By: @jrd_ii

9/11/19

KD and ‘the circus of the NBA’

Kevin Durant is a man who hates to dwell in the past, possibly because he can’t stand all the bad memories that are there. A lot of his time at OKC still haunts him. With that being said, his departure from the Warriors to the Nets was much smoother than his last one, despite his terrible injury in the Game 5 of The Finals that could possibly be career altering.

While being interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, who published a piece about this discussion, KD discusses the road he had to take to reach this entire new reality– the decision to join the Brooklyn Nets along side Kyrie Irving, inking the largest contract in the history of the franchise. (4 yrs, $164m)

The Back-to-back champ and Finals MVP has not been back to the Oaktown since he suffered a gruesome ruptured Achilles tendon during Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Toronto. He told The Wall Street Journal that he even hired his team to do the entire moving out process.

He knew his run with Golden State was coming to an end.

“It didn’t feel as great as it could have been,” Durant told the Wall Street Journal.

KD’s reasoning behind that feeling was fan anxiety, media speculation and the “business” of the NBA, which he considers the ugly and grotesque side of the association.

“Some days I hate the circus of the NBA,” Durant told the famous Journal. “Some days I hate that the players let the NBA business, the fame that comes with the business, alter their minds about the game. Sometimes I don’t like being around the executives and politics that come with it. I hate that.”

KD added this as well: “We talk about mental health a lot. … We only talk about it when it comes to players. We need to talk about it when it comes to executives, media, fans.”

Those same implications still cause Durant to look back on his time with the Thunder as a resentful time, where he spent eight seasons after the franchise moved to OKC from Seattle after his rookie season in 07-08. He said the positive and affirmative relationships he had established with the Thunder organization over those 8 years totally disappeared once he chose to sign with Golden State as a free agent after the 2016 season; Where Draymond Green famously called KD in the parking lot after blowing the first 3-1 finals lead in NBA history to Cleveland telling KD they needed him.

“People coming to my house and spray-painting on the for sale signs around my neighborhood,” Durant recalled after he made his decision, “People making videos in front of my house and burning my jerseys and calling me all types of crazy names.”

Durant remains irate because he feels like that “venomous” emotion toward him from those angry fans still discomforts him

“Such a venomous toxic feeling when I walked into that arena [after joining the Warriors],” Durant said to the Wall Street Journal. “And just the organization, the trainers and equipment managers, those dudes is pissed off at me? Ain’t talking to me? I’m like, ‘Yo, this is where we going with this? Because I left a team and went to play with another team?’

“I’ll never be attached to that city again because of that. I eventually wanted to come back to that city and be part of that community and organization, but I don’t trust nobody there. That s— must have been fake, what they was doing. The organization, the GM, I ain’t talked to none of those people, even had a nice exchange with those people, since I left.”

Even though he said, “some days I hate the NBA,” Durant still expressed love his clear love for the league.

“Without basketball, I wouldn’t have done much on earth,” Durant said in the interview. “I wouldn’t have seen stuff that I’ve seen, compared to my friends I grew up with.”