Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is no stranger to the mannerisms of Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant. Durant and Green spent three seasons playing together on the Warriors after Durant made the controversial decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder to play alongside Green, Steph Curry, and Klay Thompson in “The Bay.” Together Durant and Green went to three consecutive NBA Finals from 2017-2019 winning back-to-back championships in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Durant was the winner of the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award for both of the titles that he won during his time in Golden State.
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Draymond Green Calls Kevin Durant NBA’s Biggest Trash Talker
For the Nets to have as much firepower they do with Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, the superstar trio is relatively quiet. At least that is how it seems. But according to Green, one of the members of the Nets’ ‘Big 3’ is one of the biggest trash talkers in the NBA.
“I’ve always told people that KD is one of the biggest trash talkers to me since I came in the league. And it would be disrespectful stuff like, ‘Ay, who is this?’ KD would turn a dude around like trying to look at the back of his jersey to see his name on the back,” Green teased in a snippet of a new episode of his podcast “The Draymond Green Show.”
“K would say stuff to people and you’re like, ‘Yo you Kevin Durant, there’s not really much I can say back.’ And KD got those one-liners like ‘Oh he drunk at the bar!’ K will hit somebody with a crossover and say ‘Ay he drunk at the bar!’ So, I think if I’m not going with myself, I would have to say KD for sure.”
Durant and Green Unpack Their 2018 Blowup
Despite his departure from Golden State in 2019 free agency, Durant and Green have maintained a healthy relationship. But things were not always peaches and cream between the two former teammates. During KD’s final season with the Warriors, in the waning seconds of the 4th quarter in a matchup versus the Clippers, Green got the rebound and had a chance to win the game. Durant, who had come up clutch for the Warriors before clapped at Green to call for the ball. Draymond ignored Durant’s call and turned the ball over at the end of regulation which led to a public blow-up between the two teammates on the bench that entirely changed the course of the Warriors season.
This past summer, for the first time since his departure from Golden State, Green and KD sat down for a one on one on Green’s show “Chips” to discuss if that incident is what ultimately caused Durant to leave the Bay and join the Nets. According to the two-time NBA Finals MVP, it wasn’t the incident itself that upset him as much as it was the way that it was handled by the Warriors front office.
“It wasn’t the argument it was the way that everybody — Steve Kerr acted like it never happened. Bob Meyers tried to discipline you and think that would put the mask over everything,” Durant said.
“I really felt like that was such a big situation for us as a group — the first time that we went through something like that, we had to get that shit all out. I remember watching The Last Dance and when Scottie [Pippen] didn’t go into the game, the whole team went in the locker room and said “Scottie that was f***** up that you did that.” We needed to just throw all of that s*** on the table and say yo Dray, K that was fucked up that we even had to go through that let’s just wipe our hands with that and go finish the task.”
The Nets are hoping that KD can bring some of the championship grit he picked up in Golden State and hopefully deliver the franchise their first-ever title.
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