When Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City to sign with the Golden State Warriors, he went from being one of the NBA’s hardest to hate players to being one of its most universally reviled. Durant will likely be booed at least a little bit during every road game this season. He got his first taste of what is to come during Golden State’s preseason game vs. the Toronto Raptors in Vancouver last night. His teammate Stephen Curry gave his thoughts, per NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper:
“It’s just funny,” Curry said. “I highly doubt anybody in this arena was affected by (Durant’s free-agent decision). It’s just funny kind of buying into a narrative that doesn’t really make sense. It probably won’t be the last time. But he handles it well and at the end of the day it’s just about playing basketball.”
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“I don’t think it can get much crazier. It feels about the same so far, but I guess we’ll see,” Kerr said. “We’re kind of used to being a travelling road show, circus, whatever you want to call it. It’s not anything that bothers us. We just go out and play and have fun.”
Durant insists that he was cheered more than he was booed, but if it isn’t obvious one way or the other, that probably isn’t a great sign.
“I heard more cheers than boos, to be honest,” Durant said. “But I was just so locked in on trying to get ready for the game that I wasn’t really focusing or listening too hard for any boos or anything. I heard cheers, though.”
