Kevin Durant and DeAndre Jordan first became friends when Texas was recruiting Jordan. The pair began spending more time together over the past few summers and their bond grew playing for the United States this past summer.

Durant leaned on Jordan for support after he signed with the Golden State Warriors and was receiving criticism for the decision. During the previous offseason, Jordan backed out of his agreement to sign with the Dallas Mavericks in order to remain with the Los Angeles Clippers, which produced a similar type of scrutiny. 

“He took that (expletive) hard. I was like, ‘Man, at the end of the day, you made a decision that was for Kevin.’ It wasn’t for anybody else,” Jordan said. “You’re going to have one city, one team that’s going to hate your guts. Some other people, they’re going to dislike what you did. But at the end of the day, you’ve got a base that loves you to death. That’s what you have to focus on.”