eliminated Durant and the Thunder just weeks ago. KD enjoyed much success as a member of the Warriors. In Golden State, he won back-to-back NBA titles and two NBA Finals Most Valuable Player awards. But over time the narrative had become that KD was never really happy in Golden State, despite the success.
The Warriors had already appeared in consecutive NBA Finals before KD’s arrival, and the narrative began to form that many Warriors fans thought that he was taking the spotlight away from two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steph Curry. Andy Liu, host of the Light Years podcast responded to those claims via his Twitter account on Friday.
“The treatment is not from Warriors fans lol it’s from media. KD a different story he just had it in his head GSW fans had it out for him… still to this day smh,” said Liu.
Kevin Durant who is much more active from his Twitter account these days was quick to refute Liu’s claims.
“U made this up fam…like outta thin air,” Durant tweeted on Friday.
@AndyKHLiu U made this up fam…like outta thin air
@_mtm_81 Definitely weird. They wanna believe I was jealous of my teammates which beyond laughable
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Durant Previously Admitted He Felt Out of Place in Golden State
While Durant may be claiming that those narratives are false, in the past he has admitted that he did feel isolated from the team at times. The Warriors’ core had already won a title without KD before his arrival. That coupled with the outside noise from fans often made him question his role on the team.
“But I’ll never be one of those guys, I didn’t get drafted there … Steph Curry, obviously drafted there. Andre Iguodala won the first Finals, first championship. Klay Thompson was drafted there. Draymond Green was drafted there. And the rest of the guys kind of rehabilitated their careers there,” Durant said to J.R. Moehringer of the Wall Street Journal in 2019.
“So, me? S–t, how you going to rehabilitate me? How can you alter anything in my basketball life? I got an MVP already. I got scoring titles.”
Now two years removed from the Golden State Warriors, Durant has settled in with his new team the Brooklyn Nets quite nicely. He will be hoping to justify the move with a championship next season.
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Kevin Durant Has Message for Fans Who Think He Envied Warriors Teammates