Kevin Durant controversially calls the Golden State Warriors franchise an ‘underdog’ organisation before he joined them in 2016.
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Over the last couple of years, the Golden State Warriors completely dominated the league. Going to five consecutive finals from 2014-2019, winning three championships, and even finishing a season with a league-best 73 wins. Clearly, the Golden State franchise has made itself one of the best basketball dynasties.
Back in the summer of 2016, then-Oklahoma City superstar Kevin Durant received a lot of criticism when he parted ways with the OKC franchise and joined Stephen Curry and his Warriors.
Durant immediately went from being one of the most respected players to one of the most hated players in league history because of that decision.
After failing to win a championship with the Thunder, after 9 long years, he made the decision to join a championship team with three All-Stars. However, the 2014 MVP justifies his controversial decision by saying that he went to Oracle Arena to help the “underdogs”.
“The Golden State Warriors organization was never a winning team in my mind”: Kevin Durant
According to KD, the Warriors team had never really been as accomplished or celebrated a team like the Lakers and Knicks. Which was enough for him to call them the “underdogs”. It is hard to agree with Durant as the team did go a league-best 73-9 just a season prior to his arrival. However, on his appearance on the “Million Dollaz Worth of Game” podcast, the current Nets star said:
“The organization has never been a winning organization. When I was in the league, nobody liked Golden State. So, it felt still like an underdog to me. Because I’m looking at the totality of the franchise.”
“I ain’t looking at what happened these last five years. You’ve never been a perennial winner in the NBA – from the 50s on up. So, I’m like, “D***, that’s an underdog franchise to me.”
“I wanted to do nothing else in the NBA besides go on a run like that. We might not win it. But to know we can go on a run to be one of the last teams, that s**t is fun.”
Well, hate him as much as you want to, but his move to the Warriors paid off. He finally became a champion and won back-to-back final MVPs. Despite all the success he found, KD’s this infamous decision will only tarnish his legacy and be one of the most hated free agency moves ever.
