Kevin Durant responded to the sentiment expressed by some that his decision to join the Golden State Warriors have somehow ruined the competitive balance of the NBA.
“My responsibility is to my skills. My responsibility is to myself,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “I’m not worried about the NBA. That’s their job. They make too much money. They ain’t paying me enough to dictate the NBA. I should be making more money if all that’s on me. My responsibility is to whatever team I play for. All that other stuff, that’s on y’all.”
Durant also talked about why he's planning on re-signing with the Warriors.
“The Bay Area allows me to be who I am, as a city, to just blend in, and the team allows me to do the same thing,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “All I want to do in my life, while I’m healthy, is to work on my game and enjoy the game and not worry about nothing else. This place gives me that. This is the best place for me to just play ball, work on my game, play ball, and not care about [expletive] that normal NBA superstars are supposed to care about.”
Durant also talked about how Golden State's culture values the team.
“Basketball, to me, isn’t about everybody revolving around what I do and how I feel. That’s never how I wanted to play and that’s never how I wanted to approach a team,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “So to be one of guys, that’s what I always wanted. That’s how I was brought up as a basketball player, as being one of the guys. I think it’s more special when you do it with people who support you and love you, care about what you do as a ball player. It’s not always just about you. And that’s the reason why I came here — an unselfish environment where they just care about the game. All that other stuff doesn’t matter.”
Durant still hopes he joins the ranks of the best to ever play the game.
“Kobe, M.J., LeBron, Kareem, those dudes drive me, they push me every day to get to that level, to that standard and I want to be able to sit back and talk to them about basketball one day,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “I’m happy I’ll be able dial up some of them and get some equity in that deal when it comes to being able to talk amongst the greats and experience what they experienced.
“I feel like it’s easy to be the best player when you don’t have good players around you. I feel like it’s harder to stand out when you have great players around you,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “I pride myself on standing out wherever I am. I pride myself on working hard wherever I go. And I feel like these guys embraced me and I feel like I’m a Warrior.”