Kevin Durant has been adamant in the roots of his decision to join the Golden State Warriors. KD has touted the comradery of the team and Steve Kerr has even talked about how the original pitch almost went south from the start.
Durant has stated in the past that the Warriors losing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers had little to nothing to do with his decision to join the Dubs. But last night, as the Warriors were awarded as the first professional sports league to win an ‘ENCORE’ award, Durant was joined by teammate Andre Iguodala, Warriors owner Joe Lacob and team general manager Bob Myers, to discuss their honor. But of course, the highlight of the evening was Durant discussing his decision to join the Dubs.
It appears that the Warriors losing in the NBA Finals was a big catalyst in his move.
Following from Anthony V Slater of The Mercury News.
“Would it have made it less interesting to you?”
Durant: “I was telling one of my friends, Rich (Kleiman, his agent), who’s here, we were watching Game 7. Well, as it started to unfold, it was, ‘No question, no way could you go to this team.’ And I was just like a kid, like, in a candy shop. I’d get wide open 3s, I could just run up and down the court, get wide open layups. I was basically begging him. I was like, yo, this would be nice. So as I was thinking about my decision and who I was gonna play for, this team came to mind. You know, as they lost, it became more and more real every day. You start to think about it even more. To see if I would fit. Then once I sat down with these guys, everything that I wanted to know about them they kinda showed me. But we don’t have to talk about it though because they didn’t get the job done and they came after me and who knows what would’ve happened. But I guess you could say I’m glad that they lost.”
Joe Lacob: “So, KD, after we met with you on July 4th weekend out on the very tip of Long Island, a long way to go. We had a good meeting and we went home. Bob (Myers) and I were talking like we do all the time. On July 3rd, I was in Montana at the time, I’m on a boat. I get this call, from Bob, ‘Durant’s on the phone!’ I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if it’s gonna work, it might cut out.’ You remember this call?
Kevin Durant: “Yeah.”
Lacob: “Then we started to talk and I’m thinking: ‘He’s gonna make the decision. And he said, ‘So when I come…’ and then I don’t remember what else I said. Then there was a long pause and I was like, ‘Did…he…just…say…he…was…coming?’ Then it was, ‘Well, I gotta sleep on it tonight.’ That was hard. I just want you to know that was so hard.”
Durant: “Yeah, when I called you guys, so many emotions were going through my head. I thought I was gonna drag that decision out for a long time. But when I talked to you guys that second time, it kinda eased my mind. I felt like this was the place where I should be.”
Later, Durant was asked for a fuller explanation on why he picked the Warriors. He called it an ‘easy choice’: “It felt like it was a perfect fit. It was something I was searching for when I sat down and talked to these guys. I wanted to see if what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen on the outside is really true. Do these guys really genuinely love each other? They work together. You hear family a lot. That’s just a word sometimes, but this is really a lifestyle here. You can feel it when you walk in the door, in the practice facility, everybody is just together. That’s something that I can appreciate as a basketball player and someone who values relationships. You can tell that that’s what they stand on, that’s what we stand on. I feel really grateful to play for a team like that and play with a bunch of players who are selfless and enjoy the game in its purest form. They make it about the players, they make it about the environment, so it was really an easy choice.”
