Anyone who has been keeping up with the Kevin Durant free agency rumors knows the Golden State Warriors are one of his top teams. Now perhaps we know at least one of the reasons why.
In his podcast on Wednesday, The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski let it be known that Warriors players have been recruiting Durant all year long.
“Here’s the thing that’s interesting about Golden State — their players have been recruiting Kevin Durant all year. And it goes back to early in the season when the Thunder were struggling. And I don’t know if Golden State saw them as a peer; I don’t know that they saw them as a threat … Kevin Durant, just like he was hearing from guys in Boston, Washington, different places — he was hearing from guys on the Warriors about, ‘Hey, you can come help take the pressure off of Steph Curry. We need you.’ This is when they were running off win after win after win.
“They had him on their mind. He’s been on their mind. And it appealed to him. And some of it was text messages, it’s a lot of that. But the communication with some of the players in Golden State and Kevin, that’s just not just starting now.”
Of course, this was something many have wondered about, and Warriors players even said they thought Durant would come to the Bay Area earlier this year (more on that here).
Harrison Barnes also dropped some hints earlier this month that suggested Durant was headed to join the Warriors as well, and Andre Iguodala made a not-so-subtle comment about how it “must be fun playing with a guy like” Durant right before the Western Conference Finals.
With Durant playing the three along with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson at the one- and two-guard spots, Golden State’s offense would be even more potent than it already is. The Warriors would have more firepower on the court than any other team in the Association, and they’d easily be the favorites to reach the NBA Finals for a third straight year.
No wonder Durant is visiting Golden State first on Friday before he goes anywhere else. He’s been hearing about how good it is over there for a year, and now he apparently wants to see it for himself.