Draymond Green and Kevin Durant had a tense relationship towards the end of KD's time with the Warriors. This sparked a narrative—that Durant leaned into—claiming that Draymond was the reason KD decided to leave Golden State. During a recent conversation with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their All The Smoke podcast, Draymond said that Durant is using their awkward relationship as a scapegoat.
"This is fucking Kevin Durant we're talking about," Draymond said. "Yeah, I've done some great things here, but let me tell you this: I know [Golden State's president] Bob Myers. If it was such a big deal with Kevin being here and me being here—if Kevin really wanted to be here all he would've done is went to Bob and said: 'Yeah, I'll stay but Draymond got to go.'"
Things came to a head between KD and Green on the sidelines of a Clippers game in November 2018. During the heated exchange, Green reportedly called Durant a "bitch" multiple times. He also questioned Durant's value to the team because they had already won a championship without him.
While speaking about his decision to go to the Nets, KD told First Take in October 2019 that Draymond's outburst "definitely" played a part in him signing with the Nets.
"I mean, your teammate talks to you that way, you think about it a little bit," KD said. "Like I said, we talked about it. But definitely, for sure [it was a factor]. I’m not going to lie about it."
Although Durant went on to claim that there were other factors that contributed to his decision, his comment started to take on a life of its own, which prompted Draymond to allude to Uninterrupted that KD's intentions were clear prior to their altercation.
"It wasn't necessarily the organization. For instance, Kevin [Durant] took the one-year deal on his own, so that was kinda the elephant in the room," Green said when explaining the difference between the fall of the Bulls dynasty and Golden State's decline. "Then you kinda had Kevin, like 'I don't know what I'm gonna do next year, and it don't matter.' But it does matter because you're not the only one that has to answer that question.
"And to be quite frank with you, you're honestly the last person that has to answer the question because you don't really say shit," he continued. "You don't say much to the media. If anything, you tell them to shut the fuck up. Well, I don't tell them to shut the fuck up. I kinda have a conversation, and so I'm stuck answering that question all the time, and due to that, there was always an elephant in the room amongst us, as opposed to them [the 'Last Dance' Bulls]."
Green also discussed where his Warriors stand in the pantheon of great teams, arguing that they're the best to ever do it. "We’re the greatest team ever," he said. "Me and curry would’ve f*ckin’ destroyed Shaq in a pick-and-roll."
Despite the bravado, Green does admit that it's difficult to compare eras. So while he does think he and Curry would dominate anyone with the pick and roll, Green, at the 56:30-mark, admits that Shaq would have "murdered" him on the block. "I respect everybody for their greatness in their era," he said. "We dominted our f*cking era."
Watch Green's full appearance on All The Smoke above.
