Kevin Durant: ‘If I was leaving the Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets’

Kevin Durant had many people convinced he’d sign with the Knicks.

Instead, he signed with the Nets.

Did he have a change of heart? Was everyone just wrong?

Durant, via Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:

“If I was leaving the Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets,” Durant said. “They got the pieces and a creative front office. I just like what they were building.”

Bobby Portis said players knew in February Durant and Irving would sign with the Nets. Maybe Brooklyn and Golden State were Durant’s finalists all along.

Durant clearly wanted to play with Irving. Irving expressed interest in the Nets as early as December, according to Spencer Dinwiddie. But Durant-to-Knicks rumors had been swirling long before that.

Some of the signals – like Durant’s company moving to New York, Durant’s rumored home purchase in New York – applied to the city. Perhaps, assumptions were just made at that point about the Knicks over the Nets.

Or maybe Durant changed focus from the Knicks to the Nets only once Irving had second thoughts about staying with the Celtics.

Whatever happened, Durant would probably give the same answer here.

Maybe he’s telling the truth. That’d be simple enough.

But if he considered the Knicks at one point, he’s in that intra-city rivalry now. I doubt he’d want to egg on Knicks fans – who greatly outnumber Nets fans – by presenting it as a close call. Better just to stay clear of controversy.