Hint: It wasn’t because of the narratives.
When it was reported that a reunion between Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors was close to being realized, Warriors fans were rubbing their hands at the thought of a former league MVP and two-time Finals MVP (both with the Warriors) reuniting with his old running partner, Steph Curry.
However, when presented with the prospect of going back to the Bay Area, Durant reportedly shot it down. The prevailing theory behind his refusal to go back: not wanting to be chastised anew over joining a team that, according to most non-Warriors fans, beat him down 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals, and allegedly “taking the easy way out.” Others thought that Durant did not want to play with Draymond Green, who clashed with Durant during most of the 2018-19 season, Durant’s final season with the Warriors.
When asked by ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk, head coach Steve Kerr understood why Durant balked at the thought of a reunion.
“I don’t blame Kevin one bit for not wanting to rerun things here,” Kerr told ESPN. “He took so much s**t for like, ‘Oh, you’re jumping on the bandwagon’ [when he signed with Golden State as a free agent in 2016]. And then he’s Finals MVP two years in a row. It’s like he still gets criticized.”
Durant put to rest the two prevailing theories above in an interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews:
“People talk crazy about me all the time,” Durant told Andrews. “That’s not the reason why I didn’t want to come back, I just didn’t want to get traded midway through the season. It was nothing against my time with the Warriors, or I heard because I didn’t like Draymond. At the end of the day, I just didn’t want to move and I wanted to see it through with my team in Phoenix and see what we can do the rest of the season. I’m glad I’m still there.”
If that is indeed the real reason, it’s an honorable one. Durant wants to see things through with his current team and see if they can make a run down the stretch. If the Suns continue to falter, however, who knows what will happen during the offseason — and if Durant’s mind changes and seeks greener pastures, as he did back in 2016.