Kevin Durant finally broke his silence about his exit from the Golden State Warriors last week, in an interview with Chris Haynes where the two-time Finals MVP said ‘Hell no,’ to the notion that the team was to blame for the Achilles injury he suffered during the NBA Finals.
Now it’s Draymond Green’s turn to give his take on Durant’s exit, and he did so in a wide-ranging interview with Rachel Nichols of ESPN on Wednesday.
Green wasn’t at all critical of Durant’s decision to leave, and explained why.
“I actually talked to K yesterday,” Green said. “That’s my brother. If someone would have told me, ‘Man, Kevin Durant’s gonna come to the Warriors and you guys are going to win two championships and then have a shot at winning a third, would you take that?’ In a heartbeat. That was a major success.”
Many viewed the early season blowup between Green and Durant — one that was so serious it led to Green being suspended — as a tipping point, one that ensured KD would not return to the Warriors at the end of the season. It also called into question the nature of the relationship between the two players, and if it could ever be mended.
Both players claim that it has been, but that didn’t mean Durant was about to tip off Green as to where he was planning on playing this season. The notion that he would, according to Green, is ridiculous.
“I found out that he was picking Brooklyn when everybody else found out. Which is exactly how it should be.
“You know, so many times you hear somebody say, ‘Oh, man, that guy didn’t tell me this.’ He don’t owe it to me to tell me before he tells everybody else. Like, we did what we had to do. The thing that people forget about in this league is, like, this is our lives. I’m not about to go to Kevin Durant and say, ‘Hey, Kevin, can I get my fiancé pregnant?’
“Am I supposed to come to you and A) Let you know that that’s what I wanna do? Or B) Ask you for permission? No. So I found out when everybody else found out, which is exactly how it should be.”
The same was true for Stephen Curry, who found out that Durant was joining the Nets while he was on a plane from China to visit KD in New York.
As for life after Durant, Green is excited at the opportunity to make noise as an underdog again.
“I like it. You know, being the underdog, it’s been a while since we’ve been the underdog. But it brings that underdog chip back, and I miss that chip. I’m pretty sure Steph missed that chip. And some of the stuff Klay been texting me this summer, I’m positive he misses the chip.”
