Kevin Durant playfully put up some shots at the Warriors’ practice facility after having won his introductory news conference Thursday afternoon.
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Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala and the chemistry they showed made a huge difference in Durant’s decision.
“It’s been hectic”, Durant said of his free agency period. That includes one quote from Kerry.
Durant also said breaking the news to longtime Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook was also hard. I talked to him awhile. “It’s the best decision for me”. We had great years and that’s something you can never take away from us…
By 7 a.m. on July 4, Durant came to a decision after sleeping on it and having wrestled with it. He wanted to go to the Warriors. Durant doesn’t agree with that.
On taking the easy way out: “Nothing in this league is easy”. There are no shortcuts. I didn’t know he had a phone. I knew that was apart of this whole deal, that’s just the life we live.
“Obviously it’s tough because we were teammates for so long”, Durant said. He joins the National Basketball Association runner-up Warriors – who rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat Durant’s former Oklahoma City Thunder in a thrilling seven-game Western Conference Finals before losing the finals in seven games to Cleveland – on a two-year contract worth more than $54 million. He said it wasn’t an easy decision to leave for the Warriors. “The relationships between me and this team doesn’t feel forced”.
At that point, he called the Oklahoma City Thunder, saying it was the “hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life”. I can’t really control how you feel, I’m sorry you feel that way. “It was tough…. Those memories don’t erase”.
“At this stage of my career, I’m not a great player”. Tears were shed, but it was the journey for me. “But I went with my gut and my instincts and I trusted the situation”.
“He’s better than I thought”, Warriors GM Bob Myers said.
Don’t insult the Oklahoma City fans you left behind by writing about “the fans and people of the community they have always had my back unconditionally” and then leave, showing them that, as far as you were concerned, the relationship they believed they had with you did have conditions. Kerr thanked them at the end of the press conference. To Leandro Barbosa, Brandon Rush and Festus Ezeli. We love high-character people.
Before games between the Warriors and Thunder the past two seasons, Adams and Durant would routinely visit.
“We live in this superhero comic book world where either you’re a villain or a superhero”.
“I know I haven’t changed as a person”, Durant said.
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Durant, who was taken second overall in the 2007 NBA Draft by a Seattle SuperSonics team that relocated to Oklahoma City a year later, said the relationships he forged while playing with his former team are what made his decision so challenging.
