NBA Rumors: Hall Of Famer Calls Kevin Durant ‘Selfish’ Over Recent Comments About Warriors
In the aftermath of an interview where he seemingly suggested that he didn’t completely fit in with the championship-winning Golden State Warriors during his three years with the team, Kevin Durant was accused earlier this week by Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman of being “selfish” for registering such complaints.
As cited by The Mercury News on Tuesday, Durant recently sat down with The Wall Street Journal for an interview, where he looked back on his time with the Warriors and admitted that he “definitely felt accepted” as part of a dominant NBA team. However, he also remarked that he will “never be one of those guys” due to the fact that he was not actually drafted by Golden State and was still playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder at the time the Warriors won their first of their three NBA championships this decade.
“I didn’t get drafted there,” Durant told The Wall Street Journal. “Steph Curry, obviously drafted there. Andre Iguodala, won the first Finals, first championship. Klay Thompson, drafted there. Draymond Green, drafted there.”
Not long after Durant’s interview was published, Rodman appeared on Tuesday’s edition of ESPN’s The Jump, where he opined that it was “very selfish” of Durant to talk that way about his stint with the Warriors. As quoted by NBC Sports Bay Area, the legendary power forward added that he doesn’t understand why Durant feels that way, given that he enjoyed playing on a Chicago Bulls team that was led by superstars Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
“I didn’t care who was the leader. I didn’t care who was the leading force, who was this and this, I just wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to win. I wanted to impact the city, I wanted to make people happy.”
Thanks @WSJ pic.twitter.com/HibBqyxhar
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) September 10, 2019
According to NBC Sports Bay Area, Durant and Rodman share one important thing in common, as they both joined “legendary” NBA teams and led them to more championships. When Durant — who moved to the Brooklyn Nets in free agency this summer — signed with the Warriors in the summer of 2016, he was teaming up with a unit that won a title in 2015 but lost the NBA Finals one year later after blowing a three-games-to-one lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors then won the 2017 and 2018 Finals before losing to the Toronto Raptors in this year’s championship series.
Likewise, Rodman was acquired by the Bulls via trade ahead of the 1995-96 season, following a 1994-95 campaign that ended with Chicago getting eliminated by the Orlando Magic in the second round of the 1996 playoffs. Along with Jordan and Pippen, Rodman helped the Bulls to a second “three-peat” in the 1990s.
Durant’s latest comments about feeling out-of-place on a Warriors team with Curry, Thompson, Green, and Iguodala came one month after Yahoo Sports‘ Chris Haynes alleged that the All-Star forward stopped interacting regularly with most of his teammates early on in the 2018-19 season. As reported by The Inquisitr, Haynes said that Durant “was really on an island” at that time and wasn’t close to anyone except Quinn Cook, the onetime Warriors backup guard who will be suiting up for the Los Angeles Lakers in the upcoming 2019-20 campaign.
