Why did Kevin Durant leave the Thunder this summer to join the Warriors? The answer seems pretty obvious: Because he wants to win a ring. Simple as that, right?
But despite the fact that everyone knows why he really left Oklahoma City to play for Golden State, KD has been asked questions about it over and over and over again since July, so he’s been forced to expound on it multiple times. Most recently, KD spent time talking to Rolling Stone for a cover story that they published on him on Wednesday, and while the entire piece is essentially one long look at how KD came to the decision to head west to play for the Warriors, he indicates that one of the many reasons he ultimately decided against staying in OKC was the personnel he was surrounded with year after year. In his mind, the Thunder’s front office didn’t do enough to add a third star to the mix after the departure of James Harden in 2012.
"Where other teams went out and got that veteran guy," he told Rolling Stone, "we kept getting younger."
KD’s mom also weighed in during an interview with Rolling Stone and seconded that emotion. "For nine years, he refused to speak a word against that team—he loved those guys and that city," Wanda Durant said. "But this summer, he said, 'Mama, I can’t do it anymore. They’re not in this thing with me, we’re not together like we were—I feel like I need something different.'"
Some other highlights from KD’s interview with Rolling Stone...
KD admitted he wouldn’t have signed with the Warriors if they had won Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals: "I damn sure wasn’t going there if they’d won."
KD discussed his free-agency meeting with the Warriors: "They just liked each other so much and were so relaxed. I thought, 'These are some chill-ass dudes I wouldn’t mind hooping with.' I wasn’t even asking, 'How do we play together?' I was asking, 'Where do y’all go eat, do y’all hang out together?'"
KD revealed he wasn’t all that close with Russell Westbrook off the court: "We had our own cliques that we hung out with on the road. Russell had his guys, I had mine. It was never a bad thing. Just how it was."
You can read KD’s entire Rolling Stone feature here.
