Kevin Durant Decided To Leave Warriors Before Playoffs, Perkins Explains

Kevin Durant won two NBA championships and two NBA Finals MVPs with the Golden State Warriors since joining the Oklahoma City Thunder in controversial circumstances in 2016. The Bay Area team were desperate to hold on to the small forward, widely considered the best player in the league at the moment but he decided it was time to move on and has signed with Brooklyn Nets in free agency.

The Warriors were favorites to win the title again in 2019 but an injury to Durant derailed their finals campaign as they succumbed to Kawhi Leonard led Toronto Raptors in six games. The small forward is facing a year on the sidelines after rupturing his Achilles in Game 5 of the finals, which occurred after Durant had spent a month out with a calf injury.

Kendrick Perkins, a close friend of Durant and the 2008 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, however, has revealed that Durant’s decision to leave the Warriors stemmed from an incident that occurred well before the end of the regular season and his eventual injury. The former NBA center pointed to Durant’s altercation with Draymond Green as the moment the small forward knew that he had to leave the Warriors.

The verbal altercation between the two Warriors players occurred in November during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers when Green reminded Durant that they had won a championship before he arrived. It threatened to derail their season but the two players made peace as the season progressed. Durant, however, never got over the incident despite Green being suspended for one game for his actions.

“Kevin Durant never bounced back from the Draymond situation. I think the Warriors had a chance to sign KD back but when that situation occurred and the Warriors tried to clean it up by suspending Draymond,” Perkins said Wednesday during his appearance on ESPN’s “The Jump”.

“They suspended Draymond and then couple of months later the owner comes out and says he wants Draymond [in golden State] for life. So, I mean, it’s hard to say they took him for granted but I think he felt like its best for him to leave. It’s hard to overcome that, those were some harsh words,” the former Celtic added.

Durant is expected to miss the entire 2018-19 season but will sign a max four-year deal with the Nets once the free agent moratorium ends on July 6. He has been joined in Brooklyn by close friend Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.