After setting an National Basketball Association record with 73 regular-season wins a year ago, the Warriors and reigning back-to-back league MVP Stephen Curry are quelling expectations after adding Durant to a stacked starting lineup. “I couldn’t consider totally everybody’s feelings at this point because it would be hard to, so I just tried to focus on me but also realize the relationships that I had I still wanted those to be – I’m sure they won’t be the same, but I still wanted to go out there and leave with some class and some dignity, but hopefully I did, hopefully he understands, and I’m sure we’ll talk again”.
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Now, all the right draft picks and management moves paid off as this summer, they were able to land Kevin Durant and solidify the Bay Area as a free-agent destination that could be enticing to players, whose contracts are up next season.
It was about that basketball and that rim – about being happy, about success, about comfort and about committing to that decision.
In fact, he said he figured this would happen.
“Durant was our first major league superstar, the first professional sports idol in a state that had spent time worshipping the (Oklahoma State) Cowboys and (Oklahoma) Sooners”, said Mike Sherman, the sports editor of The Oklahoman.
When asked about Thompson being part of the pitch meeting, Durant quipped about receiving a text message from him: “I didn’t know he had a phone”.
So, instead of sounding defensive and resentful, Durant just repeated that he knew the Warriors were the right team for him. In the meantime, Phil Jackson isn’t handing the championship to the Warriors.
He knew it would have been “easy to go back to something you’re comfortable with”. “We live in this superhero comic book world where either you’re a villain or you’re a superhero if you’re in this position, and I know that, and I know I haven’t changed as a person”. I wanted to see if he really would embrace me as a player and as a person, and I had no doubts that he would.
Boiled down to its very core, this decision was about which people Durant wants to surround himself with.
Owner Joe Lacob, Myers, coach Steve Kerr: All the same, all on the same page, as Lacob told Durant at the Warriors’ presentation in The Hamptons in NY last weekend.
While you can quibble with the notion that the Warriors were the villains in the NBA Finals last season, the rest of this is about what you expect.
That despite the shocking prices, no one should complain about National Basketball Association player salaries. “We’re used to having that kind of pressure”, Curry said.
“I didn’t have to look up”, Carlesimo said this week.
“When I met these guys, I felt as comfortable as I’ve ever felt”.
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So yes, Durant seemed like a man who had picked up his things and moved far from his old home, but liked where he was. Which the Warriors will pay. You don’t have to watch them from afar like we did with “The Heatles”, with a mixture of wonder, envy and rage.
