Kevin Durant on joining Warriors, criticism of Russell Westbrook
By Andre Pruitt
Kevin Durant opens up about his decision to leave the Thunder and sign with the Warriors.
Kevin Durant knew his 2016 free agency decision would not be an easy one. That’s the reason why Durant had to really sleep on it, making his decision to join the Golden State Warriors in the early morning on July 4.
With Durant’s decision to join Golden State came with his fair share of criticism. Understandable, as he would be joining the team that just beat him in the playoffs and already has three All-Stars.
Oh, and one of those three All-Stars is Stephen Curry, back-to-back MVP and the first ever unanimous MVP in NBA history.
The game’s old-school players are already criticizing Durant. Among them are two former stars that never got a chance to win a ring in Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller. They believe Durant is cheating his way into winning a championship.
Durant has heard the criticism from Barkley and Miller and knows it will resonate with a lot of people. He opened up to Sam Amick of USA Today Sports and said, “Those are two guys, you know ? They’ve got a voice in our game, and a lot of people probably felt the same way but they don’t have a voice so obviously what they say is translated through a megaphone so it feels like everybody else (thinks that). If Charles Barkley said it, it must be true. If Reggie Miller says it, it must be true.”
Also, many people believe that Russell Westbrook played a role in Durant’s decision to leave OKC. Durant wants to put a silence to those rumors and told Amick, “Nah, it wasn’t (a factor in him leaving). I mean obviously (that alleged subplot is) coming out now (that) I’m gone, all these reports are going to come out. I can’t really control it, but I just made a decision based on where I wanted to go, man. It was as simple as that.”
There’s a lot of people who will never get over Durant’s decision. Though all Durant can do is go out and win championships as you can’t always please everyone.
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