5 reasons Kevin Durant signs with San Antonio Spurs

By John Buhler | Jun 27, 2016

May 2, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant (35) dribbles the ball as San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Danny Green (14) defends in game two of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

4 of 6

Apr 19, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs players (from left to right) LaMarcus Aldridge, and Danny Green, and Patty Mills, and Tim Duncan, and Kawhi Leonard, and Tony Parker, and Boris Diaw, and Manu Ginobili (20) watch on the bench against the Memphis Grizzlies in game two of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Best basketball culture in the NBA

If Durant really wants to become a student of the game in the back half of his prime, there is better place to learn how to extend one’s prime than in San Antonio. The Spurs’ basketball culture is second to no one and Durant would love to know some of the unique trade secrets that are carefully kept under wraps by the San Antonio brass.

With the Thunder, Durant knows what it takes to be a championship caliber team playing for a championship caliber organization, but with the Spurs he’ll learn how to be a champion by the fourth-winningest NBA franchise of all-time and the best over the last 20 years in San Antonio.

Though Oklahoma City has become a remarkable NBA rabid city, it’s always going to be a Sooners town, as University of Oklahoma football reigns supreme all over the Sooner State. While their are definitely some Longhorns fans in San Antonio, it’s all about the Spurs all the time in this Texas metropolis.

James needed to leave Cleveland to learn how to win a championship. He essentially went to college at age 26 to play for a dynamite organization in the Miami Heat. James returned to Northeast Ohio poised to win a title and did so in 2016.

Durant doesn’t have to return to Oklahoma City other than to play the Thunder unless he wants to. He’s very close to cracking the code of what it takes to be a champion. Conceivably, he could discover the key point or two he’s failed to realized in Oklahoma City if he ends up leaving for the Spurs.

Next: 2. Gregg Popovich.

Home/NBA Free Agency