One of the most intriguing players in the NBA is by far Kevin Durant. He has been at the top of the NBA for many years and has been one of the players that fans from all teams appreciate. He has been a player that has seen controversy no matter what he does. Now he tells us all.
When he was in OKC, it was always something, from being a mamma’s boy as some suggested or the leaving OKC for Golden State. He took a lot of flack from just about everyone from analyst to fans. He has been known to hit Social media, and not always as himself. Those burner accounts got him in some heat when it was found he was arguing with a teenager.
Kevin Durant, OKC
The one thing about Kevin Durant is he has been pretty private. That all changed as he sat down and spoke with the Wall Street Journal and gave them a bunch of juicy stuff. One thing everyone wants to know about is OKC. How is his relationship with the city, the fans, and the organization?
Durant recalls what it was like when the decision he was leaving Oklahoma City was announced; he says, “People coming to my house and spray-painting on the for sale signs around my neighborhood,” he recalls. “People making videos in front of my house and burning my jerseys and calling me all types of crazy names.” Although this tends to be the nowadays reaction to a sports star leaving a city (see LeBron James).
It was his first game back in OKC that he remembers the most. The first game in Oklahoma City as a visitor—February 2017. “Such a venomous toxic feeling when I walked into that arena,” he says. “And just the organization, the trainers and equipment managers, those dudes is pissed off at me? Ain’t talking to me? I’m like, Yo, this is where are we going with this? Because I left a team and went to play with another team?”
Durant goes on, “I’ll never be attached to that city again because of that,” Durant says. “I eventually wanted to come back to that city and be part of that community and organization, but I don’t trust nobody there. That shit must have been fake, what they were doing. The organization, the GM, I ain’t talked to none of those people, even had a nice exchange with those people, since I left.”
One can generally see the difference between his thinking and say LeBron’s. When he left Cleveland for Miami, he became the most hated guy in Ohio. But he did not hold that passion against the city or the fans; he came back and got them a title as well.
Durant on Golden State
If you follow sports at all, one would know the object is to get a title, a championship. Some would say at all cost, so why would a guy leave a team where he had won two championships in three years? No doubt they would have contended again this year had he stayed, so why? Kevin Durant gives us a look here;
“I came in there wanting to be part of a group, wanting to be part of a family, and felt accepted,” he says. “But I’ll never be one of those guys. I didn’t get drafted there… Steph Curry, obviously drafted there. Andre Iguodala, won the first Finals, first championship. Klay Thompson drafted there. Draymond Green drafted there. And the rest of the guys kind of rehabilitated their careers there. So me? Shit, how you going to rehabilitate me? What are you going to teach me? How can you alter anything in my basketball life? Got an MVP already. I got scoring titles.”
If you look at it, what good is an athlete that does not have confidence? He sure has that confidence, but is it true? That being said, if at any point you believe that you can not be taught, then you have already lost. I get what he is saying, but it is that attitude that everyone else from OKC to Golden State did wrong, but never him. His take on the Golden State offense, the one that won a title before him and with him was surprising;
“The motion offense we run in Golden State, it only works to a certain point,” he says. “We can totally rely on only our system for maybe the first two rounds. Then the next two rounds we’re going to have to mix in individual play. We’ve got to throw teams off because they’re smarter in that round of playoffs. So now I had to dive into my bag, deep, to create stuff on my own, off the dribble, isos, pick-and-rolls, more so than let the offense create my points for me.”
Is he right? Maybe, but the way he stated it is like that offense was not the best way to go, and they could be better. Remember they won a title before he got there. In basketball terms though, he is correct and could be why they lost last season.
Conclusion
One of the biggest things Kevin Durant has to listen to is the question, are you okay? His mental state is always in question as he has had a few moments in his career that made some question. So he wanted to clear the air in his mental state of mind; “We talk about mental health a lot. But only talk about it when it comes to players. We need to talk about it when it comes to executives, media, fans.” he goes on…
“People are always like, Are you happy? It’s like, Yo, what the f— does that mean right now?… That was the whole thing this year: Is KD happy where he is?”
He says he has never been better and that going to New Jersey is just another chapter to his life. He says playing with his best friend, Kyrie Irving, will be a joy and they can and will win together. The article was long and went deep into Kevin Durant’s head a bit. There was not much they did not touch on, and he had a lot to say about everything. I think like most athletes; they live in a different type of environment than an average person. It may seem eccentric to some but normal to a whole other set of people.
He seems like life is good for him, and he will most defiantly be ready for next season. A year off may just be what he needs to start the next phase of his life.
