Draymond Green wishes Kevin Durant would have handled his last dance differently
They may no longer be on the same team, but that hasn’t put an end to the tension between Kevin Durant and Draymond Green.
Following Sunday’s debut of The Last Dance on ESPN, Green went on UNINTERRUPTED’s “WRTS: The After Party” to discuss several topics, among them Kevin Durant’s final season in Golden State.
When asked if Durant could have improved the climate in the Warriors’ locker room with a different approach to his impending free agency, Green offered his thoughts.
“Although Steve [would say], ‘Let’s just enjoy this year because we don’t know what next year holds,’ it didn’t carry the same weight because what should have happened was Kevin come out and say, ‘This is it.’ Or, ‘This isn’t it.’ But you can’t just leave the elephant in the room.”
“Due to that, there was always an elephant in the room” @Money23Green explains how KD’s contract uncertainty impacted the @warriors last season.
Full conversation with @mavcarter & @pr_rwtw: https://t.co/0G4ldwQr75 #WRTS #AfterParty pic.twitter.com/AmQCy7doCe
— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) April 21, 2020
He added: “Klay was saying, ‘I want to be a Warrior forever.’ … I was saying, ‘I want to be here for my career’ … And then you had Kevin like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do next year.’”
Uncertainty regarding Durant’s future lingered all season, considering he only signed 1+1 contracts with the Warriors during his three years with the franchise, meaning he was never locked in long-term.
Earlier this year, Durant admitted that he knew at the midway point of the 2018-19 season that he would leave Golden State in the coming months, but chose to focus on basketball as opposed to the free agency discussion.
“I knew just about halfway through the year. I could feel everybody was just waiting on me in free agency to make a decision – from my coaches to my teammates to the media … [I was] just trying to hoop.”
Durant also admitted that his fractured relationship with Green – which came to a head during a much-discussed altercation between the two during a matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers in November 2018 – contributed to his departure.
Here is that altercation:
“I wish that wouldn’t have happened,” Durant said. “That was a situation that definitely could have been avoided. It really came out of nowhere … It opened up a lot of nonsense that could have been avoided … Draymond knew he was out of line.”
When asked if the altercation played a role in him leaving Golden State, Durant answered, “A little bit. Yeah, for sure … I’m not going to lie about it.”
The dispute between the two was one of the most talked about stories of the NBA season, and on Tuesday, Skip Bayless posited that there was no coming back for Durant due to Green’s language of choice, and that Green should have known he was burning the bridge between himself and Durant.
“It feels like to me, Draymond got swept up in watching [The Last Dance] on Sunday … and he began to fantasize that his Warriors somehow deserved a documentary-worthy final season before Kevin Durant left … That last season actually ended before it really got off to a start because early in the year … Draymond called Kevin Durant that b-word.”
.@RealSkipBayless on Draymond Green saying KD should’ve told the team he was leaving:
“Draymond is crying over spilt milk, milk that he helped spill. He called Durant that ‘B word’ you just can’t call another man without burning that bridge completely to the ground.” pic.twitter.com/UxVuTh571u
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) April 21, 2020
Green and Durant’s relationship after KD’s departure is a far cry from where it was when he arrived in Golden State, especially considering Draymond recruited KD to the Warriors.
According to Zach Lowe, Green contacted Durant after the Warriors’ Game 7 loss in the 2016 NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, imploring Durant to join him in Golden State.
“[Green] was sitting in his parking lot in his car at Oracle Arena after they lost … First call was to [Warriors president] Bob Myers … Then he said, ‘I hung up with Bob and I contacted KD.’”
Durant landed in Brooklyn this past summer but has yet to play for the Nets. He is recovering from a torn Achilles he suffered in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
His last game in a Warriors uniform didn’t end the way he would have hoped.
We’ll see how the ongoing feud between him and Green ends – if ever.
