Kevin Durant garnered many mixed emotions from those in the Bay Area over his three seasons with the Warriors. There were times of shock, joy, surprise, amazement and disappointing.
Simply put, in his short time on the Dubs, he became one of the area's most polarizing figures. Few have do so much in such little time. It's a period of time he also never will forget.
"Man, it's like a different culture, you don't even feel like you're in California," Durant recently said to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on Showtime's "All the Smoke" podcast. "The Bay is just like it's own thing. I can't even explain it. Just being there, I really felt like I stamped myself as a legend in the Bay. You look at -- I'm not comparing myself to these guys, but guys that won in the Bay like Jerry Rice and Joe Montana.
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"Won back-to-back in the Bay ... it's like s--t, that's forever. So I'm really proud of that."
https://twitter.com/gswchris/status/1225316492473880576?s=20
Durant announced his plans to sign with the Warriors in free agency on July 4, 2016. Less than a month before his unforgettable tweet, Golden State had come back from a three-games-to-one deficit to beat KD and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.
There were kinks to figure out, but Durant wound up averaging 25.1 points to go with 4.4 assists and a career-high 8.3 rebounds per game in his first season as a Warrior. He also shot a career-best 53.7 percent from the field.
Golden State Warriors
Golden State beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games to win the NBA Finals that season. Durant was named Finals MVP as he averaged an absurd 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game.
Over KD's three seasons as a Dubs, he won two titles, back-to-back Finals MVP awards, three All-Star Game selections and three All-NBA nods.
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Say what you want. The fact is, Durant one day will have a statue outside of Chase Center.
And he earned it.