After the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title, they were the talk of the NBA and quite frankly the sports universe. However, that didn’t last long. Kevin Durant started his Independence Day with a bang by announcing that he was heading West.
Since then, Durant and the Warriors have been in the headlines and they better get used to it. Every move they make will be under a microscope and every team will be aiming to take them down on a nightly basis.
The Warriors and Durant knew this would coming and they both seem ready to face this challenge. In the mean time, the former NBA MVP opened up to Rolling Stone Magazine about his life and his decision to sign with the Warriors.
According to Paul Solotaroff, as soon as the Warriors lost the NBA Finals. Durant started thinking about the move:
Some part of Durant knew he’d already punched his ticket. “It felt like that whole thing was set up for me to leave,” he says, “especially after they blew a lead in the finals, because I damn sure wasn’t going there if they’d won. But after Game Seven, I called up my agent and said, ‘Damn, dude, Golden State – what if?’ ”
Luckily, the Warriors don’t have to wonder “what if” because it actually happened and now they prepare for the 2016-17 season with two NBA MVP’s in their starting lineup.
After the season was over, Durant was the big fish on the market and every NBA contender was ready to meet with the Texas Longhorn. The Warriors had their shot to impress Durant, but it didn’t get off to a great start and Curry had to come in and save the day:
Golden State trotted out all its weapons: Curry, Thompson and Green, to be sure, but also Steve Kerr, the coach of the year in 2016, Bob Myers (executive of the year, 2015) and a mind-blowing virtual-reality tour of Oracle Arena when it’s rocking. Alas, the VR goggles malfunctioned, an epic stumble out of the gate. “We all thought, ‘There goes the deal’ – we went from the best presentation to the worst in 15 seconds,” says Kerr. But then his players piped up, particularly Curry. “He told Kevin, ‘I don’t need the ball and that many shots – I just need another title, man.’ ”
The Warriors are leaders when it comes to technology in the NBA, but on the day they met with Durant, the technology failed them. For Durant, he was more intrigued with the team and the culture surrounding the team and Curry was able to convey a very important message: It’s all about winning.
It’s going to be a fun season for Warriors fans and the NBA, but make no mistake, anything less than another Larry O’Brien trophy will mark this season as a failure.