When Kevin Durant decided to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder and join the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016, it became one of the most shocking moves in NBA history. The Thunder had just lost to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, and Durant’s decision helped create a superteam poised to dominate the league for years. It raised questions about the NBA’s competitive balance and Durant’s integrity for joining the very team he couldn’t beat.
Advertisement
Overnight, KD became public enemy number 1. He was labeled as a “snake,” and NBA fans — OKC fans in particular — badgered him wherever he went. His mother, Wanda, would feel it too when the Warriors were on the road.
As expected, Golden State reached the NBA Finals in 2017. After all, Durant had joined a team that had just recorded the most regular-season wins in NBA history. But before the Finals began, Wanda appeared on Undisputed on FS1 with Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless to open up about the backlash she and her son faced that year.
“We did discuss it, we didn’t know it was going to be to this magnitude. I could not have foreseen this. I really could not because Kevin is so loved by so many, and I didn’t really think that they were going to question his character towards him, or his integrity as a man, because he chose teams. But we’re here now, and that’s fine,” she said.
One could tell Durant’s mother was bitter over the whole ordeal. And how could she not be? Her son was being made fun of and questioned regularly. That would make any mother upset. However, Wanda knew her son had made his bed when he decided to join the Warriors. So all she could really tell him to do was lie in it.
“As I told him, he has to walk it out. He has to maintain who he is as Kevin. He has to be solid in his line of demarcation, his constitutional fortitude, and go on with your life,” Wanda added.
It was great advice from Durant’s mother at the time. At that point, there wasn’t anything else her son could do aside from own the decision and embrace the hate, which he handled like a natural.
The Warriors would go on to reach the next three NBA Finals. They won the first two easily against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, with Durant winning both Finals MVPs. However, in their bid for a three-peat, he tragically tore his Achilles tendon in Game 5 against the Toronto Raptors. The Dubs lost the series in six games.
In the end, though, it was all worth it for Durant and Wanda. They may have had to face some tough criticism at times, but the winning helped cure all the pain. Even if fans call them “cupcake rings,” she once said that she and her son both enjoy the tasty treat.
