Kevin Durant has admitted that his highly publicized feud with Draymond Green was a factor in his decision to leave the Golden State Warriors in free agency, and the injured Brooklyn Nets star opened up about that situation more this week.
Durant was a guest on Showtime’s “All the Smoke” with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, and he spoke a lot about his time in Golden State and why it came to an end. Durant admitted that he was taken aback by Green’s reaction after K.D. expressed frustration with Green for not passing him the ball near the end of an eventual overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers last season.
Beware that the clip contains some inappropriate language.
“Then he started coming off the top with all of that stuff and I’m just thinking, Draymond is actually my friend,” Durant said. “He’s somebody I can call when I’m going through anything like, ‘Yo, come through. Let’s hang out tonight.’ For him to say that s— to me just kind of threw me for a loop. I started isolating myself after that.”
Durant was referring to Green telling him the Warriors don’t need him and won before K.D. arrived in Golden State. Durant said he took that personally since he considered Green a friend, and the Warriors chose to sweep it under the rug rather than hash things out and move forward.
“Me and him sat down and talked about it,” Durant said. “I gave him my piece and he told me how he felt about it, but it happened in front of the whole team. Everybody saw it.”
Ironically, Green is the same guy who called K.D. to deliver the opposite message after Golden State lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals. Green played a huge role in recruiting Durant to the Warriors, which is why Durant felt so betrayed when Green treated him like an outsider.
Of course, Durant also has notoriously thin skin. He’s been known to defend himself on social media and even admitted to creating a burner account to do so, so it’s no surprise he took Green’s remarks so personally.
