Warriors forward Kevin Durant told Yahoo! Sports that last week’s heated in-game exchange with teammate Draymond Green — which then carried into the Golden State locker room — won’t have any impact on his impending free-agency decision.
“Because at the end of the day, I’m just a ballplayer that’s just trying to be in a great environment to play basketball and groom my skills every day. And I want to compete on a level that, once the game starts, I’m just totally comfortable with my surroundings, with just going out there and being me.”
Durant signed a one-year deal with the Warriors in July that includes a player option for the 2019-20 season, which he is expected to decline in favor of testing free agency.
He could still opt to re-sign with the Warriors, who will begin playing at Chase Center next season after 47 years at Oakland’s Oracle Arena. The nine-time All-Star recently took a guided tour of the San Francisco construction site.
Kevin Durant Tours Chase Center But Stays Quiet on Future https://t.co/TnvwcTT6XN
— SportsGossip.com (@sportsgossip) November 10, 2018
Durant told Yahoo! Sports that while he was “upset” about the situation, “I know that I can’t hold on to something like this.
“I know that I’ve got to make a choice with myself, like how long are you going to be upset about this to the point where you’re going to let it affect what you do on the floor or how you approach the game? Once it gets there now, I got to make a grown-man decision and tell myself, ‘Look, man, no matter what, you still got to come to work every single day. It’s going to work out. It’s going to figure itself out.’ And I think everyone’s been handling it the best way they could, and we’re just trying to move forward with it.”
Since the confrontation between Durant and Green, the Warriors have gone 1-3, including losing three straight on their recent Texas road trip.
Even if Durant stays, the way he’s handling it is already rubbing everyone the wrong way.