Kevin Durant opened up about his departure from Oklahoma City and the Warriors in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, revealing details of how bad the split was when it comes to the Thunder's fanbase and why he chose to leave Golden State.
“I’ll never be attached to that city again because of that,” Durant said of Oklahoma City. “I eventually wanted to come back to that city and be part of that community and organization, but I don’t trust nobody there. That sh— must have been fake, what they was doing. The organization, the GM, I ain’t talked to none of those people, even had a nice exchange with those people, since I left.”
Durant went on to explain some of the extreme measures fans went through to make him feel unwelcome after his departure from the Thunder. Durant's mom even recounted one Thunder fan "firing bullets into a No. 35 jersey."
"People coming to my house and spray-painting on the for sale signs around my neighborhood," Durant explained. "People making videos in front of my house and burning my jerseys and calling me all types of crazy names."
Durant spent nine seasons with the Thunder before becoming a free agent and signing with the Warriors in 2016. He reflected on what it's like to walk back into Chesapeake Energy Arena and seeing fans that once cheered for him unable to accept him in a Golden State jersey.
“Such a venomous toxic feeling when I walked into that arena,” Durant said. “And just the organization, the trainers and equipment managers, those dudes is pissed off at me? Ain’t talking to me? I’m like, Yo, this is where we going with this? Because I left a team and went to play with another team?”
The 10-time All-Star ended up playing three seasons with the Warriors, earning back-to-back NBA titles, but signed with the Nets in free agency over the summer. Durant explained that he left Golden State because he couldn't relate to the players as much.
"As time went on, I started to realize I'm just different from the rest of the guys," Durant said. "It's not a bad thing. Just my circumstances and how I came up in the league. And on top of that, the media always looked at it like KD and the Warriors. So it's like nobody could (fully accept) me there."
After Durant made his decision to sign with the Nets in free agency, Stephen Curry said Durant would be missed after they experienced so much success together.
"The three years that we had were special," Curry said in July. "With KD, we had three straight Finals appearances. We won two of them, and we accomplished a lot as a group... The beauty of free agency is everybody has a decision, everybody has a choice. You want to find your happiness wherever that is."
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