Kevin Durant has a knack for saying something potentially provocative. But as it turns out it’s not always what it seems. He’s always misinterpreted in some way or another.
And what do you know! The Media has done it again! When KD’s interview with GQ dropped today. There was a significant paragraph that caught my eye. He started to talk about his upcoming free agency in 2016 and how he could’ve easily left OKC instead of staying all these years. Well now he’s cleared up on it and also talked to The Oklahoman about the James Harden trade.
“I think my words were misinterpreted a little bit,” said Durant. “I read that this morning and felt bad, but I was just talking in terms of how the public views our team, how everybody views us. Everybody talks about the James Harden trade to this day. Everybody else is asking about a player that’s a 3-time All-Star, leading scorer in the league, so we can’t do nothing about that. I never wanted to slight my teammates like I did, but just from the outside looking in, that’s how people view us. That we got worse. But we can’t control that. That’s what really I was trying to say, so I’m sorry if my words got misinterpreted, but I never want to slight my teammates.”
Durant was asked if he resents the organization for trading away Harden.
“Do I resent the organization? Nah. Hell nah. Let’s look at it this way. We won 60 games the year he was gone, we won 59 the next year. Had a few injuries, never know what would have happened. So not at all. Plus they signed me to a max deal (smiles).“
Nice little joke to cap it off there. And he’s right. The James Harden trade was predicated on one thing. They had to pick either James Harden or Serge Ibaka. And even though Harden has grown in to an MVP candidate. A Serge Ibaka is hard to replace. Back then, Harden was a sixth man while Ibaka was an excellent young big man that seemed to block every shot imaginable. So the trade was justified. And OKC wasn’t better or worse for it.
