Draymond says he feels KD changed when LeBron was still being considered the best player in the NBA after the 2017 Finals. pic.twitter.com/dJd3yRP492
— Chris Montano (@gswchris) April 23, 2020
As the Draymond Green media tour continues, so does his revealing comments about Kevin Durant’s time with the Warriors. The latest is truly revelatory, and came up during Green’s discussion with former Warriors Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their “All the Smoke” podcast.
For the first time, Green detailed instances where Durant was openly annoyed with the play of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson starting in his second season with the Warriors. After not getting what he believed to be proper credit for his performance in the finals vs. LeBron James, Durant started chirping about the Splash Brothers’ shot selection and inability to get him the ball during the 2017-18 season.
“You got all of these people debating it, and everybody is still saying LeBron James is still the best player in the world,” Green explained. “That’s when I kind’ve felt like it took a turn. We came back 2017-18 season and Kevin just wasn’t as happy.
“He wasn’t as like ‘Steph do what you do, Klay do what you do.’ All of the sudden it was kind of just like, ‘Fuck why is Steph shooting this shot?’ or ‘Fuck he didn’t pass the ball’ or ‘Why Klay shooting this shot?’ or ‘Fuck why did he pass the ball?’
“And I’m just sitting there like, ‘Yo, that’s the same Steph and Klay I’ve always played with.’ Like ‘they ain’t playing no different than they’ve always played.’ And I know those two guys, they definitely aren’t looking you off. They may not see you, because they’ve fucking got tunnel vision at times, which most scorers do, that’s why they’re great scorers. But ain’t never gonna just fucking look you off. I’ve been playing with them since I came to this league, that ain’t who they are.”
Draymond also took issue with Durant’s claim that issues with Green were part of the reason he left Golden State. As Green bluntly puts it, Bob Myers would’ve traded Draymond to keep KD.
“To try to point the finger and say ‘I left because of him,’ man get the fuck outta here.”