Many within the NBA were not happy that the Golden State Warriors were able to sign Kevin Durant with minimal consequence, and commissioner Adam Silver was among them.
So incensed was Warriors special assistant Jerry West by Silver’s comments that he called him up and told him as much.
“It’s sour grapes,” West said on The TK Show, via Zach Harper of CBS Sports. “We signed Shaquille O’Neal and it wasn’t as big an uproar as this. Listen, the owners make the rules. They negotiate with the players. And for them to say something like that, to me it’s wrong on their part. The commissioner said something like that and I called him about it. I told him I didn’t think the comment was fair. It’s not fair to Kevin. It’s not fair to the Warriors. It’s not fair to any team going forward who will sign a free agent of this stature.
“The players bargained for this. They have a chance to go play where they want to. I only wish I had that opportunity in my career and I’m sure a lot of other people felt the same way.”
You might recall that Silver essentially called the Durant signing bad for the league, and there was definitely some consternation in league offices given the fact that the CBA is aimed at preventing superteams like the one Golden State has constructed. The rise in the salary cap is unavoidable, though, and we will see how open the players are to fixing this in the next CBA negotiation.
