Durant, 27, announced his decision Monday, and his two-year, $54.3 million deal was completed on Thursday, making him the Warriors’ highest-paid player.
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Some of them even angrily took their frustrations on the Facebook page of the 2014 NBA MVP’s restaurant called KD’s in Oklahoma City, according to SF Gate. But the Warriors were able to seal the deal when Durant had a meeting with not just owner Joe Lacob, general manager Bob Myers, and coach of the year Steve Kerr – but also Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. In fact, fans aren’t the only ones who are displeased with Durant’s decision, as many sports analysts have also expressed their opinions. After the additions of Zaza Pachulia and Kevin Durant, the Dubs are adding on more piece to complete their puzzle of a championship quest with veteran big man David West.
Great years, for sure, but now Durant enters the next chapter of his career. “He’s the face of the National Basketball Association”, said Durant. You can’t find a better embodiment of that than the guy sitting next to me.
“We sat down and went through the pros and cons of every team, every situation”, said Durant.
“It was hard”, he said.
He said he wanted to make a decision that he wanted to make and not listen to outside voices. So, out of all the teams he met with, he decided to choose the Warriors.
Durant scoffed at the notion he’s taking the easy way out by joining the Warriors. I don’t treat people any different because I made a decision to play basketball in another city. I can’t control how you feel. “I feel excited about this opportunity”. I know that. I know I haven’t changed as a person or treat other people differently because I made a decision to play basketball in another city. We knew a lot of attention was going to come with it, but we just stuck to what I wanted to do.
When asked about Russell Westbrook, Durant said that he “had a lot of great memories” with Westbrook.
“I want to say thank you to Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes, Leandro Barbosa, Brandon Rush and Festus Ezeli”.
In each of the last two seasons, he’s said multiple times he doesn’t like jump shooting teams and has picked against Golden State to win the NBA Finals.
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However, they fell short of a second-straight championship, losing to Cleveland for the title.
