Two-time champ Kevin Durant offers insight into why Bay Area is ‘the best place for me'

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PROGRAMMING NOTE: Coverage of the Warriors 2018 Championship Parade begins Tuesday at 9:30am on NBC Sports Bay Area and streaming on NBCSportsBayArea.com.

Now that Kevin Durant has won two NBA titles with the Warriors, are you concerned that he might eventually bolt for a new challenge in a few years?

If you are, keep in mind that he has on more than one occassion expressed his love for Oakland and the entire Bay Area.

He did so again following the Warriors' latest title victory on Friday.

“The Bay Area allows me to be who I am, as a city, to just blend in, and the team allows me to do the same thing. All I want to do in my life, while I’m healthy, is to work on my game and enjoy the game and not worry about nothing else. This place gives me that. This is the best place for me to just play ball, work on my game, play ball, and not care about [expletive] that normal NBA superstars are supposed to care about," Durant to Yahoo Sports' Michael Lee.

Does Durant have the desire to go somewhere else without so many established stars and prove he can be the guy to carry a team to a championship? Doesn't sound like it.

“Basketball, to me, isn’t about everybody revolving around what I do and how I feel. That’s never how I wanted to play and that’s never how I wanted to approach a team. So to be one of the guys, that’s what I always wanted. That’s how I was brought up as a basketball player, as being one of the guys. I think it’s more special when you do it with people who support you and love you, care about what you do as a ball player. It’s not always just about you. And that’s the reason why I came here — an unselfish environment where they just care about the game. All that other stuff doesn’t matter," Durant told Yahoo Sports.

Last week, before the Warriors closed out the Cavs, Durant sat down for an interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols and confirmed he will stay with the Warriors this summer.

"I'm planning on staying with the Warriors, and we'll figure the rest out," Durant told Nichols.

Durant is expected to decline his $26 million player option for the 2018-19 season, but he has several contract options that will keep him in the Bay Area. According to ESPN, he could sign a four-year max value contract this summer that would pay him $158 million. He could also sign a third straight two-year contract with the second year being a player option and declined that option in the summer of 2019 in order to sign a five-year, $219 million contract with the Warriors.

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