Kevin Durant said the incident with @Money23Green played a part in him leaving Golden State. pic.twitter.com/DcWQMgihXf
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) October 31, 2019
Well there you have it. Nearly one year after a verbal blowup on the bench between Draymond Green and Kevin Durant got so heated it led to a one-game suspension for Green, Durant admitted on First Take that the fall out from the incident partially led to him leaving the Warriors this offseason.
“A little bit, yeah for sure,” Durant said. “Your teammate talks to you that way you think about it a bit. Like I said we talked about it a bit, but definitely for sure. I’m not gonna lie about it.
“I wish that wouldn’t have happened. I feel like that was a situation that definitely could have been avoided. It really came out of nowhere.”
The altercation took place after a Green turnover sent the November 12 game vs. the Clippers into overtime. Durant passionately told Draymond he should’ve passed the ball, leading to an explosion from Green that reportedly included accusations that Durant was holding his looming free agency over the entire franchise.
Green was suspended by the team and initially refused to apologize to KD, but ultimately mended things with Durant once he realized he “was wrong.”
“Draymond knew that he was out of line,” Durant said. “As men, we talked about it and everybody around tried to get us to mend it fast because of the season and we wanted to win. But he had his process on how he wanted to handle it and I had my process and eventually we came together.”
Durant also explained the primary reason he left Golden State for Brooklyn this offseason.
“I just felt like I needed a switch. I felt like a lot of stuff in Golden State had reared its head. I felt like that was going to be the end no matter what, especially for that group. Shaun Livingston was retiring, Andre Iguodala was getting older, our contracts were going to stifle the team and put us in a hole to get other players.
“So it was kind of time for all of us to separate.”