Kevin Durant didn’t take long to make himself at home with the Golden State Warriors.
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“It’s tough”, Durant said Thursday at his introductory press conference.
Kevin Durant understood the reaction his decision would elicit.
“We think [our] style fits him perfectly”. He added that he’s out of his comfort zone, and he knows that Golden State is going to be expected to be “perfect now”, but that is “not realistic”. I couldn’t consider everybody’s feelings at this point, because it would be hard to.
Golden State applied a full-court press to land Durant.
Durant: “I made the decision to come and play for these guys and I feel great and I feel excited”. “We lost in the Finals”. “You never expect to get this much better”. “You can’t do any better than adding KD to the current crew”. We still have 82 games to play. Charles Barkley, never afraid to speak his mind, wasn’t too high on Durant’s free agency move. All I can control is how I come to work every single day and what I can do to help this team win.
Durant, who announced his decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, was introduced by the Warriors after his contract – a two-year, $54.3 million deal with a player option after the first year – was finalized Thursday.
And the 2015 champion Warriors, who squandered a 3-1 NBA Finals lead to lose to LeBron James and the Cavaliers last month, know how tough Durant is in any lineup: They rallied from down 3-1 to beat Durant and the Thunder in a seven-game Western Conference Finals.
Not that Durant plans to skip town after one season. He’s here to win a championship. Warriors general manager Bob Myers said he couldn’t believe he was actually sitting next to Durant, and coach Steve Kerr understated things a little when he said that “the combination of all these guys playing together should be a lot of fun to watch”.
“I’m a big Chris Paul fan. We had a lot of great memories…I’m sure he wasn’t happy about the decision, but he respected it as my friend”. He was surprised, at first, they even wanted him. And the relationship was great, we had great years and it’s something you’ll never take away from us, but like I said, I wanted a new chapter in my life, I felt it was time for it and I made this decision.
Since Durant agreed to terms with the Warriors, reports emerged of some fracturing in his relationship with Westbrook.
He knew it would have been “easy to go back to something you’re comfortable with”.
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“I figured it was time for me to try a new challenge and there’s no better place to do it”, Durant said. “I called Oklahoma City and It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life”. “No. We live in this superhero, comic book world where you’re either the villain or superhero if you’re in this position, and I know that”. I didn’t change as a person. Durant made the decision public on The PlayersþÄô Tribune Monday morning. “I just felt like I needed to be a part of it”.
