MY ACCOUNT
Stephen Curry has revealed the Golden State Warriors discussed the possibility of re-signing Kevin Durant – a move their superstar point guard would have welcomed.
Durant appeared set to be on the move this offseason after requesting a trade away from the Brooklyn Nets.
The former NBA MVP joined the Nets after leaving the Warriors in 2019, where he had spent three seasons playing alongside Curry, reaching the Finals in each year and winning two titles and two Finals MVP awards.
Curry and Durant won 131 of the 168 regular season games they played together (78.0 per cent), so it was perhaps no surprise the idea of a reunion appealed to the Golden State stalwart.
Ultimately, the Nets announced they had “agreed to move forward with our partnership” with Durant, but Curry has detailed his thought-process as the saga played out.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, conducted in August for the October issue, Curry said: “There was a conversation internally amongst us about, ‘If he was available, would you?’
“Every team has those conversations, and obviously in our situation, they’re going to call me and ask me, ‘How do you feel about it?’
“I was never hesitant. The idea of playing with KD and knowing who he is as a person, from our history in those three years, I think KD’s a really good dude.
“I think he is misunderstood. I think he has had certain things happen in his life that hurt his ability to trust people around him, in a sense of making him feel safe at all times.
“So all of those things I understand, having played with him and gotten to know him. I love that dude.
“And if you said, ‘Oh, KD’s coming back, and we’re going to play with him’… I had so much fun playing with him those three years, I’d be like, ‘hell, yeah!’
“Then you have to think: what does that actually mean? What does it look like? You tell me I’m playing with [Warriors team-mates Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole and Draymond Green], I’m like, ‘hell, yeah!’
“There’s all types of emotion and things that happen to the league. And if anybody’s saying that you wouldn’t entertain that conversation… no disrespect to anybody on our team, but you don’t know how things work.
“But you also understand, if we run this thing back, I’ve got complete confidence in my team that we can win it again, as constructed.
“So, all those things were true. And it started with me wanting to play with KD at the beginning.
“Yeah, it’s about winning, it’s about having fun, playing the game of basketball. And that was part of the reaction of, ‘yeah, it’d be amazing’… what does that actually mean?”
