The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Logan Murdock on Why Kevin Durant Chose the Warriors 10 years ago | 06.30

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

On this episode of The Right Time with Bomani Jones, Bomani is joined by Logan Murdock to revisit Kevin Durant joining the Golden State Warriors and why KD left the Oklahoma City Thunder for Golden State in 2016. Ten years later, they break down why Kevin Durant chose the Warriors, how the Warriors built the perfect pitch, and why the move became one of the biggest turning points in modern NBA history. Bomani Jones and Logan Murdock discuss the 2016 NBA offseason, the salary cap spike that made Kevin Durant to the Warriors possible, the Bay Area tech boom, the Warriors culture, and why Golden State felt like the right fit for KD at that moment. They also get into how Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Warriors' homegrown core made the team so appealing, plus why the partnership eventually became more complicated behind the scenes. If you're interested in Kevin Durant highlights, Kevin Durant Warriors history, OKC Thunder history, Golden State Warriors history, NBA free agency, NBA superteams, and basketball analysis from Bomani Jones, this episode breaks it all down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wave. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a Wave Original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.

We are in Time Machine Tuesday. We are talking about the day that Kevin Durant broke the NBA and signed with the Golden State Warriors 10 years ago. in the year of our Lord 2016, joining us. Check him out at the Rangor. I didn't realize they called him Lolo, but apparently that's what it's saying in the background of this. Check out real ones available, all your podcasts, giving away free.

Logan Murdoch was going on. What's up, man? Hey, man, I didn't take my shoes off in your place of residence earlier before the pod and pre-pot. So I just want to publicly apologize, and I'm here, and I'm excited to be here. I appreciate that. I appreciate the invitation because I appreciate that while in. You are, you are. It's cool, though.

And look, we need a lo-lo on this show that like me because that Lolo Jones does not. It was earned. Yep. It wasn't so, I believe me, no, no, no. It wasn't earned. I just understand where she might be coming from. There you go.

That's called growth. There we go. There we go. I always understood it. I didn't and don't care, but I always understood it. But Logan, you had interesting timing in your career. And we have talked a lot on this show up until this point about really these 2016 Golden State Warriors. We did an episode with you about the 2016-2017 season.

We talked to Ethan Strauss about the 2016 NBA finals. But now this is Kevin Durant showing up and then what happens after. And one thing that we touched on that hovered over the season and hovered over the NBA finals and really the playoff run, though I guess it was easy to forget a little bit during the Golden State, Oklahoma City series because these teams are going against each other. But Adrian Wardenowski put it out there right at the All-Star break. You, Kevin Durant's going to go to the Warriors. Like, we all kind of had this hovering belief and understanding that this was going to

happen all the way to Draymond Green later telling us after they lost Game 7, he's on the phone telling Kevin Durant that he needs to show up there. But I ask you this, somebody who was in the bay, how much thought were you giving to the idea of Durant showing up or were you so caught up in the, oh, you're so caught up in Or were people so caught up in the 73 win season that there was no reason to think about anything else? I think there was a two trains of thought. One, I don't think it was two trains of thought

and one going into one tunnel, which is, wow, this is crazy that the Warriors are this good, right? This is just incredibly crazy. For anyone that grew up, like, during a similar time period in the 90s like I did, and going into the early 2000s and the mid-2000s the coming of age during this time, it was like, this is crazy.

This is the team that I used to watch lose. I would go to the Coliseum, to go watch the other team play, right? Like, I will go see Dirk. I will go see Kobe. I'll come see LeBron. And people would be in there smoking. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, yeah. A sorry team in Oakland, indoors are out. I got news for you, but when they were really, really good, they were still smoking. It was still a cloud over the, over the perimeter. It's different if you've ever been where a team, especially a team, the upper deck where they get bad and they're like, man, ain't nobody about to do shit.

is glad we hear. Oh, man, absolutely, especially like in a place like California where it was decriminalized all my life. That's all you would see, like at summer jam at anything, at any concert. My favorite thing, before we get back to this, my favorite thing about going to the Coliseum back in the day as a kid is watching the show for Summer Jam, and then the lights go on in between acts, and then you just see this fog in the Coliseum. It would just see, it was like, oh, okay, that's why, is that a contact I have? I'm 11 years old. I'm not something. supposed to have this. What's going on? And then it would go dark. And then you would see the smoke going through the lights. It was a vibe. You would have loved it. But anyways, smoking weed,

which gives us a great transition back to Kevin Durant. But no, I think it was two trains of mine, right? Which was, it's crazy that this is happening. And also, like, is Kevin Durant going to come on our team? Because you got to think, man, before this, the warriors were by and large, homegrown, right? They had paid the, they had the biggest signing was David Lee. And then after that, it was Andre Guadala, right? But they had also gotten spurned by Dwight Howard in 2020, I believe, 2023 or one of those times he had taken, I believe he had taken a meeting with the Warriors, but he just, he didn't.

And you know, 2013. Exactly, yeah. But ultimately didn't go, right? But the Warriors were in the process behind the scenes of, like, putting together a product that would attract the Kevin Durant. And you also got to think about the other side of this, which is which is the booming tech industry. at the time, right? I know at this point, Tech has taken a bad rap, but like

in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, I mean, it was booming and everybody wanted to be out here because it felt like just a new coming of age. And you know, Kevin Durant was a part of that, right? He had invested in postmates, and that was a selling point for the

warriors at that time. So, from the basketball standpoint, you have this once in a generation shooter in Steph Curry. You have a real, like one of the greatest defenders of all time in Draymond Green. You have this fun. You have Andre Guadal around not the roster.

And more than anything, you had this culture that the warriors were building or at least the culture that they were selling, which is, hey, man, we're going to have fun and we're going to beat the shit out of everybody while we're having fun, right? There's this big anecdote that is always permeated around the Bay Area, which actually happened during the 2015 All-Star game when I believe Steve Kerr was coaching that team because they had the best record in the league. And after the game, the coaches are just drinking. I think Modelo's, that was Steve's drink.

And KD pops into the coaches office like, oh, shit, this is how y'all get down? And that was like kind of got the ball rolling on what he wanted to do. And, you know, the Bay was just a place to be at that point before investors. And people like Andre Goddala who wanted invest in tech. And people like KD, who was already doing it, but you can only do so much. It's a difference between being in Oklahoma City and coming to the Bay twice a year and seeing these tech people versus, like, action. seeing them every day and talking to him and conversing with him because boardroom and the

stuff that he's doing right now was just an idea. So he was there was the it was one track for Kevin the business of him, but also it was like, oh, this team is off the hook. And I got an out because they kind of need me, right? That was like the missing piece for the Avengers in a lot of ways, right? Because like they had this, this offense that we had seen before, but they didn't have somebody that can, you know, kill in the mid range that can, that kid. Every great team has gaps. And KD was just the one who was like,

no, I'm going to fill this gap. And we're going to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest assimilation of talent that we've ever seen. I want to jump on that tech thing right fast because that's an angle I had not thought about. And I think was something that in 2016, right, that was around the time that people were realizing that, yeah, Durant invested in Postmates. And you could put your money in this stuff.

But those cats, like rappers, lot of them were pulling this off. I had one rapper called me about getting in a bit of a collective that was on this. You ain't even have to invest. You just needed to pull up, be there, have somebody at one of these companies who thinks you're really cool and that you could be some sort of ambassador and you get your money and equity there. And so like that's a thing about being basketball player rich is the added level of it puts you around even richer people, but you seem cool to those even richer people. Right. And so at that time, everything felt brand-ass new and everybody had a startup that they were going and they'd get these valuations on and then going from there.

Like that was a time. And by and large, too, when you think about these guys like, what did these tech guys like? What was their ethos? They loved hip-hop and they basically they like to fetishize black people. That's basically what it was of that age, right? They loved hip-hop and they loved basketball. And they wanted to be the cool guys in pictures with celebrities, particularly. particularly black celebrities. Like it was a real cool thing to be like, oh, snap, I got Kevin Durant at my such and such thing. Oh, snap, I got Nas at my company retreat, right? Like, it was just a, it was a time. And also, it was just so much free money out there. There was, there was so much capital to spend during that particular time because, you know, the Bay Area wanted to be the center of the tech universe

and they were going to do whatever they could to do that. Twitter, do you want to set up shop in downtown San Francisco? Cool. Here is it really, really, really. dope leasing opportunity for you. Facebook, okay, come on. You could build a sprawling campus with all of this free money that we have. And that's another another story. But like, you could see what attracted young, rich people to this area at that given time. It was just, there was just so much money going around and KD was attracted to it. And it was different than a New York or in L.A. This was something new that was going on here. And, you know, they attracted a lot of athletes and it was, I kind of spearheaded this Warriors run in a roundabout way.

Yeah, and we'll get to the basketball part of it also, but I think we have to remember, because I mean, it really has been 10 years ago, which is a crazy thing to think about. But there were a very particular set of circumstances that allowed this to happen, because the truth is never is a team as good as the Warriors were, right, to win 67 games one year and then wins 73 the next, right, to win 140 regular season games within two years. How are you even in a position where assigning Kevin Durant to a market value contract is even an option? And it really just comes down to they redone the CBA.

And there were two options in terms of how to handle a big cap spike that was coming because I think they did a new TV deal. there was the option of what they called cap smoothing, which was adding a little to the cap here, a little to the cap here, a little of the cap here until you got up to what the right number was, or there was the option of a spike. Take all the new cap room and do it immediately.

The players chose to take the money immediately, and the logic was pretty simple. I don't trust y'all. You know what I'm saying? Like, why are we waiting for the money that's ours? No, let's just go ahead and get that money now. that money played itself out in the cap. And so what you wound up with was a really weak year of free agency,

except for Kevin Durant. But it also led to a circumstance where the Warriors, if they renounced a couple of contracts, could add Kevin Durant. And it was really truly only at the expense of Andrew Bogan. Harrison Barnes was somebody. They also wound up without, but they were switching out,

Kevin Durant for Andrew for, you know, of Barnes, right? Like to me, the cost of the transaction was Andrew Bogot, who was hurting the finals that year, and you do it 10 times out of 10 is what I'm saying, right? Absolutely. But it could never, it couldn't have happened any other year. It couldn't have happened any other time if there was a measure of luck involved. But I also say for the Warriors, there was a measure of having, and maybe they wouldn't have done this if they had won the championship. Maybe Durant doesn't do it if Oklahoma City had beaten Golden State. I'm not sure how it plays out. But everything worked out in such a way where the window was just open enough and the best regular

season team of all time added who might have been the best player in the NBA. Yep, absolutely. I mean, and on the Harrison Barnes point, like it was, yeah, we could swap Harrison Barnes for KD, but also like we were getting up to a point where, you know, Joe Lakeb was pretty tired of Harrison Barnes at that point, especially, and especially after he stuck up the joint in the 2016 finals, right? It did not shoot the ball particularly well. and you saw the limits of their offense. I mean, you know, when you go back to, you know, just the limits of Golden State's offense and just KD plugging that in,

I mean, you could see this once in a generation, you know, cap spike and all those things. But like the backlash of that that came so swift of KD coming. More was just like, damn, like we have never seen a perfect team before. And there's for the next, like, there was funny. When I was covering Golden State, we would literally, book our finals travel in September. We would just like, oh, there's no way.

Even if there's one injury, they're going to the finals, right? We would just like book in like seven different cities and be like so we can get the rate. But that was the backlash that you would see from the rest of the league. It's like we don't have a cop. It's not competitive anymore. Like you're, I'm sure we're going to talk about it later. But like, if you look at those postseason stats, especially that first year, there was nothing that the rest of the league could do with this, right?

It got to the point where we were kind of manufacturing, and controversies with this team, right? We were trying to, I think that first year, we were trying to make them into, like, the, the heatles, and that's the team that they were compared to. Like, anytime there was a yelling match on the, on the sideline, we would think, oh, damn, it's, is this the end?

Then you look at the record, like, oh, no, they just went, they went 12 and 1 in this month. It's fine. They're fine. It's okay. This is January. We're good. No, no, no.

There was no, there was no, the closest parallel that you would have to this, and it wasn't even close, is like the Lakers being able to draft Magic Johnson when you already had Kareem. Or if Lynn Baez had not died, adding him to what might have been the greatest team in the history of the NBA up until that point. But even then, Lynn Baez was 22, right?

Durant, I said he might have been the best player in the NBA. Like, it's hard to think that anybody was better than LeBron James at that point. I will just point out in the 2017 season to talk about this all the time, The stat that maps most closely to the MVP winner is win shares per 48 minutes. Durant missed a lot of games in 2017, but the league leader in 2014 was Kevin Durant and he won the MVP. The league leader in 2017 was also Kevin Durant. He just missed a lot of games. And this was playing on the team that he was on.

But what did you think of the idea of you went seven with these boys and now you're jumping on the squad? We see that kind of thing happened with like mid-level exception. level players in various sports. We had just never seen anything like that happened with a guy that was as good as this. But on the Warriors end, I don't want to run away from the question, but on the Warriors end, I agree with you. They did need a small forward.

So what were they supposed to do? Right? Get, not, he too good. Right? What was he supposed to say? The thing is, bro, no one thinks like that. No one thinks like that in regular life that, hey, we have the best.

Katie, I talked to Katie in 2022, I believe, and he said, I asked him like, what do you think about, I forgot how the question was broached, but he answered it and was like, I may not be one of the top, consider one of the top players in NBA history, the top 10 players. But if we were to pick just all time 10 players to play a pickup game, I'm getting picked. And that's how it is on the park, bro. like if you see even if you're step curry you're draymond and you're at the park you're like yo i want that dude on my team if i can get it in a player draft that's what you do that's literally how you how you do this um and so uh what was your question i went on a i went on a tangent

yeah like what was the question like did you think that there was anything untoward okay so making that move so it's interesting because when um when he got when he signed with the warriors uh i was in atlanta i was in atlanta I was interning for Turner Sports at that time. So I remember taking, I was doing intern work, like, you know, taking clips from this press conference, right? And at that moment, as a, then I was like, you know, why would he do that, right?

And then a year later, I'm covering the team and I'm getting to know him a little bit more. I've known Kevin Durant's just I was 18 years old. But this was the first time that I had seen him on a day to day. And when you see him on a day to day, you increasingly realize that there's two sides of him, right? there is his ability and there's also his mindset his ability suggests that he should be the best player on the team and a number one option and all those things but his mindset is like you know i just want to be one of the guys like i really just want to be one of the guys i i want to he said some stuff like

that on on the simmons pot a few years back but like i want to be one of the guys i want to kind of be in within the locker room and that's kind of what the the group that went out to the hamptons from the warrior's standpoint, that's what they kind of fed off of like, yeah, you can be one of us. You can be, you want to get to your spots? Cool. We have an offense that has an equal opportunity for everyone. You're good. You want to build camaraderie with us?

Let's do it. And I think that's something that he's always been searching for. And that's something that he finally got in the Golden State. And I think that's something he's also been searching for ever since he left Golden State. Yeah. And they just, they walked through the NBA. They just, they just. And the thing about it was, and I think this is something that it's easy for us to forget about Kevin Durant, even though is at the top line of the resume, is that he's seven feet tall. Yes. And I bring that up in that way because I feel like we think of the Warriors is playing small and they had lineups that could go small and that could destroy you, but they were never really a small team. Like I'm talking about this all the time.

Steph Curry is not small for an NBA point guard. Clay Thompson is not. small. Dremont Green has ways to make up for his height disadvantage, but he's not really small, right? All of these things. Kevin Durant is a seven foot tall small forward. Even when you decided to go small, there's a guy seven feet tall in there that can protect the rim. You know what I mean? Like, like, you're never actually going small as long as Kevin Durant's on the floor. When Oklahoma City that year before would be running like Ennis Cantor and Stephen Adams at the same time. They're running them with Kevin Durant.

Well, I mean, we talked about it last pot. We talked about it the last pot we were in. One of the big reasons why Thunder were so successful is because of the, in the playoffs against Golden State is because the defensive acumen of that team. And chief among that is because Kevin Durant can switch on to at that time, Steph. He could switch on to Andre Aguadale. He could switch. He was, he was, there was the big reason why they went up 3-1 is because of how much of a disruptor he was.

I remember in the 2017 season, 2018 season, for the first few months of the season, he was getting like defensive player of the year buzz, right? Like where he was, I think he had like six blocks in one game against New Orleans. Like he was a bona fide defender and he unlocked a lot of things within that defensive structure. And honestly, man, it allowed them to play the warriors to play faster than normal, right? Because you don't have to have a, you know, a guy like, you know, Fessus Azili kind of, you know, coming around the back or Andrew Boggart is being a traditional center, right?

The Warriors played a lot of times without a traditional center. And a lot of that had to do with Draymond Green and his ability to read angles in a way that I don't think a lot of players in NBA history have been able to do when he could play center and play a lot of those positions.

But it allowed also for you to have a, you had three bona fide great shooters on the floor as well, right? You had Clay Thompson, you had Steph Curry and you had, you had Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. And so, like, it really was a cheat code watching this team, man. Like, I, I, I remember, like, I remember, remember the, there was a Memphis game where, um, where, uh, Draymond gets into it with KD.

And I remember, remember that as a talking point. And I, and I remember that, like, being, like, a talking point, like, oh, it's early in the season. How old are where's going to get their shit together. And I went back before we did this podcast and I looked at what date that was. That date was January, uh, it was January 6th of the season, right? Right. And they had already kind of, they were already had the best record in the league. Like we were trying so hard to like find storylines to like kind of, you know, normal like media storylines. Hey, we're going to, we're going to try to find some controversy because it's a Tuesday

in January and it's right before the NFL playoffs. And we really don't have anything. We need to get drum up something. And then they reel off like nine straight ones after that. It was really, it was really just, it was too easy for them. It was way too easy for them in a number of different ways, especially. down the stretch of games because KD can kind of get that mid-range and he could be the anecdote to Steph Curry who was just all of this chaos and the Warriors have been trying to find a guy like KD who could stabilize the offense ever since even with guys like Chris Paul and it just hasn't worked because Katie was just so good in that role. Think about this.

One of the craziest things about how good imbalance that team was nobody made first team all NBA. No. No. Nobody made first team all the NBA. Curry had 25.3 points a game. Duran had 25.1. Thompson had 22.3.

Right? Like, it was just your turn. You want a bucket? Okay, you can have a bucket. Oh, you want to get you a bucket? All right, cool. Got you. It was also quite literally like one of the best 2K games ever,

or best 2K teams ever of all time. Yo, let me say, I haven't played video games in a very long time, right? But my thought with the Warriors was, and this is part of why the thing with Duran landed, Hey man, it's some teams you just not allowed to use. You are not allowed to use a 2017. Like you can't be up. There's no way that you get you allowed to use them, man.

What's you doing? But go pick the Wizards with John Wall. What's you doing, man? Like, why are you going to do that? That's forbidden. I remember like the 2000, like, 08 Patriots were one of those teams, right? The one with Randy Moss, right? Those are one of those teams.

I think the Vic Madden teams were always like, bro, why are you doing it? Chicago and San Francisco on. the first Tecmo Bowl. Like, you can only use them if we play in each other. Otherwise, like, except with the Warriors on 2K, there was no, we can't, there's no other team to play

each other with, right? Yeah. The Warriors were that good. He was like, there's no other team you could like, I can't, even on 2K, I can't pick the Cavs because they weren't going to be as good enough to play against this Warriorsby team. You had to play like the dream team against this Warriors team on 2K. It was that, it was that out of pocket.

When you look at the regular season numbers, this team shot 49 and a half percent from the field, 38% from three as a team. Yeah. 79 from the line. Yeah. Right? What was anybody supposed to do with this? And this is why two things.

One, it was obviously why I was frustrating for a lot of people that he went there in the first place. Like, I don't think, I don't know what else people expected for him or the team to do under those circumstances, right? Especially if he'd been in Oklahoma City nine years. He just felt like it was time for something else. why would you not want to be a part of this if you got the option? Okay, cool. However, in combination with the 73-win team not winning the championship, I contend that Kevin Durant going to Golden State ruined the regular season

in a way that the NBA has yet to recover from because it really didn't matter, right? And so I say it's in two ways. This team won 73 games and didn't win a championship. So what does the regular season matter, right? the greatest team in the history of the NBA, what does it matter? And then you add Durant and it's just like what I hate, the part that I didn't like

about that, though I understood where people were coming from was I don't think there was ever a point as it normally is with a team that is that excellent. And I guess we did it the year before so we were burnout on the idea, but I don't feel like there was a time where the basketball watching public was able to just stop

and just spend every night being amazed. Right? Like we should be telling stories about how man, I got up every I mean, I stayed up every night, watching the Warriors on a League pass. I'm sure there are people who did that, but that's not the way that we received this team. We received how good they were negatively because they low-key broke basketball. Yeah, I mean, I mean, you even think about the team that preceded them, the Chicago Bulls, who won 72 games.

They had playoff battles, right? That's how you really, you know, either figure that you love the team or hate the team, is that you can be, feel like you can be a long journey with them, right? And that's not to say the Warriors don't have those games, but what I'm saying is like during that 2016-2017 season in particular, that was a rare time when, you know, the hubris was on the horizon, but the vibes there were like just so immaculate, right? They went through the, I think they didn't lose a postseason game until the finals.

Yep. And even then, I believe that was a game, was that game three of that final, or game four of that final series? when they were already up three one three oh in the series they let me yeah yes yes they had a chance to to to run a boston on the whole NBA yeah right and so what you want in sports is you want your best team to be tested right you want to see that those games in 2016 2017 if you go back and look there weren't many games that were that that compelling like just suppose that with the 73 and 9 season

where the regular season did matter and there were a lot of compelling games. I can't really think of a game. I think about... Well, there was one. There was one that was compelling. That was a Christmas game. I remember there was a Christmas game

that was like that was amazing. But other than that, there weren't like, you would go into a lot of games when you would go out to Oracle during that time. And, you know, a lot of people would leave because like they're up 30 going into the third quarter. It's like, okay, we saw the third quarter run. It's time to go bounce out.

Get the hell up out of East Oakland. And let's let's, let's wait. for the next game, right? And we weren't seeing the drama that we liked to see out of teams, particularly in that year, right? And that had a lot to do with the fact that KD just wasn't, the malcontent

version of him didn't show yet, right? And so it was great until it wasn't. Well, I'm going to say, like the compelling game of the 2017 season was the one where the Spurs went up 25 or whatever it was, and then Zaza took one for the team and got Kauai out of there. And that lead went, boop.

Like that was the series that had a chance because Kauai, quiet as is kept, at that point, was now a legitimate challenger for being the best player in the NBA, right? He was a home to the NBA at that point. He was definitely an O-Marty, man. Two years later, after suffering significant knee injury, he led a team to a championship. No matter what happened with the Warriors, that was still Kauai Lillard on a team whose second best player was what, either Kyle Lowry or Pascal Seacum.

Yeah. Right. Like, he did that. Like, there's no telling what it would have been. But for that, that season to me is just like a big old giant blur in a lot of ways because they were just that much better. But you just touched on it. We'll get to this coming up next, which is it was all good when it was all good.

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All right, we back with that boy, low, low, you know what I'm saying? Check out real ones. The 2018 season. Yeah. It didn't go as smooth in the 2018 season for the Warriors. I don't, like, is there anything about the regular season that stands out to you about that team?

Just that they were bored, right? Like, they had done everything. Like, at some point, you get tired of beating the game. Yeah. I think they were bored during that time of their run. That was the 17-18 season was my first official season on the beat, right? And I'm coming into the beat like, damn, there's all these good vibes. This is great.

And then when you, I got there, the October right before the season, I got on the beat at the San Josei Mercury News. And then you just see, like, why is it all this dread? Like, why are y'all not, like, happy as y'all were last year when I was coming periodically? But I think it was just boredom. There were some, it was some injuries to Steph at that point. point. And there was just also the assumption that, hey, we're going to get there if we're whole, we're really not tripping. And then you see the rise of the, the Houston Rockets.

What's finally like, we go back to last season where it's like there's nobody challenging this team, you finally saw a challenger kind of coming into the fold with Houston, right? And they were everything that the Warriors weren't, right? The Warriors are pride themselves on a ball movement and, you know, three-point shooting and good shots selection. and then you have Houston who was led by a ball dominant guy who has his, if you look at his co-stars, they're always like this whenever, whenever they're in the corner and they're like, they're like, this. And then they're like, okay.

My favorite thing is to look at PJ Tucker during that run because he's like looking for the ball and it's like, yo, yeah, yeah, no. Anyways, so, but what you saw was you saw the Rock has kind of come into the national scene as a team that could potentially that could potentially like knock these guys off. I mean, they were the number one seed. They were the number one seed and they beat they had two, James Harden had two big games against the Warriors that season, both at Oracle,

if I remember correctly, there was the opening night game where the Warriors get up to a 20-point lead it was the Nick Young game and the Rocket Storm all the way back to win that game. And I remember that game in particular because Steve Kerr was just so pissed off at the team. Like, why are you guys? Like, his biggest thing was trying to find things to motivate this team.

Sometimes he would have the players, like, draw plays just to keep them interesting. And so they lost that first game in opening night against Houston. And then there was a mid-season game where James Hardin hits a three at the buzzer that was fucking incredible. It was one of the great, you guys go look back up that. I think it was an early January game. But the Rockets seemed to have their number. and then the more importantly, they seemed to have the Warriors' attention. So it was always like, okay, we're going to seat them later.

And the Warriors were a two-seed. When I think that they were definitely a better team than Houston, but they became, they were a two-seed. And we were like, let's just get to the conference finals. It wasn't as, I don't remember it being as much hype as the Spurs OKC match yet, but it was like that. It was like, okay, we're going to see how they are because this is going to be the real NBA finals. And we'll see who the best team is.

So, and then you had, um, whispers of Kate, the early whispers of Katie's malcontent, right? Like, I, in that, you know, he just not starting to fit in, not starting to feel like he's part of the group anymore. And he's starting to isolate himself, right? But it was, those rumors were just starting. And then it was like, wow, is it really, is the culture of Golden State really going to be, first it's good enough to bring Kevin to right here, but is it good enough to keep him? And that was always a lingering question that was starting to come up as you get. to that 2017-2018 season. So I think it's interesting to just

suppose kind of two ideas about what happens when you win championships. Pat Riley would talk about the disease of more, right? Like after you get the championship, now that everybody's got that goal, now it's time to get more. I want more shots. I want more playing time.

I want more endorsements. I want a little of this. I want a little of that. Ethan Strauss wrote a book about this run called The Victory Machine, which was interesting. And the point that I thought was interesting about it was he was,

he was like, well, really, what happens when you win this championship and it doesn't make you nearly as happy as you expected it to? Right? Like, what else is there for you to do at this point? And the Warriors, I think, throughout this whole run did a great job of staving off the Moore problem, right? Like, we don't, you know, even with Draymond Green and his like issues with Kerr, not giving him enough rope. I don't even think that was Draymond wanting more as much as Draymond not wanting less, which is what it ultimately became once Kurt came back. And then obviously once Durant got there, that's when he becomes triple single guy because there just aren't buckets left there for him to get.

But they did seem to have the, like, so why exactly are we doing this again? Right? Like that's what it feels like when that team starts running as he did in 2018. And look, Chris Paul doesn't have the hamstring injury in 2018. It is entirely possible that the Rockets win that series. I don't think it's likely because we've seen enough of James Hardin's movies, but there's the argument. And Chris Falls movies.

Yeah, yeah. Like that might have happened. They wound up winning the championship that year. They went in there and they played against Cleveland. And they, I mean, we cannot ignore the fact that they swept Cleveland out, basically, those last two years. A 4-1 and a 4-0. And that, I mean, that 2018 Cleveland team, that was when they just, like, when your

mama go into fridge and be like, what we got, I'm going to make dinner out of something. and that's what that whole roster was, right? Like, there's way to make trades and just put us some goulash together and just said, No, they had LeBron. They had LeBron. Like, that's really what it was. It was late stage great LeBron who could. I think that was the last time that LeBron could do that, right?

They could just sing her handily just go ahead and like just take a team. They just had Randos just coming out of nowhere. And I mean, they made a trade to get a collection of Randos. Yep. Like that was what they did. We're going to trade our Randos for these other Randos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll make Randolish.

Yeah. But watch, it'll be good. Yeah. It'll, it'll, it'll, you'll be fine, right? Like that's, that's kind of, you know, that's, that's kind of what they went with. But then by the time you get to year three of this, now the malcontent stuff is, is coming out loud. And the one place I always defended Duran on this was it has to be annoying to have a bunch of strangers trying to ask you if you're happy. Because to all of us on the outside, of course you'd be happy.

You got exactly what you said you want. it by coming to play for this team. But part of what I always thought was interesting about that coming together, and I'm curious your thoughts about this. We treat Stefan Curry like he's a saint, and Steph Curry is ultimately a human being. Yeah. And it was his squad, right?

Like, I think this is as comparable as it is to Derek Jeter when Alex Rodriguez showed up. Derek Jeter should have gone and played second base and let Rodriguez play shortstop, except I'm the shortstop. Yeah, I'm the, I'm the, I'm, I'm the shortstop. What are you talking about? Like, I earned this.

I'm the captain. I'm staying right here. And not to say that Steph did anything explicit like that with Duran, but the reality was he was always going to be the captain. And I thought it was fair and understandable for Duran to be like, yo, man, I'm two-time finals MVP. And y'all still looking at me like I'm a number two, even though I am in his eyes, clearly the best player on this team.

And I think he was the best player on this team. Like, was that something that was helpful to you guys there? Yes. I think that there was that, right? Like, I think that there was, we talking about beforehand where, um, I think KD ultimately, like as we're 10 years,

uh, removed from it, I think KD came to the Bay Area in search of something that was far beyond basketball, right? He came, um, to find community,

right? And find community on his terms. And purpose and happy. And purpose and happiness, right? And what's, and, you know, going into his career,

you know, he's coming up in Kobe land. He's getting compared to LeBron. And what is taught to him throughout this whole time? What is going to provide happiness? It's going to be rings, right? It's going to be the finals MVP. It's going to be the glory.

It's going to be Rihanna coming front row to come see you play, right? That's what it's going to be. And then when you get that, I think he realized the internal foundation around him wasn't strong enough for him to actually enjoy the title that he had, right? Because after he gets the title, he thinks it's going to bring. I mean, we, but we've all been through this, right, where we just put this thing as like, okay, this thing is going to solve all of my other problems. And when we get that thing, it doesn't solve all of our problems, and we all fucked up, right?

And I think that that was something that KD was going through, right? So after he wins the title, then he's trying to, like, conquer other things, right? Can I conquer this team and not necessarily wrestle away from Steph, but more of just thinking like, man, why they don't love me like they don't love stuff, right? Like, well, I don't know. And then he has other, you know, things that are going on in his head. Yeah, Draymond brought me here, but like, he don't work hard as me. How come he don't get the glory?

How come he get more glory than I am? How come he, you know, why doesn't he get every, why can I get the love that he get, right? They treat him like a carpetbagger. Right. But like, I think what, I think that what he was going through during that time, again, he was searching for something way beyond what the warriors could ever have provided for him. because at every turn, they tried their best to coddle him and tried to, I'm going, whatever you need, KD, whatever you need. But then you started seeing other things, right?

Like when Katie first got to, he started isolating himself. Like when Katie first got to the Bay Area, he had a nice house in East Oakland overlooking the Bay. And who else was in the East Bay in the hills? He was, he was down, lived down the street from Clay Thompson. He lived down the street from Andre Aguadala, lived over the hill. from Steph Curry. And then you start seeing around 2018, what happens? Even though they're playing in Oakland, he moves to a high rise of San Francisco, right? And he just isolates himself from the group. And you know, if you know the Bay Area, you know that San Francisco is a completely different world

in Oakland, right? Like, and it's not just easy saying, like, I'm just going to go over a bridge to go hang. So after practice, I'm like, yo, I'm jetting to the city and I'm getting my other stuff done. So he started isolating himself from the group. And it was a self-fulfilling prophecy for him, right? Like, I'm not those things, and I'm going to convince myself that I'm not loved by this organization. And also, you know, he was on Twitter a lot. And, you know, a lot of the fan base, he read all the comments and he was honestly like, it was like a everyday news story, like, of him trying to protect his legacy in real time instead of like, you know, going and join the Bay. And that was, whatever he was searching for in the Bay, the Warriors

tried to provide to him. And it still wasn't enough, ultimately. I think there's another part that we don't talk about, right? And that is, like, my buddy Nick said this and it made a big guy controversial on the internet. I've been saying this for years, which is my belief that there was never a time that Kobe Bryant was the best player in the NBA. It sounds crazy to people, but there are arguments. Like, you can have your argument that Kobe was a better, like, if you believe that Kobe was a better player than Shaq in 2001 and there's an argument, that Kobe would have been the best player in the league, right? If you think that Tim Duncan by 02 had become the best player in the league,

which I'm inclined to think, then the Kobe window gets weird. And if you think that he carried that for a while and then when LeBron picks it up, but either way, I know why that makes people mad, but there's a case for it. Just as wild as it may seem, the idea that somebody might think

that Kobe was never the best player in the NBA, there is never a point at which we have ever treated Kevin Durant like he was the best player in the NBA. and this is even after he won the 2014 MVP, and he didn't win it because LeBron missed games or anything like that. He was the best player in the NBA. Russell Westberg was out that year too as well, right? Like he was carrying that.

Russell Westbrook was out that year for a large extent of time. So he was like carrying that Thunder roster to 60 games or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Like he was that guy. Then if you don't want to say he was the best player in the NBA at that point, okay. right? He comes to Golden State and it's like this, whoa, I won a championship.

I win a championship. I'm finals MVP. I seal a championship, hitting a shot in LeBron's eye, in LeBron's house. Okay, so there's a, there's a torch, and you're supposed to hand it to me, right?

Nope. We didn't even think about it. Now, part of that, I think, is because we had started to give that torts to Steph, and then 2016 game seven happened. And we're like, damn, we're scared to give it to anybody other than LeBron. But I think that Durant was looking at it like, okay, I don't think I can get, I don't think I can win a championship here where I am, right? I don't think I can reach the benchmarks that you normally have to reach

where people say you're the best player in the NBA. I just went and did that and it never happened. And what it made me think about was, it's the scene in the wire where they in the they over there in that off-brand office, they got way off into cut. And it's Lester and Jimmy talking, and Jimmy is talking something about how, you know, the work being you,

Lester do, maybe five, ten guys out here can do this. And Lester's like, how do you think this is, huh? You think it's going to be a Jimmy McNulty Day? You think it's going to be a ticket tape parade? Like, what do you think? Like, do you really think that's what's going to happen? And Lester says to him,

Jimmy, a life. You know what that is? It's what happens while you're waiting on moments that are never going to come. Yep. And Kevin got to a place where, in my opinion, because I don't know him like that, he was waiting for moments that were never going to come.

And then it becomes this huge thing by that third year because now he's a free agent. And it's like, well, what are you going to do? Are you going to come back? And Draymond called you a bitch in front of everybody. and you're like, and there's nothing you can do about it unless you go punch him in the face, which isn't an option. Yeah.

Right? I mean, I mean, it is an option. It is an option. I think if he would have did that on Tamara. It's an option when you're 23. Yeah. It's not an option at the, you know, by the time you're in year 11, you can't really do that, right?

And so he's just like, what am I supposed to do here, right? This cat just told me, we don't need you. Everything I've always worried about and felt about you guys not feeling like, like we really gang over here. You just told me that we not. Yeah. And they ain't make you do it. And then we ain't even talk about it. And then that's the other thing about the Warriors culture that I speak about, right? It was vibes. It was like, hey, man, we're all happy. We're all happy. But I mean, I don't know if you've been in this situation. But anytime I see somebody that is like manufactured happiness, it means

that they're sweeping something under the rug. And what the Warriors culture ultimately became was a place that would sweep things under the rug for Draymond Green, right? And that really like that pissed Kay off. That pissed him off a lot. Like I just referenced that, you know, Kevin saw a guy that, you know, is really good. But again, he's not putting in the work that I'm putting in on a given, any given night and or staying after hours. Like, say what you want about KD, but like he's probably one of the most refined basketball players of his generation. And the reason why that is is because.

he's one of the most meticulous workout players that I think I've ever seen, right? And you expose that with Draymond, who is one of the smartest basketball players that I have ever been around. But he doesn't necessarily have the work ethic of a lot of people, right? Like, that also was a point of contention a lot for Golden State. But he sees that. And he's like, and on top of the fact that it's like, damn, bro, you called me. You were the one that called me.

You said, we don't need you. You called me to come here, right? And then that even pushed the isolation even further because I remember like even in the first round One of the best series that I've ever seen from Kevin was Against the 2019 first round against the clippers and That's the I'm Kevin Durant series. Yeah, he was a bad motherfucker that series right? But as as he's playing well You hear coaches behind the scenes like yeah, he's not he's not coming back next year. It's over right? Like he's not he's just not gonna come back like they were and they weren't sad about it and and they weren't sad about it and and and And they were not sad about it because they had all coalesced around Drayman.

And also like, you know, Kevin started to isolate himself from people. So it was just, it was just a perfect storm of events to get him there. But it was a perfect storm of events to get him out of there as well. Yeah, but let's talk about this, though, that 2019 postseason, after the I'm Kevin Durant speech, after people acting like Patrick Beverly was shutting him down, he was as good as anybody I've ever seen. They made the, we're going to run through Kevin Durant call. And yeah, they made some subtle changes to the offense to allow him a little more time to cook and everything else. But no, they decided we're going through this guy in that series.

And up until the calf strain. Woo! Boy. Bo, even in the finals, I remember when he came back for game five, if you go look at the first, because there was, there was, he has the calf injury, Katie does. Then we go through where it's like we're having this identity crisis. This is when the Warriors are actually interesting. right like this was when they became you know late stage dynasty but you go and through this about three week stretch where it's like man is it is it Kevin's team is it steff's team is it what's going

on can they win one out because they had the big win against Houston to close out the series and it was like oh oh yeah we were reminded this team was actually good before Kevin Durant and then it's like they go and they play against Toronto and you know they get down and it's like oh shit is Kevin going to get them out of it or they still good without him and then he comes in game five and he's just before he tears his Achilles. You go look at him. You go look at him before he tears his Achilles. It's like, oh, shit.

Warriors are going to wrap this thing up? It's all good. It's over with it. It's fine. We understand what this is and how good he is. Then he tears his Achilles. And that is a turning point in his whole career. From then before Achilles tear and then afterwards.

Yeah, everything after that is almost in the end. We go, like none of that shit happened. Oh, absolutely. It's weird. It's been a string of seven irrelevant years. What's weird is. Not that, Jose, not that he was irrelevant. but nothing that happened there matters.

The NBA kind of passed him by after that, which was wild, right? And I think the other thing is like, I think KD for a long stretch of his career post-Golden State has spent a lot of time both relitigating how that experience went, but also trying to run away from it and trying to be something else. But it's weird because I think when we go look back 20, 30 years from now, he's going to be known as a Golden State warrior. Like, he's going to be known for that stretch in particular. for a long time, it's going to be the only retired jersey he has. Because Lakelop has said that they're going to do it. And they absolutely should.

I think I think OKC will as well. I think OKC will. Eventually. Eventually, I think so. Because I remember when I talked to him in 22, he, you know, he was in Brooklyn. And he said all these, it was funny. He said all of these teams that I play for should retire my jersey. It's only good for the game, including OKC.

wouldn't be good for basketball if they didn't. And I was like, wow, this is going to be crazy. And when the story dropped, the Sam Presti, they had an alumni in the game, alumni night in Oklahoma City. Sam Presti, like, did a toast and said, everybody is welcome here, including from past, president, future. And that wasn't so subtle, right? Like, they've, and ever since then, they've been trying behind the scenes to prepare

that relationship, I think it'll be figured out. So I think it'll get his shit. Eventually. Eventually. Eventually. Eventually. In Oklahoma City and it in Golden State. He's, Golden said his first, though.

Yeah, Golden State is the only one that I'm sure is going to do it because Lakeup has said explicitly that they're going to do it. Okay, see, the Jersey just might appear in their arena. It just might appear up in the Raptors. But it's still salty. Like, when they go play games there and now, he still gets booed. Like, to me, it's crazy that it's still salty because I don't, because I didn't feel like it ended and they didn't want it to. But I didn't feel like it ended acrimoniously. Like, you got to think, though, man.

They, they, he went to the thing, bro. I hear you, but it's been 10 years is all I'm saying. man, but they don't forget stuff. Toronto got over Vince. Yeah, but there's a lot more. There's a lot more stuff to like get over. There's a lot more stuff to do in Toronto to get over the fact that Vince Carter left you in Oklahoma City, you just sit there and you just wait and just like, yeah, I guess so.

Right. Like I remember one time I went to, uh, I went to go cover a game in Oklahoma City. And I made the mistake of telling the Uber driver that I was coming from the Bay Area. And the look on that man's face was sick. And I did not know if I was. I was going to get to my hotel on time. There's a disdain for the coastal elites in places like Oklahoma City. And the fact that KD left for a coastal elite town,

that plays a large part in how they think about them. Yeah, I think it's because he left to the team that beat him in seven. But it's an interesting story that he gave us in so much that spins off, really a decision that makes all the sense in the world unless it doesn't. That's Logan Murdoch. check him out at Duranger, check out real ones, check out his articles. He does articles. He does all kind of stuff, man.

My brother, I appreciate you. Well, I appreciate you too, man. Thanks so much for having me on. I love always coming on here. It's a pleasure. No problem. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this four days a week, but we're moving to summer hours.

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