The departure of Kevin Durant from the Golden State Warriors had been one of the most talked-about topics in the league during the 2018-19 NBA season. However, instead of being affected and addressing the rumors surrounding his future at Golden State, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports revealed that Durant just decided to “keep his mouth shut and focus on his craft.” Durant’s final year with the Warriors was filled with controversies.
In one of their games against the Los Angeles Clippers, Kevin Durant had a heated exchange of words with Draymond Green where the All-Star power forward called him a “b–ch” and reminded him they won an NBA championship title without him on their roster. After the altercation with Green, Haynes revealed in a recent appearance on Fox Sports’ The Herd with Colin Cowherd , which is currently posted on Twitter , that Durant also stopped talking to most of his Warriors’ teammates.
“There was a point with Kevin Durant when he just stopped talking to his teammates,” Haynes said, as quoted by SFGate . “He was really on an island and didn’t have somebody that he was close with on that team. The only person he was close with was Quinn Cook, because they’re from the same area. But Quinn is a younger guy that doesn’t have much clout within the franchise.”
Spending day in LA with KD: First interview in two months, Kevin Durant on choosing Brooklyn, how things ended in Golden State, who’s to blame for his injury, rehab update and untold stories. https://t.co/Szu0lXbCQJ
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) August 7, 2019
Kevin Durant may not have publicly stated his desire to leave Golden State, but his actions and everything that happened during the 2018-19 NBA season made most people in the Warriors’ organization easily predict his departure.
“There were a lot of things going on and you could tell everybody knew the writing was on the wall early on that it was going to be his last season on the Warriors,” Haynes said.
Despite having strong feelings that they would lose Kevin Durant, the Warriors still made a concerted effort to convince him to stay. However, Durant looked determined to leave in the 2019 NBA free agency and ended up signing a four-year, $164.2 million contract to team up with Kyrie Irving on the Brooklyn Nets. Fortunately for the Warriors, they didn’t lose Durant as an unrestricted free agent without getting anything in return.
In a sign-and-trade deal with the Nets, the Warriors managed to acquire All-Star point guard D’Angelo Russell in exchange for Kevin Durant. The Warriors may not be as formidable as they were when they still had Durant, but with the core of Russell, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, Golden State will remain a team to fear in the Western Conference next season.