Somehow, somehow Kevin Durant is still being asked about Draymond Green and the Warriors. The latest to do so is New Orleans Pelicans shooting guard JJ Redick.
Marksman has his own podcast, “The Old Man and the Three”, and recently asked Durant about his incident with Green last season, when Durant was still a member of the Warriors. The infamous in-game discussion took place on November 12, 2018 at the end of the rules in one that ended in an overtime 121-116 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center.
Redick asked if the whole incident was exaggerated by the media. Unsurprisingly, Durant said yes.
“With so many people just wanting to see – it felt like we were so perfect – they want to see something,” Durant told Redick. “They needed drama around our team. That was their entry point.”
What’s much more interesting, though, is that Durant felt he had become an even better player for the Warriors after the kerfuffle.
“Me and Draymond, we actually got better,” Durant said, “I felt like I was more stuck in the team. I felt like he understood me more because we sat down and talked about the whole situation.”
The numbers also confirm Durant’s claims.
He scored 33 points, took 11 rebounds and served 10 assists in the defeat. Durant scored 29 points in the Warriors’ next game, a 110-103 win over the Atlanta Hawks, and had three straight games of 44, 49 and 51 points at the end of the month. But the Golden States also lost four straight games to the Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder after winning against the Hawks.
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During the game in which Durant and Green argued on the pitch, KD averaged 27.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists and a 12.1 plus-minus in 14 games. Following the incident, Durant averaged 25.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 7.7 plus-minus in his subsequent 64 regular-season games.
The point is, Durant was great before his bickering with Green and great after. He is among the best to ever play the game, but the “what if” questions after this discussion will always live on whether we like it or not.
