Getty Kevin Durant huddles up with his team during a bout between the Brooklyn Nets and the Golden State Warriors.
Kevin Durant’s name is one that frequently shows up in the Golden State Warriors trade chatter that happens on social media and around the hoops blogosphere. And why wouldn’t it? The 12-time NBA All-Star won a pair of championships with the Dubs between 2016 and ’19 and he continues to be an elite-level player.
There’s also the matter of his trade request last summer, but given the respective records of his Brooklyn Nets and the struggling Warriors, one would be hard-pressed to put money on Golden State being his preferred destination.
That didn’t stop armchair GMs and hardwood conspiracy theorists from musing about a KD-Dubs trade earlier this week, though, when the Nets star and Warriors cornerstone Stephen Curry reunited for a star-studded dinner at The Nines before their respective teams squared off on Wednesday.
With all of this Durant chatter floating around the Bay and beyond, though, it’s worth noting why the baller left the team in the first place back in 2019. Coincidentally, he addressed that very topic on gameday in an interview with The Washington Post.
Kevin Durant Wanted a Change of Scenery as Warriors Run Neared Its End
In speaking with The Post’s Michael Lee, Durant made it clear that his decision to trade Dubs blue in for the black and white of the Nets was about wanting something different.
“It was another pivot. I just wanted to play ball somewhere else,” Durant said. “But a lot of people see it as I’m chasing something.”
Despite all the success he had experienced with Golden State, KD’s move was also about being the best possible version of himself and enjoying everything that comes as a result.
“I think it probably stems from when I said, ‘I don’t want to be No. 2 no more.’ I was No. 2 in high school, in the draft. But what I had to explain to people was, I had just lost in the Finals. I wanted to go back and win the Finals. It wasn’t about: ‘I want to be the best ever. I want to be better than LeBron or [Michael Jordan].’
“I don’t give a s*** about that. I want to wake up every day and do what I do. If we win, I know that stuff comes with me being the best that I can be.”
KD Famously Tangled With Draymond Green During His Final Dubs Season
During a 2020 appearance on Showtime’s All the Smoke with “We Believe” legends Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, Warriors star Draymond Green noted that Durant had been “one foot in and one foot out” with the organization during the 2018-19 campaign.
Green further revealed that he had told coach Steve Kerr and president/GM Bob Myers early on in the season that he was having issues with the former league MVP.
Things famously came to a head during a hotly-contested matchup with the LA Clippers in November of ’18 when the pair became embroiled in a shouting match during the contest’s waning moments. Here’s what went down between the two of them:
These days, Durant and Green appear to be on good terms, regularly pinging one another on social media.