Kevin Durant reveals when he knew he was signing with Warriors, business partner says that's ‘hardly factual'

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On Tuesday, Bloomberg hosted the second annual Players Technology Summit in San Francisco.

Andre Iguodala's business partner, Rudy-Cline Thomas, moderated a Q&A session with Kevin Durant and his business partner/agent/close friend Rich Kleiman.

Before asking any questions, Cline-Thomas shared the following personal anecdote:

"Remember 2017, you just lost to the Warriors -- no 2016, you had just lost the Warriors, May -- you and I get together after the game. I thought I was just gonna focus on not talking about basketball, and you wanted to focus on talking about Silicon Valley -- asking me how it was out here.

"You had been following what Andre and I were doing, how it was being surrounded by all these CEOs, innovators and entrepreneurs. And I was like, 'Wow. First and foremost, like yo -- this dude just told me he's about to sign with the Warriors, right (laughter). So, I was like I'm not gonna tell anybody, didn't tell anybody whatsoever, didn't want any rumors to get started..."

Innnnnnteresting.

Cline-Thomas then asked Durant when he started thinking differently about his business opportunities.

"Probably about 2015, I had got hurt. Basketball had always been my world ... it stopped, and I had to think about other parts of my life and what I was interested in ... it was rough because I didn't know what I wanted to do or what I liked or what type of person I wanted to be ... I started to hear about Andre and more guys around the NBA -- especially that play for the Warriors -- that took advantage of the opportunities of being in the Bay Area.

"So throughout that whole year, me and Rich were talking about investing in companies and what I like to do outside of ball. Then I (saw) you and just all those questions came out at once and I was basically telling you I was coming to the Warriors (laughter)."

Does Durant still pick the Warriors if Golden State wins the 2016 title?

Remember that during the 2017 Finals, Draymond Green told ESPN's Zach Lowe: "If we win the championship, I'm like 99 percent sure we don't get him."

About 20 minutes later, Cline-Thomas asked Kleiman what he has learned from Durant over the years:

"Well I just learned that he told you in May, before free agency -- which is hardly factual, which we'll have to clear up with Marc Spears and everybody here (laughter) -- no way did that happen, but cool... (laughter)."

It's funny that Kleiman mentioned Spears (who works for The Undefeated), because in late June 2016, one of Durant's longtime friends told Spears: "His decision is 90 percent made. It would take an amazing sales pitch to change it."

The assumption was that Durant was 90 percent sure he was going to re-sign with the the Thunder.

That was not the case.

One other nugget from the summit:

Drew Shiller is the co-host of Warriors Outsiders. Follow him on Twitter @DrewShiller

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