Kevin Durant recently revealed how difficult the first few days were for him after he announced he would join the Golden State Warriors.
Durant made his decision last July and left behind the team that drafted him for the one that knocked his Oklahoma City Thunder out of the playoffs months earlier. Even though he had decided he wanted to join the Warriors in pursuit of a championship, he says the first few days after making the choice were difficult because everyone had turned on him.
In a story for San Francisco Magazine, Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman talk about how tough that time was. We have edited the profanity.
From San Francisco Magazine’s story:
He and Kleiman were in China for a weeklong tour of the country sponsored by Nike Basketball, and the flak he was taking from people in Oklahoma City who had once professed deep affection for him was overwhelming. “To have so many people just say, ‘F— you,’ that really does it to you,” Durant tells me, still clearly anguished. “Because I truly had invested everything I had into the people I played for…. And for those people that I know and love and trust to turn their back on me after I was fully invested in them, it was just…more than I could take. I was upset.”
“You were f—– up in China,” Kleiman, looking up from his phone, offers from his plane seat across the aisle from Durant and me.
“That was before I met anybody from the Warriors and dove into the culture. I was basically on my own,” Durant says. “It was like you were in between two teams.”
“I’m telling you, I was f—– up for a while!”
“We were all messed up on jet lag,” Kleiman says, turning to me, “and I was up at 6 a.m. and he calls me and says, ‘Yo, are you up?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, what’s up?’ And he’s like [yelling], ‘Why the f— did you let me do this to my life?’ And I’m like, ‘Ohh s—, I’m coming over to your room.’”
Compared to some athletes who could not care less about the opinions of others, Durant is much different. He cares deeply about what others think of him, which is why the criticism and sudden hatred impacted him so much. But once he became a part of the Warriors, everything fell into place, and now he’s clearly happy after winning his first championship. Plenty more titles are likely to come in the next few years.
H/T CBS Sports
