Getty Kevin Durant during a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Unfortunately for Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, he hasn’t done much winning since he arrived in 2019. In fact, he has done more losing than anything, as the Nets have only won one playoff series during that span. To add insult to injury, his former team, the Golden State Warriors returned to the mountaintop last June, defeating the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. The same Boston Celtics team that swept Durant and the Nets in the first round.
Durant admits that he felt “hate” watching his old team win championship gold once again because he knew it would put him under a microscope.
“I can’t lie: Watching the Finals, I knew so many people would turn their focus on me once they won. I was like, I hate that they won because y’all not going to make it about them; it’s going to be all about me,” Durant said to Michael Lee of the Washington Post.
“I think it’s just a childish way of looking at that experience. I feel like you can take it all in and appreciate what they did and not even talk about me. I was just sitting at home. But I get how it is.”
The latest Nets news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Nets newsletter here!
Kevin Durant Sounds off on Decision to Leave Warriors
Durant’s decision to leave Golden State was criticized by many, especially because it came on the heels of Warriors star Klay Thompson tearing his ACL. Many viewed the move as the Nets star leaving as soon as things got a little rocky in Golden State, similar to his exit from Oklahoma City in 2016. But winning has always been and remains a priority for Durant, which the Nets star says played heavily in his decision to come to Brooklyn.
“But a lot of people see it as I’m chasing something. And I think it probably stems from when I said, ‘I don’t want to be number two no more.’ I was number two 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,” Durant added.
“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.”
Kevin Durant Says He Was Ready to Move On
Durant’s move to the Nets in 2019 left people stunned. But not because of his actual decision to join the Nets. It was more so because of the situation that he was leaving behind. After three consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and winning two championships and two NBA Finals MVPs, Durant seemed to have found a sweet deal in Golden State.
There was a lot of speculation on why Durant chose to leave, especially after rupturing his Achilles a mere weeks before his decision. But the Nets star says he just wanted to move on.
“It was another pivot,” Durant said of leaving Golden State to Michael Lee of the Washington Post. “I just wanted to play ball somewhere else.”
The Nets, now winners of eight straight games, look like one of the league’s most dangerous teams. If they can continue at this rate, Durant could win a title this season and silence all his critics.