Kevin Durant is with the Brooklyn Nets now as the Golden State Warriors try to recover from injuries and stay atop the Western Conference. Whether that will be possible after Klay Thompson’s injury and a depth chart that’s increasingly thin is of real concern. But everyone seems ok for the time being. At the very least, former and current Warriors players have to be feeling better than they were during this course of this past season.
Things infamously got a little heated between Durant and his teammates last year, particularly with Draymond Green. The two had a falling out, and it wasn’t clear if they had ever reconciled. Once Durant chose to go to Brooklyn, it was thought that the mid-season conflict with Green may have been the nail in the coffin for Golden State’s chances at keeping the superstar forward.
Now a new report has surfaced from Chris Haynes saying that at one point during the 2018-19 NBA season, Durant simply stopped talking to his teammates.
Via Twitter:
.@ColinCowherd: Did KD and Draymond have a simmering resentment in their relationship?
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) August 8, 2019
“I would be lying if I didn’t say that wasn’t a factor… There was a point where Kevin Durant just stopped talking much to his teammates. He was on an island.” — @ChrisBHaynes pic.twitter.com/kF36BTJy8f
“Look I’ll say this. This is my personal opinion. Yeah, they’re cool. They’re at peace. But I would be lying if I here if I did say I don’t think that wasn’t a factor. Obviously that thing that was a factor over the course of the season, even to the point where Kevin Durant... he just stopped talking. He didn’t talk much to his teammates. He was really on an island and didn’t have somebody that he was close with on that team. The only person was Quinn Cook — they’re from the same area. But Quinn is a younger guy that doesn’t have much clout within the franchise.”
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“After the Draymond stuff went down, and then the New York Knicks chatter started going haywire, Durant just stopped talking. He felt like if he said something, it would give a lot of credence to people saying he’s only thinking about free agency when it’s March and February. So he just shut up. He just focused on basketball, and kept it on that. You would see Durant leaving the arena by himself and entering the arena by himself and really not speaking to anyone to a point where a Warriors official went to him on a few occasions — or texted him — saying that ‘We need you to come with a cheerful disposition.’
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“I definitely think that the Draymond Green situation can’t be dismissed.”
The saga between Durant and Green is well-documented by now, and this isn’t anything new. But the idea that Durant willfully closed himself off is actually kind of sad. Here they are, one of the best NBA teams ever assembled, and the Warriors slowly crumbled thanks in large part to the human condition itself.
Durant is in Brooklyn now, where hopefully he can finally be wholly happy. No doubt that Green will be glad to try to take a whack at another deep, championship-style run without Durant to prove that the original core in Golden State was the most important thing after all.