Kevin Durant is opening up a bit this week about the recent scandal involving his best frenemy.
The Brooklyn Nets star Durant spoke with Nick Friedell of ESPN and gave his thoughts on ex-Golden State Warriors teammate Draymond Green sucker-punching Jordan Poole during practice earlier this month.
“It’s rare,” said Durant of the violent incident. “It’s rare. I’ve been in the league 16 years, and I’ve never seen that until the other day on camera … It’s very rare that something like that happens. It’s none of our business. But it happened to be part of our daily conversation because we’ve seen the videos. We all got our opinions, but to be honest, mine don’t matter. It is what it is.”
The former MVP Durant, who spent three total seasons with Green and the Warriors and won two championships in Golden State, also addressed the comparisons between the Poole punch and his own infamous incident with Green. In 2018, Durant and Green had a blow-up during a game against the LA Clippers which led to Green being suspended by the Warriors for one game (a harsher penalty than the team gave Green for the Poole incident).
“That’s not the same situation,” said Durant of the comparisons. “Somebody got punched in the face … It’s no comparison to that. It was just some words … What me and Draymond did a few years back, that s–t happens all the time. So it’s easy to get through something like that, but I don’t know what this situation is like.”
Durant makes some other noteworthy comments about the Warriors in the full interview with Friedell (which you can read here).
The 34-year-old Durant left Golden State before Poole arrived, but Durant knows Green all too well. Though Durant and Green seemed to have fixed their relationship when they won gold together on Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics last year, there all still signs that they do not see eye-to-eye. That makes Durant’s thoughts here on Draymondgate particularly interesting.
