Kevin Durant's Move From Thunder To Warriors Still Hurts Enes Kanter

Kevin Durant's departure from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Golden State Warriors still hurts former teammate Enes Kanter.

Durant and Kanter, alongside Russell Westbrook, nearly eliminated the Warriors as OKC took a 3-1 lead over the reigning champions at the time in the Western Conference Finals in 2016.

However, they couldn't get the job done as the Warriors were able to come back and win the series 4-3 in remarkable fashion. They would however, suffer the same fate as the Thunder when they blew a 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers who shocked the world by winning the NBA Finals that year.

The Warriors would proceed to add Durant to their ranks later that summer in a move that sent shockwaves across the basketball world. Durant, for many, was considered the best player in the league after LeBron James, and after failing to defeat the Warriors with the Thunder, had now joined a side who had finished the regular season with a remarkable 73 wins.

The results since then have not been a surprise. The Warriors have won back-to-back championships, the most recent of which came after their sweeping of the Cavaliers last month, with Durant being named Finals MVP on both occasions. He notably averaged 28.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 7.5 assists in the four games against the Cavaliers.

Kanter is one who has repeatedly spoken out against Durant's move and in an appearance on "Undisputed" on Monday, he spoke about how the events transpired.

"Let me say this, a lot of people don't know because I'm so hard on Durant — I actually texted him after he made his decision," Kanter explained. "I said, 'hey, good luck man.' In the end it's business. He did text back. After that I learned he did not even text one person. That hurt me and that hurt us. We were like brothers, we lost that series from 3-1 to 4-3. My thing was come back again and try to do it again next year."

"Everybody was shocked when he signed with Golden State, they just won 73 games, they don't need no help. Signing with Golden State [was what was shocking]. I would not be cool [if he joined another team] but like Golden State! We just lost to them, they're just breaking records. We were like brothers, you cannot do that to your brothers and that hurt everybody. Then I remember his first game back to OKC was the ugliest game ever," he said.

Durant notably bagged 40 points in his first return to OKC in January last year as the Warriors ended up winning 121-100.

The 29-year-old defended his move to the Warriors however, recently stating he prides himself on standing out in a team that features three other All-Stars.

"I feel like it’s easy to be the best player when you don’t have good players around you. I feel like it’s harder to stand out when you have great players around you," Durant said following his second championship win last month. "I pride myself on standing out wherever I am. I pride myself on working hard wherever I go. And I feel like these guys embraced me and I feel like I’m a Warrior."