The Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant were arguably the best NBA team ever assembled. With two of the greatest shooters of all time in Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, and coming off a record-setting 73-win season in 2016, the Warriors added the most lethal offensive weapon in the game when they convinced Durant to leave Oklahoma City in 2016.
They won back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018, and more than likely would have won a third ring had Durant and the Warriors been able to remain healthy.
And while injuries may have been the reason for Golden State not completing the three-peat, problems with team chemistry plagued Golden State early on in the 2018-2019 season.
On the last possession of the fourth quarter of a November regular-season game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Durant and teammate Draymond Green got into a verbal spat after Green refused to give the ball up to KD for the final shot. It led to the two exchanging words on the Warriors bench and spilled into the locker room after the game. It became the main talking point around the team for the rest of the season, leading many to point to the incident as the reason for Durant’s departure.
Green and Durant are going on the record to refute that thought — sort of.
In the first episode of the new series “Chips” by Bleacher Report, Green and Durant blamed everyone else — specifically head coach Steve Kerr and general manager Bob Myers — for making it a bigger deal than it was.
“It wasn’t the argument,” Durant told Green. “It was the way that everybody — Steve Kerr — acted like it didn’t happen. Bob Myers tried to just discipline you [Green] and think that would put the mask over everything.”
“I really felt like that was such a big situation for us as a group, the first time we went through something like that. We have to get that s*** all out.”
According to Green, he had multiple conversations with Warriors management after the incident in which they asked him to apologize to Durant. The morning following the on-court argument, Green was suspended by Golden State for a game.
“‘Y’all are about to f— this up,’” Green said he told them. “I said, ‘The only person that can make this right is me and K [Durant]. And there is nothing that y’all can do, and y’all are going to f— this up.’ And in my opinion, they f***ed it up.”
“I think so too,” Durant said.
The Warriors eventually fell to the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals after Durant tore his Achilles in Game 5 and Durant left in the offseason to join forces with Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn.
Durant seemed to be unhappy throughout his final season in the Bay Area with rumors swirling that he wanted to join forces with Irving and head to the New York Knicks.
During a midseason press conference — and after the Knicks traded Kristap Porzingis — Durant went after Ethan Strauss of The Athletic, upset with Strauss for discussing his possible departure for New York in the offseason.
“It’s unnecessary,” Durant said. “You’ve got a dude, Ethan Strauss (of The Athletic), who comes in here and just gives his whole opinion on stuff and makes it feels like it’s coming from me. He just walks around here, don’t talk to nobody. Just walks in here and surveys and then writes something like that. And now y’all piling on me because I don’t want to talk to y’all about that.
“I have nothing to do with the Knicks,” he continued. “I don’t know who traded Porzingis. That’s got nothing to do with me. I’m trying to play basketball.
“Y’all come in here every day, ask me about free agency, ask my teammates and my coaches, you rile up the fans about it. Let us play basketball. That’s all I’m saying. And now when I don’t want to talk to y’all it’s a problem with me. Come on, man. Grow up. Grow up. Yeah, you (Strauss). Grow up. Come on, bruh.”
Green and Durant can shift the blame to whoever they’d like, but Durant appeared to be miserable for the entirety of his final season with the Warriors, and the blow-up with Green certainly contributed to his misery.
You can watch the entire conversation between Durant and Draymond below.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
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Source: Dailywire
