They're not letting either go. Especially moving into the new arena in SF and needing to keep interest/ticket prices sky high. Whatever they pay in luxury tax will be worth it. Can't let a new stadium fail as spectacularly as the 49ers management did.
i understand him wanting to get out of OKC playing with westbrook, but really thought he was going to go to Boston and be the man
Kevin Durant says he’s happy to be in a situation with the Warriors where he’s not the face of the franchise. In a feature by GQ’s Zach Baron, Durant added that he’s “bad at saying, ‘Stand behind me and follow me.’” “Steph Curry is the face of the franchise, and that helps me out, because I don’t have to,” he said. “I don’t want to have to be the leader. I’m not a leader. I’m bad at saying, ‘Stand behind me and follow me.’ “No. I’m one of those guys that’s just like, ‘Let’s do this **** together. Let’s just work everybody together. I don’t mind being on the front line with you, but let’s come and do it together.’ “That’s my way of leadership. I’m leading by example.”
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-kd-says-aint-no-such-thing-in-epic-interview ... Now, a month into his second season with the Warriors, Durant is raising his sights from insulting tweets to years down the road. He hasn't reconciled with his former teammate, Russell Westbrook, nor his former GM, Sam Presti, and, yes, it also initially bothered him that OKC gave his No. 35 to PJ Dozier, who signed a contract that allows him to play for both the Thunder and their G League team, the Blue. But he says he has let go of his hard feelings, and he is convinced everyone on the other side of the OKC equation will do the same. Eventually. "Those people really mean a lot to me to this day," he says. "No matter if they talk to me or they're mad at me. Whether it's Sam Presti or Troy Weaver or Russell Westbrook or Nick Collison. Whether it's Wilson Taylor or Clay Bennett and his family, I love them from the bottom of my heart. We're not talking, but eventually we will. "I didn't have that perspective at first. I didn't have it when I went back to OKC. I was like, 'F--k all of them.' I didn't have it when they gave my number away. I was, 'F--k all of them.' My best friend works for the team, I told him, 'F--k all y'all. That's f--ked up.' Then I had to get out of my head, tell myself, 'It's not that serious, it is what it is.' I understand it's not my number anymore, they can do whatever they want with it, but you hand that number to a two-way player, you've got to be, like, 'Nah, we've got too many good memories with this number, man.' But at some point, that thing's going to be in the rafters anyway; it's all good. I did something they didn't like. They did something I didn't like. S--t happens. If I was on my death bed, I guarantee you Sam Presti and Russell Westbrook would come check on me. So I'm going to look at it that way rather than the other way." ... While he says he never seriously considered leaving before he became a free agent, there was a cumulative effect years in the making. Playing alongside Curry and Andre Iguodala on the gold medal-winning Team USA squad in the 2010 FIBA World Championship was among them. "Seeds were planted," he says. ... Other, more conventional basketball moves drove home a point that became clear to Durant: Loyalty in the NBA was illusory. James Harden was dealt to Houston. Coach Scott Brooks was fired. Durant didn't complain because he didn't see it as his place, but he took note. "Ain't no such thing [as loyalty]," he says. "You see disloyalty in different ways, but that's one of the most underrated parts of the game. We scream loyalty, but we don't expect it from the people writing the checks because they're writing the checks. [People say] 'You should be fine with it because you're getting paid.' I liked it better when I was naive about the NBA business, how f--ked up it is. That was better for me that way. … You put money and business into something that's pure, it's going to f--k it up." ... "That stuff right there is going to last forever," Durant says. "That stuff is way, way more important than a championship. Me and my family didn't just erase those eight years in OKC. D.C. and OKC is where we grew up—my mom, my brother, me. I am OKC. I'm still OKC. That blue is going to be in my blood forever. That place raised me. I have people there who would take a bullet for me and vice versa. But there's a point in a young man's life, just like when he goes off to college, or when he moves to another city to get a job, he's got to make a decision for himself. You've got to make a decision that's best for yourself and you would expect the people that love you the most to say they understand. "I didn't get it early on. My mom had to tell me, 'These people really loved you so much there.' And I was like, 'Nah, Ma, they don't love me if they can cut me that quick or tell me I'm such a coward or be so happy when someone calls me a cupcake.' I don't know if that's love. But fandom is another level of love. It's irrational, stalker-ish love." There was another obsession in OKC—one that has defined Durant's last few seasons, no matter how much he wishes it didn't: winning a championship. "We get it pumped into our heads that that's all that matters, that's what we're fighting for," Durant says. "But as a kid growing up, I never thought about a championship—I'm sorry, that's just me—I thought about being the best player I could be. When I got to the league, that's when it started. 'Oh, a championship is what I should get next? Cool.' Let me fight for that. I got away from why I started playing, because I was listening to all the noise. "After we went to the Finals in 2012, it became all about the championship. I was worrying about going to the Finals the first week of the season. You set yourself up for failure because you can't win that early in the season, for one. And if you make a mistake, which happens, it's just heightened. It just mentally messes with me. I don't know how it is for other players. Measuring everything by whether or not I'm closer or farther away from a championship, you can't win a championship like that. It was taking control of my mind. And I'm still going through it. There are times where I'm like, Relax. Take a deep breath. For me, mentally, I have to just focus every day on locking in on my craft and that's what is going to help me get through every day." Now that Durant has won that elusive title, he dismisses the idea that the ring he received on opening night should change how he is perceived. "I've always been a champion," he says. "A champion is your approach to your craft every day. It's coming in and you want to get better, that's what champions do. I think people get that confused. Just because you're holding up a trophy doesn't make you a champion. Because there are a lot of bulls--t champions out there, right? They don't care about what they do, they don't care about who they're working with, they don't do it with passion, but they end up winning. That's not a champion to me." "I'm a real person, dog, I don't try to be Superman or a tough guy," he says. "I know I'm not. I know I'm emotional about some stuff. But I can tell you when I get between those lines, I guarantee my teammates know they can talk to me about anything and my coaches can coach me about anything. I'm not going to take it personal." Everywhere else is another matter. He is comfortable with you knowing that. Durant, as you may have gathered, is comfortable with you knowing just about everything. Even at the risk of you using it against him.
Kevin Durant offered an odd explanation for those embarrassing tweets about OKC Well, in a new profile of Durant from GQ this week, we finally got an answer. Whether it's the truth or not, that's for you to decide. Here's what Durant told the author of the feature, Zach Baron: The Internet was alive with a gleeful debate about whether Durant had a second, secret Twitter account. That wasn't the case, he told me. He did write the posts, but on his own account, he said. He described it as a dissociative episode: He woke up from a nap, and "it just felt like I was on the outside looking in at a conversation. I had to walk in and just be like, 'Nah.'" Either way, he appeared thin-skinned and a bit disingenuous, inexplicably absorbed in criticism during the pinnacle of his professional life. Even worse was what he'd actually said in the posts: After a year of maintaining a scrupulous, respectful silence about his old coach and his old team, he'd finally let slip what seemed to be the truth about his feelings regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder. TL;DR: Durant wasn't trying to send the tweets from a burner account, he just woke up from a nap and fired them off in a haze. That's certainly an interesting explanation, but -- if he's telling the truth -- I kind of get it. I've woken up from a sleep and responded to texts and/or tweets, only to realize hours later If that I wasn't totally conscious and present while sending them. However, I don't think any of those responses have ever been delivered in third-person, which is still the most curious part of this whole thing. Durant doesn't exactly offer an explanation for it, other than feeling like he was on the "outside looking in" at the exchange. If Durant truly doesn't possess burner accounts, maybe he possesses multiple personalities. Luckily for him, the NBA can never have too many personalities.
He definitely let that trophy and winning a championship get to his head. He can say all those things about approach, how great the culture is in Oakland, how they seem to have fun ((he mentioned that before) and how seeds were planted with Curry & Iggy as teammates. I get all that. In the end though, it was about that championship for his own legacy. Glad he admits he's not a leader, that's pretty honest right there. Respect that. So he owns up to not being a leader, yet cannot just admit this? He's such an odd-ball.
He obviously has no idea what it mean to really have "the heart of a champion". I hope he never tries to come to Houston, rings be damned. I want to be the team that steals a ring from GSW.
lol, Durant just binge watched Breaking Bad and learned about fugue state. I wouldn't mind him coming to Houston. He'd be a good Robin.
that's an interesting quote from KD. never heard a superstar player take pride in admitting they're not a leader. harden got it from the media just because his former coach said he wasn't a leader but durant is just saying "yeah i'm not a leader" so nonchalantly and this is getting swept under the rug. i mean it's nothing wrong with admitting that but it really puts a lot of things in perspective. i couldn't imagine the firestorm if lebron said that.
