Kevin Durant is leaving the Rio Olympics not just with a gold medal, but with a refreshed mindset after a tumultuous offseason of negative emotion thrown his way.

In an interview with The Vertical, he said his Olympic experience gave him a much needed break from the backlash.

“It was therapy for me after making a big change in my life,” said Durant. “It was definitely different for me, but to come here in an environment where people accepted me and didn’t care about anything except being my buddy, that’s what I needed.”

It’s evident that Durant is deeply affected by his new image around the league. It varies among professional athletes whether a guy can embrace that role of “villain” without it taking an emotional toll on them.

Barry Bonds comes to mind in baseball, and Mike Tyson comes to mind in boxing. Those situations are very different than Durant’s, though.

Boxing is an aggressive sport, where it’s almost necessary from an intimidation standpoint to be as tough and irate as possible, at least in the ring. Whether a boxer is embraced outside the ring differs from case to case, but my point is that it’s easier to be labeled a villain in a brutal contact sport like that one.

Bonds never let on to whether the hate bothered him, and would even imply that he enjoyed the vitriol. He’s a very different personality type than Durant, though.

It’s what makes this transition for Durant more difficult. He’s such a nice, mild-mannered guy that it’s probably a huge shock for him to all of a sudden by hated after spending an entire 9 year career known as one of the nicest players in the league.

The players assembled for Team USA had one goal in mind: to win the gold medal. No pre-existing rivalries or personal feelings could get in the way of that.

Some players around the league have supported Durant, while others have chastised him. Maybe if Russell Westbrook had been on Team USA things would have been different for Durant during his Rio trip, but it certainly helped that future teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were alongside to give him the support he needed.

The common goal probably gave Durant a nice outlet to channel his energy towards, which is what winning an NBA championship will be once he starts playing with the Warriors.

The offseason was always going to be the toughest period, just because there’s nothing else really going on from the league’s perspective to distract people.

Once teams start vying for the championship during the regular season, Durant should be similarly locked in with his new squad.

Warriors fans will embrace him just as much if not more than Thunder fans did, and hopefully that drowns out all the anger being directed at him.

Many fans rooting for Team USA had to take a break from hating Durant, because he was suddenly playing for their favorite team.

It was definitely a nice pause from the contentiousness for Durant, but once the regular season starts, the combination of support from Warriors fans and that drive for a championship will really help Durant find more peace of mind.