# Logan Murdock on Why Kevin Durant Chose the Warriors 10 years ago | 06.30

An episode of [The Right Time with Bomani Jones](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/982639043), 30 Jun 2026, 53 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/370fc844-36bd-4f61-8b8f-b4bb010de39a/9cc091ce-f01e-4096-afce-b4bb0110e38e/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=919a7cbe-003c-4146-b592-b4bb010de3a5

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 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Wave.
[0:09] Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A wave original.
[0:13] Speaker 2: My name is Beaumont Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
[0:15] Speaker 2: get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like,
[0:19] Speaker 2: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
[0:21] Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[0:24] Speaker 2: a hater. We are in Time Machine Tuesday. We are
[0:28] Speaker 2: talking about the day that Kevin Durant Broke the NBA
[0:32] Speaker 2: and signed with the Golden State Warriors 10 years ago
[0:36] Speaker 2: in the year of our Lord 2016. Joining us. Check
[0:39] Speaker 2: him out at the Ranger. I didn't realize they called
[0:42] Speaker 2: him Lolo, but apparently that's what they say in the
[0:45] Speaker 2: background of this. Check out real ones available on your podcast.
[0:50] Speaker 2: Give it away free. Logan Murdoch was going on.
[0:52] Speaker 1: What's up, man? Hey, man, I didn't take my shoes
[0:55] Speaker 1: off in your place of residence earlier before the pod
[0:59] Speaker 1: and pre-pod, so I just want to publicly apologize that
[1:03] Speaker 1: I'm here, and I'm excited to be here.
[1:05] Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
[1:06] Speaker 1: I appreciate the invitation, because I.
[1:08] Speaker 2: Was out here wilding. You are, you are. It's cool, though.
[1:10] Speaker 2: And look, we need a Lolo on this show that
[1:12] Speaker 2: like me, because that Lolo Jones does not. It was earned. Yep.
[1:20] Speaker 2: It wasn't so, but let me know, though. It wasn't
[1:22] Speaker 2: earned I just understand where she might be coming from.
[1:25] Speaker 1: There you go. That's called growth.
[1:27] Speaker 2: There we go. I always understood it. I didn't and
[1:31] Speaker 2: don't care, but I always understood it. But, Logan, you
[1:37] Speaker 2: had interesting timing in your career, and we have talked
[1:39] Speaker 2: a lot on this show up until this point about, really,
[1:42] Speaker 2: these 2016 Golden State Warriors. We did an episode with
[1:45] Speaker 2: you about the 2016-2017 season. We talked to Ethan Strauss.
[1:49] Speaker 2: about the 2016 NBA finals but now this is Kevin
[1:53] Speaker 2: Durant showing up and then what happens after and one
[1:57] Speaker 2: thing that we touched on that hovered over the season
[1:59] Speaker 2: and hovered over the NBA finals and really the playoff
[2:01] Speaker 2: run though I guess it was easy to forget a
[2:03] Speaker 2: little bit during the Golden State Oklahoma City series because
[2:06] Speaker 2: these teams are going against each other but Adrian Wojnarowski
[2:09] Speaker 2: put it out there right at the all-star break yo
[2:11] Speaker 2: Kevin Durant's gonna go to the Warriors like We all
[2:15] Speaker 2: kind of had this hovering belief and understanding that this
[2:19] Speaker 2: was going to happen all the way to Draymond Green
[2:21] Speaker 2: later telling us after they lost game seven, he's on
[2:24] Speaker 2: the phone telling Kevin Durant that he needs to show
[2:28] Speaker 2: up there. But I ask you this is somebody who
[2:30] Speaker 2: was in the Bay. How much thought were you giving
[2:32] Speaker 2: to the idea of Durant showing up or were you
[2:34] Speaker 2: so caught up in or were people so caught up
[2:36] Speaker 2: in the 73 win season that there was no reason
[2:38] Speaker 2: to think about anything else?
[2:39] Speaker 1: I think there was two trains of thought. One, I
[2:42] Speaker 1: don't think it was two trains of thought and one
[2:44] Speaker 1: going into one tunnel, which is, wow, this is crazy
[2:47] Speaker 1: that the Warriors are this good. This is just incredibly crazy.
[2:51] Speaker 1: For anyone that grew up during a similar time period
[2:54] Speaker 1: in the 90s like I did and going into the
[2:56] Speaker 1: early 2000s and the mid-2000s and coming of age during
[2:59] Speaker 1: this time, it was like, this is crazy. This is
[3:01] Speaker 1: the team that I used to watch lose. I would
[3:03] Speaker 1: go to the Coliseum to go watch the other team lose. play, right? Like,
[3:08] Speaker 1: I will go see Dirk. I will go see Kobe.
[3:09] Speaker 1: I'll come see LeBron.
[3:11] Speaker 2: And people will be in there smoking.
[3:14] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.
[3:15] Speaker 2: That's the thing. A sorry team in Oakland, indoors or out.
[3:22] Speaker 1: I got news for you, Bo. When they were really,
[3:24] Speaker 1: really good, they were still smoking. It was still a
[3:26] Speaker 1: cloud over the perimeter.
[3:28] Speaker 2: But it's different if you've ever been where a team,
[3:30] Speaker 2: especially a team in the upper deck where they get
[3:33] Speaker 2: bad and they're like, man, ain't nobody about to do shit.
[3:35] Speaker 1: They're just glad we're here. Oh man, absolutely. Especially like
[3:38] Speaker 1: in a place like California where it was decriminalized all
[3:41] Speaker 1: my life. That's all you would see like a summer
[3:43] Speaker 1: jam at anything at any concert. My favorite thing, before
[3:47] Speaker 1: we get back to this, my favorite thing about going
[3:49] Speaker 1: to the Coliseum back in the day as a kid is,
[3:52] Speaker 1: Watching the show for Summer Jam and then the lights
[3:55] Speaker 1: go on in between acts and then you just see
[3:57] Speaker 1: this fog in the Coliseum. It would just seem like, oh, OK,
[4:01] Speaker 1: that's why. Is that a contact I have? I'm 11
[4:04] Speaker 1: years old. I'm not supposed to have this. What's going on?
[4:06] Speaker 1: And then it would go dark and then you would
[4:08] Speaker 1: see the smoke going through the lights. It was a vibe.
[4:10] Speaker 1: You would have loved it. But anyways, smoking weed, which
[4:15] Speaker 1: gives us a great transition back to Kevin Durant. But no,
[4:18] Speaker 1: I think it was two trains of mind. Right. Which
[4:20] Speaker 1: was it's crazy that this is happening. And also, like,
[4:24] Speaker 1: is Kevin Durant going to come on our team? Because
[4:27] Speaker 1: you got to think, man, before this, the Warriors were,
[4:30] Speaker 1: by and large, homegrown, right? Their biggest signing was David Lee,
[4:35] Speaker 1: and then after that it was Andre Guadagla, right? But
[4:37] Speaker 1: they had also gotten spurned by Dwight Howard in 2020,
[4:42] Speaker 1: I believe 2023, or one of those times. I believe
[4:45] Speaker 1: he had taken a meeting with the Warriors, but he
[4:46] Speaker 1: just didn't. 2013. Exactly, yeah. but ultimately didn't go, right?
[4:53] Speaker 1: But the Warriors were in the process behind the scenes
[4:56] Speaker 1: of like putting together a product that would attract the
[4:59] Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. And you also got to think about the
[5:01] Speaker 1: other side of this, which is the booming tech industry
[5:05] Speaker 1: at the time, right? I know at this point, tech
[5:07] Speaker 1: has taken a bad rap, but like in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,
[5:12] Speaker 1: I mean, it was booming and everybody wanted to be
[5:15] Speaker 1: out here because it felt like just a new coming
[5:17] Speaker 1: of age. And Kevin Durant was a part of that, right?
[5:21] Speaker 1: He had invested in Postmates, and that was a selling
[5:24] Speaker 1: point for the Warriors at that time. So from the
[5:27] Speaker 1: basketball standpoint, you have this once-in-a-generation shooter in Steph Curry.
[5:31] Speaker 1: You have one of the greatest defenders of all time
[5:35] Speaker 1: in Draymond Green. You have Andre Guadagla running out the roster.
[5:40] Speaker 1: And more than anything, you had this culture that the
[5:42] Speaker 1: Warriors were building, or at least the culture that they
[5:44] Speaker 1: were selling, which is, hey, man, we're going to have
[5:47] Speaker 1: fun and we're going to beat the shit out of
[5:48] Speaker 1: everybody while we're having fun, right? There's this big anecdote
[5:52] Speaker 1: that is always permeated around the Bay Area, which actually
[5:56] Speaker 1: happened during the 2015 All-Star game when I believe Steve
[6:01] Speaker 1: Kerr was coaching that team because they had the best
[6:03] Speaker 1: record in the league. And after the game, the coaches
[6:05] Speaker 1: were just drinking. I think Modelo's, that was Steve's drink.
[6:08] Speaker 1: And KD pops into the coach's office like, oh shit,
[6:11] Speaker 1: this is how y'all get down? And that was like,
[6:13] Speaker 1: kind of got the ball rolling on what he wanted
[6:15] Speaker 1: to do. And the Bay was just a place to
[6:18] Speaker 1: be at that point before investors and people like Andre
[6:21] Speaker 1: Godala who wanted to invest in tech and people like
[6:24] Speaker 1: KD who was already doing it, but you can only
[6:26] Speaker 1: do so much. It's a difference between being in Oklahoma
[6:28] Speaker 1: City and coming to the Bay twice a year and
[6:31] Speaker 1: seeing these tech people versus actually seeing them every day
[6:35] Speaker 1: and talking to them and conversing with them because boardroom
[6:38] Speaker 1: and the stuff that he's doing right now was just
[6:39] Speaker 1: an idea. So it was one track for Kevin, the
[6:43] Speaker 1: business of him, but also it was like, oh, this
[6:46] Speaker 1: team is off the hook. And I got an out
[6:48] Speaker 1: because they kind of need me, right? That was like
[6:50] Speaker 1: the missing piece for the Avengers in a lot of ways, right?
[6:54] Speaker 1: Because they had this offense that we hadn't seen before,
[6:58] Speaker 1: but they didn't have somebody that can kill in the mid-range.
[7:04] Speaker 1: Every great team has gaps, and KD was just the
[7:07] Speaker 1: one who was like, no, I'm going to fill this gap,
[7:08] Speaker 1: and we're going to be one of the greatest, if
[7:10] Speaker 1: not the greatest, assimilation of talent that we've ever seen.
[7:13] Speaker 2: I want to jump on that tech thing right fast
[7:14] Speaker 2: because that's an angle I had not thought about. And
[7:16] Speaker 2: I think it was something that in 2016, right? That
[7:23] Speaker 2: was around the time that people were realizing that, yeah,
[7:28] Speaker 2: Durant invested in Postmates and you could put your money
[7:31] Speaker 2: in this stuff. But those cats like rappers, a lot
[7:33] Speaker 2: of them were pulling this off. I had one rapper
[7:35] Speaker 2: call me about getting in a bit of a collective
[7:37] Speaker 2: that was on this. You ain't even have to invest.
[7:41] Speaker 2: You just needed to pull up, be there, have somebody
[7:44] Speaker 2: at one of these companies who thinks you're really cool
[7:47] Speaker 2: and that you could be some sort of ambassador and
[7:49] Speaker 2: you get your money in equity there. And so like
[7:52] Speaker 2: that's a thing about being basketball player rich is the
[7:57] Speaker 2: added level of it puts you around even richer people.
[8:00] Speaker 2: But you seem cool to those even richer people.
[8:04] Speaker 1: Right.
[8:04] Speaker 2: And so at that time, everything felt brand ass new
[8:07] Speaker 2: and everybody had a startup that they were going and
[8:09] Speaker 2: they get these valuations on. And then going from there,
[8:12] Speaker 2: like that was a time.
[8:14] Speaker 1: And by and large, too, when you think about these guys,
[8:17] Speaker 1: like what did these tech guys like? What was their ethos?
[8:19] Speaker 1: They loved hip hop and they basically they like to
[8:22] Speaker 1: fetishize black people. That's basically what it was of that age. Right.
[8:25] Speaker 1: They loved hip hop and they loved basketball. And they
[8:28] Speaker 1: wanted to be the cool guys in in pictures with celebrities,
[8:33] Speaker 1: particularly black celebrities. Like it was a real cool thing
[8:36] Speaker 1: to be like, oh, stop. I got Kevin Durant. At
[8:39] Speaker 1: my such and such thing. Oh, snap. I got Nas
[8:42] Speaker 1: at my company retreat. Right. It was just it was
[8:45] Speaker 1: a time. And also it was just so much free
[8:48] Speaker 1: money out there. There was so much capital to spend
[8:51] Speaker 1: during that particular time because, you know, the Bay Area
[8:55] Speaker 1: wanted to be the center of the tech universe and
[8:58] Speaker 1: they were going to do whatever they could to do that. Twitter,
[8:59] Speaker 1: do you want to set up shop in downtown San Francisco?
[9:02] Speaker 2: Cool.
[9:02] Speaker 1: Here is a really, really dope. leasing opportunity for you. Facebook, okay,
[9:07] Speaker 1: come on. You could build a sprawling campus with all
[9:09] Speaker 1: of this free money that we have. And that's another story. But, like,
[9:13] Speaker 1: you could see what attracted young, rich people to this
[9:17] Speaker 1: area at that given time. There was just so much
[9:20] Speaker 1: money going around, and KD was attracted to it. And
[9:22] Speaker 1: it was different than in New York or in L.A.
[9:24] Speaker 1: This was something new that was going on here. And,
[9:27] Speaker 1: you know, it attracted a lot of athletes. And it
[9:29] Speaker 1: was kind of spearheaded this Warriors run in a roundabout way.
[9:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll get to the basketball part of it also,
[9:36] Speaker 2: but I think we have to remember, because, I mean,
[9:38] Speaker 2: it really has been 10 years ago, which is a
[9:40] Speaker 2: crazy thing to think about. But there were a very
[9:44] Speaker 2: particular set of circumstances that allowed this to happen, because
[9:47] Speaker 2: the truth is, never is a team as good as
[9:52] Speaker 2: the Warriors were, right? To win 67 games one year
[9:56] Speaker 2: and then win 73 the next, to win 140 regular
[9:59] Speaker 2: season games within two years. How are you even in
[10:03] Speaker 2: a position where signing Kevin Durant to a market value
[10:07] Speaker 2: contract is even an option? And it really just comes
[10:12] Speaker 2: down to they redone the CBA. And there were two
[10:16] Speaker 2: options in terms of how to handle a big cap
[10:19] Speaker 2: spike that was coming because I think they did a
[10:20] Speaker 2: new TV deal.
[10:22] Speaker 1: There was the.
[10:22] Speaker 2: Option of what they called cap smoothing, which was adding
[10:26] Speaker 2: a little to the cap here, a little to the
[10:27] Speaker 2: cap here, a little to the cap here until you
[10:29] Speaker 2: got up to what the right number was. Or there
[10:32] Speaker 2: was the option of a spike. Take all the new
[10:35] Speaker 2: cap room and do it immediately. The players chose to
[10:39] Speaker 2: take the money immediately. And the logic was pretty simple.
[10:42] Speaker 2: I don't trust y'all. You know what I'm saying? Like,
[10:45] Speaker 2: why are we waiting for the money that's ours? No,
[10:48] Speaker 2: let's just go ahead and get that money now. That
[10:50] Speaker 2: money played itself out in the cap. And so what
[10:52] Speaker 2: you wound up with was a really weak year of
[10:56] Speaker 2: free agency, except for Kevin Durant. But it also led
[11:01] Speaker 2: to a circumstance where the Warriors, if they renounced a
[11:05] Speaker 2: couple of contracts, could add Kevin Durant. And it was really,
[11:10] Speaker 2: truly only at the expense of Andrew Bogut. Harrison Barnes
[11:14] Speaker 2: was somebody they also wound up without, but they were
[11:16] Speaker 2: switching out Kevin Durant for Harrison Barnes. To me, the
[11:22] Speaker 2: cost of the transaction was Andrew Bogut, who was hurting
[11:25] Speaker 2: the finals that year, and you do it 10 times
[11:29] Speaker 2: out of 10 is what I'm saying.
[11:30] Speaker 1: Right. Absolutely.
[11:31] Speaker 2: But it could never it couldn't have happened any other year.
[11:34] Speaker 2: It couldn't have happened any other time if there was
[11:36] Speaker 2: a measure of luck involved. But I also say for
[11:39] Speaker 2: the Warriors, there was a measure of having and maybe
[11:41] Speaker 2: they wouldn't have done this if they had won the championship.
[11:44] Speaker 2: Maybe Durant doesn't do it. If Oklahoma City had beaten
[11:47] Speaker 2: Golden State, I'm not sure how it plays out. But
[11:50] Speaker 2: everything worked out in such a way where the window
[11:53] Speaker 2: was just open enough. And the best regular season team
[11:57] Speaker 2: of all time added who might have been the best
[12:00] Speaker 2: player in the NBA.
[12:01] Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely. I mean, and on the Harrison Barnes point,
[12:05] Speaker 1: like it was, yeah, we could swap Harrison Barnes for KD,
[12:08] Speaker 1: but also like we were getting up to a point where,
[12:10] Speaker 1: you know, Joe Lacob was, was pretty tired of Harrison
[12:13] Speaker 1: Barnes at that point, especially, and especially after he stuck
[12:16] Speaker 1: up the joint in the 2016 finals.
[12:18] Speaker 2: Right.
[12:18] Speaker 1: He did not shoot the ball particularly well. Um, and
[12:20] Speaker 1: you saw the limits of their offense. And I mean,
[12:23] Speaker 1: you know, when I, when you go back to, um,
[12:25] Speaker 1: you know, just the limits of Golden State's offense and
[12:28] Speaker 1: just KD plugging that in. I mean, you could see
[12:31] Speaker 1: this once in a generation, you know, cap spike and
[12:34] Speaker 1: all those things. But like the backlash to that that
[12:36] Speaker 1: came so swift of KD coming more was just like, damn,
[12:39] Speaker 1: like we have never seen a perfect team before. And
[12:44] Speaker 1: there's for the next like there was funny when I
[12:46] Speaker 1: was covering Golden State, we would literally book our finals
[12:51] Speaker 1: travel in September. We were just like, oh, they're There's
[12:54] Speaker 1: no way. Even if there's one injury, they're going to
[12:56] Speaker 1: the finals, right? We would just book in seven different
[12:58] Speaker 1: cities and be like, so we can get the rate.
[13:00] Speaker 1: But that was the backlash that you would see from
[13:03] Speaker 1: the rest of the league. It's like, we don't have a...
[13:05] Speaker 1: It's not competitive anymore. I'm sure we're going to talk
[13:10] Speaker 1: about it later, but if you look at those postseason stats,
[13:13] Speaker 1: especially that first year, there was nothing the rest of
[13:15] Speaker 1: the league could do with this, right? It got to
[13:17] Speaker 1: the point where we were kind of manufacturing controversies with
[13:20] Speaker 1: this team, right? We were trying to, I think that
[13:22] Speaker 1: first year, we were trying to make them into like the,
[13:25] Speaker 1: the heatles. And that's the team that they were compared to.
[13:29] Speaker 1: Like anytime there was a yelling match on the, on the,
[13:31] Speaker 1: on the, on the sideline, we would think, oh damn, it's, it's, it's,
[13:36] Speaker 1: is this, is this the end? Then you look at
[13:37] Speaker 1: the record, like, oh no, they just went, they went
[13:39] Speaker 1: 12 and one in this month. It's fine. They're fine.
[13:41] Speaker 1: It's okay. This is January. We're good.
[13:44] Speaker 2: There, there, there was no, the closest parallel that you
[13:50] Speaker 2: would have to this. And it wasn't even close is
[13:53] Speaker 2: like the Lakers being able to draft magic Johnson when
[13:55] Speaker 2: you already had Kareem or if Lynn bias had not died,
[14:01] Speaker 2: adding him to what might've been the greatest team in
[14:03] Speaker 2: the history of the NBA up until that point. But
[14:05] Speaker 2: even then land bias was 22, right? Durant, I said
[14:11] Speaker 2: he might have been the best player in the NBA.
[14:13] Speaker 2: It's hard to think that anybody was better than LeBron
[14:15] Speaker 2: James at that point. I will just point out in
[14:17] Speaker 2: the 2017 season, I talk about this all the time,
[14:19] Speaker 2: the stat that maps most closely to the MVP winner
[14:22] Speaker 2: is win shares per 48 minutes. Durant missed a lot
[14:24] Speaker 2: of games in 2017, but the league leader in 2014
[14:29] Speaker 2: was Kevin Durant, and he won the MVP. The league
[14:31] Speaker 2: leader in 2017 was also Kevin Durant. He just missed
[14:34] Speaker 2: a lot of games. And this was playing on the
[14:36] Speaker 2: team that he was on. But what did you think
[14:41] Speaker 2: of the idea of you went seven with these boys
[14:45] Speaker 2: and now you're jumping on the squad? We see that
[14:47] Speaker 2: kind of thing happen with like mid-level exception level players
[14:50] Speaker 2: in various sports. We had just never seen anything like
[14:53] Speaker 2: that happen with a guy that was as good as this.
[14:55] Speaker 2: But on the Warriors' end, I don't want to run
[14:58] Speaker 2: away from the question, but on the Warriors' end, I
[15:00] Speaker 2: agree with you. They did need a small forward. So
[15:04] Speaker 2: what were they supposed to do, right? Get... Nah, he
[15:08] Speaker 2: too good, right? What was he supposed to say?
[15:11] Speaker 1: The thing is, bro, no one thinks like that. No
[15:14] Speaker 1: one thinks like that in regular life, that, hey, we
[15:16] Speaker 1: have the best... I talked to KD in 2022, I believe,
[15:19] Speaker 1: and he said... I asked him, like, what do you
[15:26] Speaker 1: think about– I forgot how the question was broached, but
[15:29] Speaker 1: he answered it and was like, I may not be
[15:31] Speaker 1: one of the top– considered one of the top players
[15:33] Speaker 1: in NBA history, the top 10 players, but if we
[15:36] Speaker 1: were to pick just all-time 10 players to play a
[15:40] Speaker 1: pickup game, I'm getting picked. And that's how it is
[15:44] Speaker 1: on the park, bro. Like, even if you're Steph Curry,
[15:47] Speaker 1: you're Draymond, and you're at the park, you're like, yo,
[15:49] Speaker 1: I want that dude on my team if I can
[15:51] Speaker 1: get it in a player draft. That's what you do.
[15:53] Speaker 1: That's literally how you– how you do this. And so,
[15:57] Speaker 1: what was your question? I went on a tangent there.
[15:59] Speaker 1: What was the question?
[16:01] Speaker 2: Did you think that there was anything untoward about him
[16:07] Speaker 2: making that move?
[16:08] Speaker 1: So it's interesting because when he got When he signed
[16:12] Speaker 1: with the Warriors, I was in Atlanta. I was interning
[16:16] Speaker 1: for Turner Sports at that time. So I remember taking,
[16:18] Speaker 1: I was doing intern work, like, you know, taking clips
[16:20] Speaker 1: from this press conference, right? And at that moment, then
[16:24] Speaker 1: I was like, you know, why would he do that, right?
[16:27] Speaker 1: And then a year later, I'm covering the team and
[16:29] Speaker 1: I'm getting to know him a little bit more. I've
[16:31] Speaker 1: known Kevin Durant since I was 18 years old, but
[16:33] Speaker 1: this was the first time that I had seen him
[16:37] Speaker 1: on a day-to-day. And when you see him on a day-to-day,
[16:39] Speaker 1: you increasingly realize that there's two sides of him, right?
[16:43] Speaker 1: There is his ability and there's also his mindset. His
[16:47] Speaker 1: ability suggests that he should be the best player on
[16:49] Speaker 1: the team and a number one option and all those things.
[16:52] Speaker 1: But his mindset is like, yo, I just want to
[16:54] Speaker 1: be one of the guys. Like, I really just want
[16:56] Speaker 1: to be one of the guys. I want to, he
[16:58] Speaker 1: said some stuff like that on the Simmons pod a
[17:00] Speaker 1: few years back, but like, I want to be one
[17:03] Speaker 1: of the guys. I want to kind of be in
[17:05] Speaker 1: within the locker room, And that's kind of what the
[17:09] Speaker 1: group that went out to the Hamptons from the Warriors standpoint.
[17:13] Speaker 1: That's what they kind of fed off of. Like, yeah,
[17:15] Speaker 1: you can be one of us. You can be you.
[17:18] Speaker 1: You want to get to your spots. Cool. We have
[17:20] Speaker 1: an offense that has an equal opportunity for everyone. You're good.
[17:23] Speaker 1: You want to build camaraderie with us. Let's do it.
[17:28] Speaker 1: And I think that's something that he's always been searching for.
[17:31] Speaker 1: And that's something that he finally got in the Golden State.
[17:33] Speaker 1: And I think that's something he's also been searching for
[17:35] Speaker 1: ever since he left Golden State.
[17:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, and they just walked through the NBA. That was insane.
[17:43] Speaker 2: And the thing about it was, and I think this
[17:46] Speaker 2: is something that's easy for us to forget about Kevin Durant,
[17:49] Speaker 2: even though it's at the top line of the resume,
[17:51] Speaker 2: is that he's seven feet tall.
[17:54] Speaker 1: Yes.
[17:55] Speaker 2: And I bring that up in that way because I
[17:58] Speaker 2: feel like We think of the Warriors as playing small
[18:02] Speaker 2: and they had lineups that could go small and that
[18:04] Speaker 2: could destroy you, but they were never really a small team.
[18:06] Speaker 2: Like I'm talking about this all the time. Steph Curry
[18:08] Speaker 2: is not small for an NBA point guard. Clay Thompson
[18:10] Speaker 2: is not small. Draymond Green has ways to make up
[18:13] Speaker 2: for his height disadvantage, but he's not really small, right?
[18:15] Speaker 2: All of these things. Kevin Durant is a seven foot tall,
[18:21] Speaker 2: small forward. Even when you decided to go small, there's
[18:26] Speaker 2: a guy seven feet tall in there that can protect
[18:28] Speaker 2: the rim. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, you're
[18:32] Speaker 2: never actually going small as long as Kevin Durant's on
[18:36] Speaker 2: the floor. When Oklahoma City that year before would be
[18:38] Speaker 2: running like Ennis Cantor and Steven Adams at the same time,
[18:41] Speaker 2: they're running them with Kevin Durant.
[18:44] Speaker 1: Well, I mean, we talked about it last pot. We
[18:46] Speaker 1: talked about it the last pot we were in. One
[18:48] Speaker 1: of the big reasons why Thunder were so successful is
[18:51] Speaker 1: because of the playoffs against Golden State is because the
[18:54] Speaker 1: defensive acumen of that team and chief among that is
[18:57] Speaker 1: because Kevin Durant can switch on two At that time, Steph,
[19:01] Speaker 1: he could switch on to Andre Guadagnole. The big reason
[19:06] Speaker 1: why they went up 3-1 is because of how much
[19:08] Speaker 1: of a disruptor he was. I remember in the 2017 season,
[19:12] Speaker 1: 2018 season, for the first few months of the season,
[19:16] Speaker 1: he was getting defensive player of the year buzz. I
[19:20] Speaker 1: think he had six blocks in one game against New Orleans.
[19:24] Speaker 1: He was a bona fide defender, and he unlocked a
[19:26] Speaker 1: lot of things within that defensive structure. And honestly, man,
[19:30] Speaker 1: it allowed them to play the Warriors to play faster
[19:33] Speaker 1: than normal. Right. Because you don't have to have a,
[19:36] Speaker 1: you know, a guy like, you know, Festus Azili kind of,
[19:38] Speaker 1: you know, coming around the back or Andrew Bogut being
[19:41] Speaker 1: a traditional center.
[19:42] Speaker 2: Right.
[19:42] Speaker 1: The Warriors played a lot of times without a traditional center.
[19:45] Speaker 1: And a lot of that had to do with Draymond Green,
[19:47] Speaker 1: and his ability to read angles in a way that
[19:51] Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of players in NBA history
[19:52] Speaker 1: have been able to do. And he could play center
[19:54] Speaker 1: and play a lot of those positions. But it allowed
[19:57] Speaker 1: also for you to have a– you had three bona
[19:59] Speaker 1: fide great shooters on the floor as well, right? You
[20:01] Speaker 1: had Klay Thompson. You had Steph Curry. And you had
[20:06] Speaker 1: Steph Curry. You had Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. And so, like,
[20:10] Speaker 1: it really was a cheat code watching this team, man.
[20:12] Speaker 1: Shit was just not fair. I remember there was a
[20:16] Speaker 1: Memphis game where Draymond gets into it with KD. And
[20:22] Speaker 1: I remember that as a talking point. And I remember
[20:25] Speaker 1: that being a talking point. Like, oh, it's early in
[20:27] Speaker 1: the season. How are the Warriors going to get their
[20:29] Speaker 1: shit together? Yeah. I went back before we did this
[20:32] Speaker 1: podcast and I looked at what, what date that was.
[20:35] Speaker 1: That day was January. It was January 6th of the season. Right. Like,
[20:40] Speaker 1: and they had already kind of, they were already had
[20:43] Speaker 1: the best record in the league. Like we were trying
[20:44] Speaker 1: so hard to like find storylines to like kind of,
[20:48] Speaker 1: you know, normal, like media storylines. Hey, we're going to,
[20:51] Speaker 1: we're going to try to find some controversy because it's
[20:53] Speaker 1: a Tuesday in January and it's right before the NFL playoffs.
[20:56] Speaker 1: And we really don't have anything. We need to get
[20:57] Speaker 1: drum up something. And then they reel off like nine
[20:59] Speaker 1: straight wins after that. It was really, It was really just,
[21:02] Speaker 1: it was too easy for them. It was way too
[21:05] Speaker 1: easy for them in a number of different ways, especially
[21:09] Speaker 1: down the stretch of games because KD can kind of
[21:11] Speaker 1: get that mid-range and he could be the anecdote to
[21:14] Speaker 1: Steph Curry, who was just all of this chaos. And
[21:16] Speaker 1: the Warriors have been trying to find a guy like
[21:19] Speaker 1: KD who could stabilize the offense ever since, even with
[21:21] Speaker 1: guys like Chris Paul. And it just hasn't worked because
[21:24] Speaker 1: KD was just so good in that role.
[21:25] Speaker 2: Think about this. One of the craziest things about how
[21:28] Speaker 2: good and balanced that team was Nobody made first-team All-NBA. No.
[21:34] Speaker 1: No.
[21:35] Speaker 2: Nobody made first-team All-NBA. Curry had 25.3 points a game.
[21:39] Speaker 2: Durant had 25.1. Thompson had 22.3.
[21:44] Speaker 1: Right?
[21:45] Speaker 2: Like, it was just, your turn. You want a bucket? Okay,
[21:48] Speaker 2: you can have a bucket. Oh, you want to get
[21:49] Speaker 2: you a bucket?
[21:50] Speaker 1: All right, cool.
[21:51] Speaker 2: Got you.
[21:52] Speaker 1: It was also quite literally one of the best 2K
[21:54] Speaker 1: games ever, or best 2K teams ever of all time.
[21:58] Speaker 2: I haven't played video games in a very long time,
[22:01] Speaker 2: but my thought with the Warriors was, and this is
[22:03] Speaker 2: part of why the thing with Durant landed, hey man,
[22:05] Speaker 2: it's some teams you're just not allowed to use.
[22:08] Speaker 1: You are not allowed to use a 2017 Warriors on 2K.
[22:10] Speaker 2: There's no way that you're allowed to use them, man.
[22:14] Speaker 1: What you doing? Go pick the Wizards with John Wall.
[22:17] Speaker 1: What you doing, man? Why you gonna do that? That's forbidden.
[22:20] Speaker 1: I remember like the The 2000, like, 08 Patriots were
[22:23] Speaker 1: one of those teams, right? The one with Randy Moss, right?
[22:26] Speaker 1: Those were one of those teams. I think the Vic
[22:30] Speaker 1: Madden teams were always like, bro, why are you doing that?
[22:33] Speaker 2: Chicago and San Francisco on the first Tecmo Bowl. Like,
[22:37] Speaker 2: you can only use them if we playing each other.
[22:41] Speaker 1: Except with the Warriors on 2K, there's no other team
[22:45] Speaker 1: to play each other with, right? The Warriors were that good.
[22:47] Speaker 1: He was like, there's no other team you could like.
[22:49] Speaker 1: Even on 2K, I can't pick the Cavs because they
[22:52] Speaker 1: weren't going to be as good enough to play against
[22:54] Speaker 1: this Warriors team. You had to play like the dream
[22:56] Speaker 1: team against this Warriors team on 2K. It was that
[23:00] Speaker 1: out of pocket.
[23:00] Speaker 2: When you look at the regular season numbers, this team
[23:02] Speaker 2: shot 49.5% from the field, 38% from three as a team.
[23:10] Speaker 2: yeah um 79 from the line yeah right what what
[23:17] Speaker 2: what was anybody supposed to do with this and this
[23:19] Speaker 2: is why two things one it was obviously why I
[23:22] Speaker 2: was frustrated for a lot of people that he went
[23:24] Speaker 2: there in the first place like I don't think I
[23:26] Speaker 2: don't know what else people expected for him or the
[23:28] Speaker 2: team to do under those circumstances right um especially if
[23:32] Speaker 2: he'd been in Oklahoma City nine years he just felt
[23:33] Speaker 2: like it was time for something else why would you
[23:35] Speaker 2: not want to be a part of this if you
[23:36] Speaker 2: got the option okay cool however in combination with the
[23:41] Speaker 2: 73-win team not winning the championship, I contend that Kevin
[23:46] Speaker 2: Durant going to Golden State ruined the regular season in
[23:50] Speaker 2: a way that the NBA has yet to recover from
[23:53] Speaker 2: because it really didn't matter, right? And so I say
[23:56] Speaker 2: it's in two ways. This team won 73 games and
[23:59] Speaker 2: didn't win a championship. So what does the regular season matter, right?
[24:03] Speaker 2: The greatest team in the history of the NBA. What
[24:06] Speaker 2: does it matter? And then you add Durant, and it's
[24:08] Speaker 2: just like, the part that I didn't like about that,
[24:11] Speaker 2: though I understood where people were coming from, was I
[24:14] Speaker 2: don't think there was ever a point as it normally
[24:17] Speaker 2: is with a team that is that excellent. And I
[24:19] Speaker 2: guess we did it the year before, so we were
[24:21] Speaker 2: burnt out on the idea. But I don't feel like
[24:23] Speaker 2: there was a time where the basketball-watching public was able
[24:26] Speaker 2: to just stop and just spend every night being amazed, right?
[24:30] Speaker 2: Like we should be telling stories about how, man, I
[24:32] Speaker 2: got up every, I mean, I stayed up every night
[24:35] Speaker 2: watching the Warriors on a league pass. I'm sure there
[24:37] Speaker 2: are people who did that, but that's not the way
[24:39] Speaker 2: that we received this team. We received how good they
[24:43] Speaker 2: were negatively because they low-key broke basketball.
[24:47] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you even think about the team that
[24:50] Speaker 1: preceded them, the Chicago Bulls, who won 72 games. They
[24:55] Speaker 1: had playoff battles, right? That's how you really, you know,
[24:58] Speaker 1: either figure that you love the team or hate the
[25:00] Speaker 1: team is that you can feel like you can be
[25:02] Speaker 1: a long journey with them. Right. And that's not to
[25:05] Speaker 1: say the Warriors don't have those games. But what I'm
[25:07] Speaker 1: saying is like during that 2016, 2017 season in particular,
[25:11] Speaker 1: that was a rare time when, you know, the hubris
[25:15] Speaker 1: was on the horizon. But the vibes there were like
[25:18] Speaker 1: just so immaculate. Right. They went through the. I think
[25:22] Speaker 1: they didn't lose a postseason game until the finals.
[25:24] Speaker 2: Yep.
[25:25] Speaker 1: And even then, I believe that was a game. Was
[25:27] Speaker 1: that game three of that final or game four of
[25:29] Speaker 1: that final series when they were already up 3-0 in
[25:32] Speaker 1: the series?
[25:33] Speaker 2: Yeah. They had a chance to run a Boston on
[25:38] Speaker 2: the whole NBA.
[25:40] Speaker 1: Yeah. Right. And so what you want in sports is
[25:45] Speaker 1: you want your best team to be tested.
[25:49] Speaker 2: Right.
[25:49] Speaker 1: You want to see that. Those games in 2016 and 2017,
[25:53] Speaker 1: if you go back and look, there weren't many games
[25:56] Speaker 1: that were that compelling. Like, juxtapose that with the 73-9
[26:01] Speaker 1: season where the regular season did matter and there were
[26:03] Speaker 1: a lot of compelling games. I can't really think of
[26:05] Speaker 1: a game. I think about... Well, there was one.
[26:06] Speaker 2: There was one that was compelling.
[26:07] Speaker 1: That was a Christmas game. I remember there was a
[26:09] Speaker 1: Christmas game that was amazing. But other than that, there weren't... Like,
[26:14] Speaker 1: you would go into a lot of games when you
[26:16] Speaker 1: would go out to Oracle during that time and a
[26:19] Speaker 1: lot of people would leave because they're up 30 going
[26:21] Speaker 1: into the third quarter. It's like, okay, we saw the
[26:23] Speaker 1: third quarter run. It's time to go bounce out, get
[26:26] Speaker 1: the hell up out of East Oakland, and let's wait
[26:29] Speaker 1: for the next game, right? And we weren't seeing the
[26:34] Speaker 1: drama that we like to see out of teams, particularly
[26:37] Speaker 1: in that year, right? And that had a lot to
[26:39] Speaker 1: do with the fact that KD just wasn't the malcontent
[26:43] Speaker 1: version of him didn't show yet, right? And so it
[26:47] Speaker 1: was great until it wasn't.
[26:48] Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to say, like, the compelling game of
[26:51] Speaker 2: the 2017 season was the one where the Spurs went
[26:54] Speaker 2: up 25 or whatever it was, and then Zaza took
[26:57] Speaker 2: one for the team and got Kawhi out of there,
[26:59] Speaker 2: and then that lead went boop. Like, that was the
[27:02] Speaker 2: series that had a chance because Kawhi, quiet as is kept,
[27:07] Speaker 2: at that point was now a legitimate challenger for being
[27:11] Speaker 2: the best player in the NBA.
[27:12] Speaker 1: He was an Omar to NBA at that point. He
[27:14] Speaker 1: was definitely an Omar to me.
[27:15] Speaker 2: Two years later, after suffering significant knee injury, he led
[27:21] Speaker 2: a team to a championship. No matter what happened with
[27:23] Speaker 2: the Warriors, that was still Kawhi Leonard on a team
[27:25] Speaker 2: whose second best player was what, either Kyle Lowry or
[27:27] Speaker 2: Pascal Siakam?
[27:29] Speaker 1: Yeah. Right? He did that.
[27:32] Speaker 2: There's no telling what it would have been, but for that,
[27:35] Speaker 2: that season to me is just like a big old
[27:37] Speaker 2: giant blur in a lot of ways because they were
[27:39] Speaker 2: just that much better. But you just touched on it.
[27:41] Speaker 2: We'll get to this coming up next, which is it
[27:44] Speaker 2: was all good when it was all good. Then it
[27:47] Speaker 2: was only pretty good. Talk about why. The biggest stage
[27:51] Speaker 2: in world soccer is here and every goal changes everything.
[27:56] Speaker 2: And now FanDuel is giving you a reason to root
[27:58] Speaker 2: for every single one. Introducing Every Goal Pays. Bet on
[28:03] Speaker 2: a match and get bonus bets for every goal scored
[28:06] Speaker 2: in that match.
[28:07] Speaker 1: That's right.
[28:08] Speaker 2: More goals means more bonus bets, and all you have
[28:11] Speaker 2: to do is turn on your token. From the opening
[28:14] Speaker 2: whistle to the final kick, let there be goals on FanDuel.
[28:18] Speaker 2: Visit FanDuel.com to get started now. 21 plus states. For Kansas,
[28:24] Speaker 2: in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. 18 plus, D.C., Kentucky, Wyoming.
[28:30] Speaker 2: Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
[28:31] Speaker 1: 1-800-MY-RESET.
[28:34] Speaker 2: Call 1-888-789-7777. Visit ccpg.org slash chat, Connecticut. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org, Maryland.
[28:39] Speaker 2: Visit gamblinghelplinema.org. Call 800-327-5050, Massachusetts. Call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY. Text HOPE-NY, New York.
[29:04] Speaker 2: Call 1-877-770-7867, Louisiana. Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry.me. Let
[29:15] Speaker 2: me ask you something. Are you where you want to
[29:17] Speaker 2: be in your career? Are you waking up every day
[29:20] Speaker 2: knowing you're capable of more but not sure how to
[29:23] Speaker 2: get there? Listen, success doesn't just happen, and the most
[29:27] Speaker 2: successful people in the world don't figure it out alone.
[29:30] Speaker 2: They have mentors, coaches, and people guiding them every step
[29:33] Speaker 2: of the way. That's where strawberry.me career coaching comes in.
[29:38] Speaker 2: Career coaching gives you the clarity strategy, and accountability needed
[29:41] Speaker 2: to turn your goals into reality. Whether it's landing a
[29:44] Speaker 2: new job, advancing in your current role, or transitioning into
[29:48] Speaker 2: a field you love. With expert advice, you'll identify obstacles
[29:53] Speaker 2: holding you back. develop a step-by-step plan, and take action
[29:57] Speaker 2: with confidence, knowing you have a dedicated coach supporting you
[30:00] Speaker 2: every step of the way. Instead of relying on guesswork
[30:04] Speaker 2: or waiting for the right time, professional coaching helps you
[30:07] Speaker 2: take control of your career trajectory, ensuring you make intentional
[30:11] Speaker 2: strategic moves towards success. Go to strawberry.me slash bomani and
[30:17] Speaker 2: get 50% off your first coaching session. That's strawberry.me slash bomani.
[30:24] Speaker 2: It's like therapy for your career. All right, we back
[30:27] Speaker 2: with that boy Lolo. You know what I'm saying? Check
[30:30] Speaker 2: out real ones. The 2018 season.
[30:34] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[30:35] Speaker 2: It didn't go as smooth in the 2018 season for
[30:38] Speaker 2: the Warriors. I don't, like, is there anything about the
[30:40] Speaker 2: regular season that stands out to you about that team?
[30:46] Speaker 1: Just that they were bored, right?
[30:48] Speaker 2: Like, they had done everything. Like, at some point, you
[30:51] Speaker 2: get tired of beating the game.
[30:52] Speaker 1: Yeah. I think they were bored during that time of
[30:55] Speaker 1: the game of, of, of, of their run. Um, that
[30:59] Speaker 1: was the 17, 18 season was my first official season
[31:02] Speaker 1: on the beat. Right. And I'm coming into the beat like, Dan,
[31:04] Speaker 1: there's all these good vibes. This is great. And then
[31:07] Speaker 1: when you, I got there the October right before the season,
[31:09] Speaker 1: I got on the beat at the San Jose Mercury news.
[31:11] Speaker 1: And then you just see like, why is it all
[31:12] Speaker 1: this dread? Like, why are y'all not like happy as
[31:15] Speaker 1: y'all were last year when I was coming periodically? But, um,
[31:19] Speaker 1: I think it was just boredom. There were some, um,
[31:21] Speaker 1: it was some injuries to Steph at that point. Um,
[31:24] Speaker 1: and there was just also the assumption that, Hey, we're
[31:26] Speaker 1: going to get there for whole, we're really not tripping.
[31:29] Speaker 1: And then you see the rise of the, um, the, the, the,
[31:32] Speaker 1: the Houston rockets, what's finally like, we go back to
[31:35] Speaker 1: last season where it was like, there's nobody challenging this team.
[31:38] Speaker 1: You finally saw a challenger kind of coming into the
[31:40] Speaker 1: fold with Houston. Right. And they were everything that the
[31:44] Speaker 1: warriors weren't right there. The warriors are pride themselves on, um, on,
[31:49] Speaker 1: on ball movement. and three-point shooting and good shot selection.
[31:53] Speaker 1: And then you have Houston who was led by a
[31:56] Speaker 1: ball-dominant guy who has his, if you look at his co-stars,
[32:00] Speaker 1: they're always like this whenever they're in the corner and
[32:04] Speaker 1: they're like this and then they're like, okay. My favorite
[32:09] Speaker 1: thing is to look at PJ Tucker during that run
[32:10] Speaker 1: because he's like looking for the ball and he's like, yo, yo, yo. Anyways,
[32:16] Speaker 1: but what you saw was you saw the Rockets kind
[32:18] Speaker 1: of come into the national scene as a team that
[32:23] Speaker 1: could potentially knock these guys off.
[32:25] Speaker 2: I mean, they were the number one seed.
[32:27] Speaker 1: They were the number one seed, and they beat– James
[32:32] Speaker 1: Harden had two big games against the Warriors that season,
[32:35] Speaker 1: both at Oracle, if I remember correctly. There was the
[32:37] Speaker 1: opening night game where the Warriors get up to a
[32:40] Speaker 1: 20-point lead. It was the Nick Young game. And the
[32:44] Speaker 1: Rockets storm all the way back to win that game.
[32:47] Speaker 1: And I remember that game in particular because Steve Kerr
[32:53] Speaker 1: was just so pissed off at the team. Like, why
[32:55] Speaker 1: are you guys, like his biggest thing was trying to
[32:57] Speaker 1: find things to motivate this team. Sometimes he would have
[33:01] Speaker 1: the players like draw plays just to keep them interesting.
[33:05] Speaker 1: And so they lost that first game in opening night
[33:07] Speaker 1: against Houston. And then there was a mid-season game where
[33:11] Speaker 1: James Harden hits a three at the buzzer. That was
[33:13] Speaker 1: fucking incredible. It was one of the great, you guys
[33:14] Speaker 1: go look back up that. I think it was an
[33:16] Speaker 1: early January game, but the Rockets seem to have their number.
[33:19] Speaker 1: And then the more important, they seem to have the
[33:21] Speaker 1: Warriors attention. So it was always like, okay, we're going
[33:23] Speaker 1: to see them later. And the Warriors were a two
[33:25] Speaker 1: seed when I think that they were, they were definitely
[33:28] Speaker 1: a better team than Houston, but they became, they were,
[33:30] Speaker 1: they were a two seed. And they, that was, we
[33:32] Speaker 1: were like, let's just get to the conference finals. It
[33:34] Speaker 1: wasn't as, I don't, I don't remember it being as
[33:37] Speaker 1: much hype. as the Spurs OKC matchup, but it was
[33:41] Speaker 1: like that. It was like, OK, we're going to see
[33:43] Speaker 1: how they are because this is going to be the
[33:45] Speaker 1: real NBA finals and we'll see who the best team is.
[33:49] Speaker 1: And then you had whispers of, the early whispers of
[33:53] Speaker 1: KD's malcontent, right? And that, you know, he just not
[33:58] Speaker 1: starting to fit in, not starting to feel like he's
[34:00] Speaker 1: part of the group anymore and he's starting to isolate himself, right?
[34:04] Speaker 1: But it was, those rumors were just starting and then
[34:07] Speaker 1: it was like, Wow, is the culture of Golden State
[34:10] Speaker 1: really going to be, first, it's good enough to bring
[34:13] Speaker 1: Kevin Durant here, but is it good enough to keep him?
[34:15] Speaker 1: And that was always a lingering question that was starting
[34:17] Speaker 1: to come up as you get into that 2017-2018 season.
[34:20] Speaker 2: So I think it's interesting to juxtapose kind of two
[34:24] Speaker 2: ideas about what happens when you win championships. Pat Riley
[34:27] Speaker 2: would talk about the disease of more, right? Like after
[34:31] Speaker 2: you get the championship, now that everybody's got that goal,
[34:33] Speaker 2: now it's time to get more. I want more shots.
[34:35] Speaker 2: I want more playing time. I want more endorsements. I
[34:37] Speaker 2: want a little of this. I want a little of that.
[34:39] Speaker 2: Ethan Strauss wrote a book about this run called The
[34:42] Speaker 2: Victory Machine, which was interesting. And the point that I
[34:45] Speaker 2: thought was interesting about it was he was like, well, really,
[34:49] Speaker 2: what happens when you win this championship and it doesn't
[34:53] Speaker 2: make you nearly as happy as you expected it to?
[34:57] Speaker 2: What else is there for you to do at this point?
[35:00] Speaker 2: And the Warriors, I think, throughout this whole run, did
[35:04] Speaker 2: a great job of staving off the Moore problem. Even
[35:09] Speaker 2: with Draymond Green and his issues with Kerr not giving
[35:12] Speaker 2: him enough rope, I don't even think that was Draymond
[35:15] Speaker 2: wanting more as much as Draymond not wanting less, which
[35:19] Speaker 2: is what it ultimately became once Kerr came back. And
[35:22] Speaker 2: then obviously once Durant got there, that's when he becomes
[35:24] Speaker 2: triple single guy because there just aren't buckets. left there
[35:27] Speaker 2: for him to get. But they did seem to have the...
[35:31] Speaker 2: So why exactly are we doing this again? That's what
[35:34] Speaker 2: it feels like when that team starts running as it
[35:36] Speaker 2: did in 2018. And look, Chris Paul doesn't have the
[35:38] Speaker 2: hamstring injury in 2018. It is entirely possible that the
[35:43] Speaker 2: Rockets win that series. I don't think it's likely because
[35:46] Speaker 2: we've seen enough of James Harden's movies, but... There's the argument.
[35:50] Speaker 1: And Chris Paul's movies. Yeah, yeah.
[35:53] Speaker 2: Like, that might have happened. They wound up winning the
[35:56] Speaker 2: championship that year. They went in there and they played
[35:58] Speaker 2: against Cleveland. And they, I mean, we cannot ignore the
[36:00] Speaker 2: fact that they swept Cleveland out, basically, those last two years.
[36:05] Speaker 2: A 4-1 and a 4-0. And that, I mean, that
[36:08] Speaker 2: 2018 Cleveland team, that was when they just, like, when
[36:10] Speaker 2: your mama go in the fridge and be like, what
[36:12] Speaker 2: we got? I'm going to make dinner out of something.
[36:14] Speaker 2: And that's what that whole roster was, right? Like, they
[36:16] Speaker 2: just went and made trades and just put some goulash together.
[36:19] Speaker 2: And just said LeBron.
[36:20] Speaker 1: No, they had LeBron. They had LeBron. Like, that's really
[36:22] Speaker 1: what it was. It was late-stage great LeBron who could...
[36:25] Speaker 1: I think that was the last time that LeBron could
[36:27] Speaker 1: do that, right? That could just single-handedly just go ahead and, like,
[36:30] Speaker 1: just take a team. They just had randos just coming
[36:32] Speaker 1: out of nowhere.
[36:33] Speaker 2: And, I mean, they made a trade to get a
[36:35] Speaker 2: collection of randos. Yep. Like, that was what they did.
[36:38] Speaker 1: We're going to trade our randos for these other randos.
[36:40] Speaker 1: We're just going to see how it shakes.
[36:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll make rando goulash. But watch,
[36:44] Speaker 2: it'll be good. Yep. It'll... It'll... It'll... You'll be fine.
[36:49] Speaker 1: Right.
[36:50] Speaker 2: Like that's that's kind of you know, that's that's kind
[36:52] Speaker 2: of what they went with. But then by the time
[36:54] Speaker 2: you get to year three of this, now the malcontent
[36:58] Speaker 2: stuff is is coming out loud. And the one place
[37:01] Speaker 2: I always defended Duran on this was it has to
[37:04] Speaker 2: be annoying to have a bunch of strangers trying to
[37:07] Speaker 2: ask you if you're happy. Because to all of us
[37:09] Speaker 2: on the outside, of course you'd be happy. You got
[37:12] Speaker 2: exactly what you said you wanted by coming to play
[37:15] Speaker 2: for this team. But part of what I always thought
[37:17] Speaker 2: was interesting about that coming together, and I'm curious your
[37:20] Speaker 2: thoughts about this. We treat Stephen Curry like he's a saint,
[37:24] Speaker 2: and Stephen Curry is ultimately a human being. And it
[37:30] Speaker 2: was his squad, right? I think this is as comparable
[37:34] Speaker 2: as it is to Derek Jeter when Alex Rodriguez showed up.
[37:37] Speaker 2: Derek Jeter should have gone and played second base and
[37:38] Speaker 2: let Rodriguez play shortstop, except I'm the shortstop. Yeah, I'm
[37:43] Speaker 2: the shortstop. What are you talking about? Like, I earned this.
[37:46] Speaker 2: I'm the captain. I'm staying right here. And not to
[37:49] Speaker 2: say that Steph did anything explicit like that with Durant,
[37:52] Speaker 2: but the reality was he was always going to.
[37:54] Speaker 1: Be the captain.
[37:55] Speaker 2: And I thought it was fair and understandable for Durant
[37:58] Speaker 2: to be like, yo, man, I'm two-time finals MVP, and
[38:02] Speaker 2: y'all still looking at me like I'm a number two,
[38:04] Speaker 2: even though I am in his eyes, clearly the best
[38:07] Speaker 2: player on this team, and I think he was the
[38:09] Speaker 2: best player on this team. Like, was that something that
[38:11] Speaker 2: was palpable to you guys there?
[38:13] Speaker 1: Yes, I think that there was that, right? Like, I
[38:15] Speaker 1: think that there was, we were talking about beforehand, where
[38:19] Speaker 1: I think KD ultimately, like, as we're 10 years removed
[38:23] Speaker 1: from it, I think KD came to the Bay Area
[38:26] Speaker 1: in search of something that was far beyond basketball, right?
[38:29] Speaker 1: He came to find community. and find community on his terms.
[38:35] Speaker 1: And purpose, and happy. And purpose, and happiness, right? And
[38:41] Speaker 1: going into his career, he's coming up in Kobe land,
[38:45] Speaker 1: he's getting compared to LeBron, and what is taught to
[38:48] Speaker 1: him throughout this whole time? What is going to provide happiness?
[38:50] Speaker 1: It's going to be rings, right? It's going to be
[38:52] Speaker 1: the finals MVP. It's going to be the glory. It's
[38:55] Speaker 1: going to be Rihanna coming front row to come see
[38:56] Speaker 1: you play, right? That's what it's going to be. And
[38:59] Speaker 1: then when you get that I think he realized the
[39:03] Speaker 1: internal foundation around him wasn't strong enough for him to
[39:08] Speaker 1: actually enjoy the title that he had. Right. Because after
[39:11] Speaker 1: he gets the title, he thinks it's going to bring,
[39:12] Speaker 1: I mean, we, but we've all been through this, right.
[39:15] Speaker 1: Where we just put this thing is like, okay, this
[39:17] Speaker 1: thing is going to solve all of my other problems.
[39:19] Speaker 1: And when we get that thing, it doesn't solve all
[39:21] Speaker 1: of our problems and we all fucked up. Right. And
[39:24] Speaker 1: I think that that was something that kd was going
[39:27] Speaker 1: through right so after after he wins the title then
[39:30] Speaker 1: he's trying to like conquer other things right can i
[39:33] Speaker 1: conquer this team and not necessarily wrestle away from steph
[39:35] Speaker 1: but more of just thinking like man why they don't
[39:37] Speaker 1: love me like they don't love steph right like and
[39:40] Speaker 1: then he has other um you know things that are
[39:43] Speaker 1: going on in his head yeah draymond brought me here
[39:46] Speaker 1: but like He don't work hard as me. How come
[39:48] Speaker 1: he don't get the glory? How come he get more
[39:50] Speaker 1: glory than I am? How come he, you know, why
[39:53] Speaker 1: doesn't he get every... Why can't I get the love
[39:55] Speaker 1: that he get, right?
[39:55] Speaker 2: They treat him like a carpetbagger.
[39:57] Speaker 1: Right, but, like, I think what... I think that what
[40:01] Speaker 1: he was going through during that time, again, he was
[40:03] Speaker 1: searching for something way beyond what the Warriors could ever
[40:06] Speaker 1: have provided for him because at every turn, they tried
[40:10] Speaker 1: their best to coddle him and tried to... I'm going...
[40:15] Speaker 1: whatever you need, KD, whatever you need. But then you
[40:17] Speaker 1: started seeing other things, right? Like when KD first got to,
[40:19] Speaker 1: he started isolating himself. Like when KD first got to
[40:21] Speaker 1: the Bay Area, he had a nice house in East
[40:23] Speaker 1: Oakland overlooking the Bay. And who else was in the
[40:28] Speaker 1: East Bay, in the hills? He lived down the street
[40:32] Speaker 1: from Clay Thompson. He lived down the street from Andre Iguodala,
[40:35] Speaker 1: lived over the hill from Steph Curry. And then you
[40:40] Speaker 1: start seeing around 2018, what happens? Even though they're playing
[40:43] Speaker 1: in Oakland, he moves to a high rise in San Francisco, right?
[40:46] Speaker 1: And he just isolates himself from the group. And you know,
[40:49] Speaker 1: if you know the Bay Area, you know that San
[40:51] Speaker 1: Francisco is a completely different world than Oakland, right? And
[40:54] Speaker 1: it's not just easy saying, like, I'm just going to
[40:56] Speaker 1: go over a bridge to go hang. So after practice,
[40:58] Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, I'm jetting to the city, and I'm
[41:01] Speaker 1: getting my other stuff done. So he started isolating himself
[41:03] Speaker 1: from the group. And it was a self-fulfilling prophecy for him, right? Like,
[41:08] Speaker 1: I'm not those things, and I'm going to convince myself
[41:11] Speaker 1: that I'm not, like, loved by this organization. And then also,
[41:15] Speaker 1: you know, he was on Twitter a lot. And, you know,
[41:18] Speaker 1: a lot of the fan base, he read all the comments,
[41:21] Speaker 1: and he was honestly like, it was like an everyday
[41:24] Speaker 1: news story, like, of him trying to protect his legacy
[41:26] Speaker 1: in real time instead of, like, you know, going and
[41:28] Speaker 1: joining the Bay. And that was, whatever he was searching
[41:31] Speaker 1: for in the Bay, the Warriors tried to provide to
[41:34] Speaker 1: him And it still wasn't enough.
[41:37] Speaker 2: Ultimately, I think there's another part that we don't talk about.
[41:40] Speaker 1: Right.
[41:41] Speaker 2: And that is like my buddy Nick said this and
[41:44] Speaker 2: it made big guy controversial on the Internet. I've been
[41:46] Speaker 2: saying this for years, which is my belief that there
[41:48] Speaker 2: was never a time that Kobe Bryant was the best
[41:50] Speaker 2: player in the NBA. It sounds crazy to people, but
[41:53] Speaker 2: there are arguments like you had. You could have your
[41:56] Speaker 2: argument that Kobe was a better like. if you believe
[41:58] Speaker 2: that Kobe was a better player than Shaq in 2001,
[42:01] Speaker 2: and there's an argument that Kobe would have been the
[42:02] Speaker 2: best player in the league, right? If you think that
[42:05] Speaker 2: Tim Duncan by O2 had become the best player in
[42:07] Speaker 2: the league, which I'm inclined to think, then the Kobe
[42:10] Speaker 2: window gets weird. And if you think that he carried
[42:13] Speaker 2: that for a while, and then when LeBron picks it up,
[42:14] Speaker 2: but either way, I know why that makes people mad,
[42:17] Speaker 2: but there's a case for it. Just as wild as
[42:22] Speaker 2: it may seem, the idea that somebody might think that
[42:25] Speaker 2: Kobe was never the best player in the NBA is
[42:28] Speaker 2: There is never a point at which we have ever
[42:30] Speaker 2: treated Kevin Durant like he was the best player in
[42:33] Speaker 2: the NBA. And this is even after he won the
[42:36] Speaker 2: 2014 MVP and he didn't win it because LeBron missed
[42:39] Speaker 2: games or anything like that. He was the best player
[42:43] Speaker 2: in the NBA.
[42:44] Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook was out that year too as well, right?
[42:46] Speaker 1: Like he was carrying that. Russell Westbrook was out that
[42:49] Speaker 1: year for a large extent of time. So he was
[42:51] Speaker 1: like carrying that Thunder roster to 60 games or something
[42:55] Speaker 1: like that.
[42:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like, he was that guy. Then, if you
[42:59] Speaker 2: don't want to say he was the best player in
[43:01] Speaker 2: the NBA at that point, okay, right? He comes to
[43:05] Speaker 2: Golden State, and it's like this. Well, I won a championship.
[43:12] Speaker 2: I'm Finals MVP. I seal a championship, hitting a shot
[43:18] Speaker 2: in LeBron's eye, in LeBron's house. Okay, so... There's a torch,
[43:27] Speaker 2: and you're supposed to hand it to me, right?
[43:29] Speaker 1: Nope.
[43:30] Speaker 2: We didn't even think about it. Now, part of that,
[43:33] Speaker 2: I think, is because we had started to give that
[43:35] Speaker 2: torch to Steph and then 2016 game seven happened. And
[43:39] Speaker 2: we're like, damn, we scared to give it to anybody
[43:41] Speaker 2: other than LeBron. But I think that Durant was looking
[43:43] Speaker 2: at it like, OK, I don't think I can get
[43:47] Speaker 2: I don't think I can win a championship here where
[43:49] Speaker 2: I am.
[43:49] Speaker 1: Right.
[43:50] Speaker 2: I don't think I can reach the benchmarks that you
[43:52] Speaker 2: normally have to reach when people say you're the best
[43:54] Speaker 2: player in the NBA. Right. I just went and did
[43:56] Speaker 2: that and it never happened. And what it made me
[43:58] Speaker 2: think about was it's the scene in the wire where
[44:01] Speaker 2: they in the, um, they over there in that, uh,
[44:03] Speaker 2: that off brand office, they got way off in the
[44:05] Speaker 2: cut and it's Lester and Jimmy talking. And Jimmy is
[44:08] Speaker 2: talking something about how, you know, the work being you
[44:10] Speaker 2: less to do maybe five, 10 guys out here can
[44:13] Speaker 2: do this. And, and, and less than this, but he
[44:15] Speaker 2: was like, how do you think this is, huh? You
[44:17] Speaker 2: think it's going to be a Jimmy McNulty day? You
[44:19] Speaker 2: think it's going to be a ticker tape parade? Like,
[44:23] Speaker 2: What do you think? Do you really think that's what's
[44:25] Speaker 2: going to happen? And Lester says to him, Jimmy, a life,
[44:31] Speaker 2: you know what that is? It's what happens while you're
[44:36] Speaker 2: waiting on moments that are never going to come. And
[44:40] Speaker 2: Kevin got to a place where, in my opinion, because
[44:43] Speaker 2: I don't know him like that, he was waiting for
[44:46] Speaker 2: moments that were never going to come And then it
[44:50] Speaker 2: becomes this huge thing by that third year, because now
[44:54] Speaker 2: he's a free agent. And it's like, well, what are
[44:57] Speaker 2: you going to do? Are you going to come back?
[44:59] Speaker 2: And Draymond called you a bitch in front of everybody.
[45:02] Speaker 2: And you're like, and there's nothing you could do about
[45:04] Speaker 2: it unless you go punch him in the face, which
[45:06] Speaker 2: isn't an option.
[45:07] Speaker 1: Right? All you got is homework. I mean, it is
[45:10] Speaker 1: an option. It is an option. I think if he
[45:12] Speaker 1: would have did that on camera.
[45:13] Speaker 2: It's an option when you're 23. It's not an option
[45:18] Speaker 2: by the time you're in year 11. You can't really
[45:21] Speaker 2: do that. And so he's just like, what am I
[45:24] Speaker 2: supposed to do here? This cat just told me, we
[45:26] Speaker 2: don't need you. Everything I've always worried about and felt
[45:29] Speaker 2: about you guys not feeling like we really gang over here.
[45:33] Speaker 2: You just told me that we not. And they ain't
[45:36] Speaker 2: make you do nothing. And then we ain't even talk
[45:38] Speaker 2: about it.
[45:39] Speaker 1: And that's the other thing about the Warriors culture that
[45:42] Speaker 1: I speak about, right? It was vibes. It was like, hey, man,
[45:47] Speaker 1: we're all happy. We're all happy. But, I mean, I
[45:49] Speaker 1: don't know if you've been in this situation, but anytime
[45:52] Speaker 1: I see somebody that is like manufactured happiness, it means
[45:55] Speaker 1: that they're sweeping something under the rug. And what the
[45:57] Speaker 1: Warriors culture ultimately became was a place that would sweep
[46:01] Speaker 1: things under the rug for Draymond Green, right? And that...
[46:06] Speaker 1: really like that pissed K off that pissed him off
[46:08] Speaker 1: a lot. Like I just referenced the, you know, Kevin
[46:12] Speaker 1: saw a guy that, you know, is really good, but again,
[46:16] Speaker 1: he's not putting in the work that I'm putting in
[46:18] Speaker 1: on a given, any given night and, or, or staying
[46:21] Speaker 1: after hours, like say what you want about KD, but like,
[46:23] Speaker 1: he's probably one of the most refined basketball players of
[46:26] Speaker 1: his generation. And the reason why that is, is because
[46:29] Speaker 1: he's one of the most meticulous workout players that I
[46:32] Speaker 1: think I've ever seen.
[46:33] Speaker 2: Right.
[46:34] Speaker 1: And you juxtapose that with Draymond, who is one of
[46:37] Speaker 1: the smartest basketball players that I have ever been around.
[46:41] Speaker 1: But he doesn't necessarily have the work ethic of a
[46:44] Speaker 1: lot of people. Right. Like that also was a point
[46:47] Speaker 1: of contention a lot for Golden State. But he sees
[46:49] Speaker 1: that and he's like and on top of the fact
[46:51] Speaker 1: that it's like, damn, bro, you called me. You're the
[46:55] Speaker 1: one that called me. You say we don't need you.
[46:57] Speaker 1: You called me to come here. Right. And then that
[47:00] Speaker 1: even puts the isolation even further, because I remember like
[47:03] Speaker 1: even in the first round, One of the best series
[47:05] Speaker 1: that I've ever seen from Kevin was against the 2019
[47:10] Speaker 1: first round against the Clippers.
[47:12] Speaker 2: And that's the I'm Kevin Durant series.
[47:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, he was a bad motherfucker that series. Right. But
[47:18] Speaker 1: as he's playing well, you hear coaches behind the scenes like, yeah,
[47:22] Speaker 1: he's not he's not coming back next year. It's over. Right.
[47:24] Speaker 1: Like he's he's not he's just not going to come back.
[47:26] Speaker 2: Like they were and they weren't sad about it.
[47:29] Speaker 1: And they were not sad about it. because they had
[47:31] Speaker 1: all coalesced around Draymond. And also like, you know, Kevin
[47:35] Speaker 1: started to isolate himself from people. So it was just
[47:38] Speaker 1: it was just a perfect storm of events to get
[47:41] Speaker 1: him there. But it was a perfect storm of events
[47:43] Speaker 1: to get him out of there as well.
[47:45] Speaker 2: Yeah. But let's talk about this, though. That 2019 postseason
[47:49] Speaker 2: after the I'm Kevin Durant speech, after people acted like
[47:52] Speaker 2: Patrick Beverly was shutting him down. He was as good
[47:55] Speaker 2: as anybody I've ever seen. They made the we're going
[47:57] Speaker 2: to run through Kevin Durant call. And yeah, they made
[47:59] Speaker 2: some subtle changes to the offense to allow him a
[48:01] Speaker 2: little more time to cook and everything else. But no,
[48:03] Speaker 2: they decided we're going through this guy in that series
[48:08] Speaker 2: and up until the calf strain. Woo! Boy.
[48:13] Speaker 1: Bo, even in the finals, I remember when he came
[48:16] Speaker 1: back for game five. If you go look at the first,
[48:19] Speaker 1: because there was, he has the calf injury, KD does.
[48:23] Speaker 1: Then we go through where it's like we're having this
[48:26] Speaker 1: identity crisis. This is when the Warriors are actually interesting, right?
[48:28] Speaker 1: Like this is when they became, you know, late-stage dynasty.
[48:31] Speaker 1: But you're going through this about three-week stretch where it's like, man,
[48:37] Speaker 1: is it Kevin's team? Is it Steph's team? Is it
[48:39] Speaker 1: what's going on? Can they win one out? Because they
[48:41] Speaker 1: had the big win against Houston to close out the series.
[48:43] Speaker 1: And it was like, oh, yeah, we were reminded this
[48:46] Speaker 1: team was actually good before Kevin Durant. And then it's
[48:48] Speaker 1: like they go and they play against Toronto. And, you know,
[48:51] Speaker 1: they get down. And it's like, oh shit, is Kevin
[48:54] Speaker 1: going to get them out of it? Are they still
[48:56] Speaker 1: good without him? And then he comes in game five
[48:57] Speaker 1: and he's just nails before he tears his Achilles. You
[49:00] Speaker 1: go look at him. You go look at him before
[49:03] Speaker 1: he tears his Achilles. It's like, oh shit. Warriors are
[49:06] Speaker 1: going to wrap this thing up. It's all good. It's
[49:07] Speaker 1: over with. It's fine. We understand what this is and
[49:10] Speaker 1: how good he is. Then he tears his Achilles and
[49:12] Speaker 1: that is a turning point in his whole career. from
[49:15] Speaker 1: then before Achilles tear and then afterwards.
[49:17] Speaker 2: Yeah everything after that is almost in the end we
[49:19] Speaker 2: go act like none of that shit happened oh absolutely
[49:21] Speaker 2: it's weird it's been a string of seven irrelevant years
[49:25] Speaker 2: what's weird is not that Jose not that he was
[49:27] Speaker 2: irrelevant no but nothing that happened there matters.
[49:31] Speaker 1: The NBA kind of passed him by after that which
[49:33] Speaker 1: was wild right and I think the other thing is
[49:35] Speaker 1: like I think KD for for a long stretch of
[49:39] Speaker 1: his career post-Golden State, has spent a lot of time
[49:42] Speaker 1: both relitigating how that experience went, but also trying to
[49:46] Speaker 1: run away from it and trying to be something else.
[49:48] Speaker 1: But it's weird because I think when we go look
[49:50] Speaker 1: back 20, 30 years from now, he's going to be
[49:52] Speaker 1: known as a Golden State warrior. He's going to be
[49:55] Speaker 1: known for that stretch in particular, if we're being honest.
[49:57] Speaker 2: For a long time, it's going to be the only
[50:00] Speaker 2: retired jersey he has. Cause Laker has said that they're
[50:04] Speaker 2: going to do it and they absolutely should.
[50:05] Speaker 1: I think, I think, I think OKC will as well.
[50:08] Speaker 1: I think OKC will. Eventually. Eventually. I think so. Cause
[50:11] Speaker 1: I remember when he, when I talked to him in 22, he,
[50:15] Speaker 1: you know, he was in Brooklyn and he said all the,
[50:19] Speaker 1: it was funny. He said, all of these teams that
[50:20] Speaker 1: I play for should retire, retire my jersey. It's only
[50:23] Speaker 1: good for the game. Including OKC wouldn't be good for
[50:27] Speaker 1: basketball if they didn't. And I was like, wow, this
[50:30] Speaker 1: is going to be crazy. And when the story dropped,
[50:34] Speaker 1: Sam Presti, they had an alumni night in Oklahoma City.
[50:38] Speaker 1: Sam Presti did a toast and said, everybody is welcome here,
[50:42] Speaker 1: including from past, present, and future. And that wasn't so subtle, right?
[50:46] Speaker 1: And ever since then, they've been trying behind the scenes
[50:49] Speaker 1: to repair that relationship. I think it'll be figured out.
[50:51] Speaker 1: So I think he'll get his shit retired.
[50:53] Speaker 2: Eventually.
[50:54] Speaker 1: Eventually, in Oklahoma City and in Golden State. Golden State
[50:57] Speaker 1: is first, though.
[50:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, Golden State's the only one that I'm sure is
[51:00] Speaker 2: going to do it because Lakeham has said explicitly that
[51:02] Speaker 2: they're going to do it.
[51:03] Speaker 1: Okay, see, the jersey just might appear in their arena.
[51:06] Speaker 1: It just might appear up in the rafters.
[51:08] Speaker 2: But it's still salty. Like, when they go play games
[51:10] Speaker 2: there now, he still gets booed. Like, to me, it's
[51:12] Speaker 2: crazy that it's still salty. Because I didn't feel like
[51:16] Speaker 2: it ended and they didn't want it to, but I
[51:18] Speaker 2: didn't feel like it ended acrimoniously.
[51:20] Speaker 1: Well, you got to think, though, man. They....
[51:23] Speaker 2: I hear you, but it's been 10 years is all
[51:25] Speaker 2: I'm saying.
[51:26] Speaker 1: No, man, but they don't forget stuff.
[51:27] Speaker 2: Toronto got over Vince, and that was the coldest one.
[51:31] Speaker 1: There's a lot more stuff to do in Toronto to
[51:35] Speaker 1: get over the fact that Vince Carter left you. In
[51:36] Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, you just sit there and you just wait
[51:39] Speaker 1: and you're just like, I don't know. I guess so.
[51:40] Speaker 1: I remember one time I went to go cover a
[51:44] Speaker 1: game in Oklahoma City, and I made the mistake of
[51:48] Speaker 1: telling the Uber driver that I was coming from the
[51:50] Speaker 1: Bay Area, and The look on that man's face was sick.
[51:55] Speaker 1: And I did not know if I was going to
[51:56] Speaker 1: get to my hotel on time. There's a disdain for
[51:59] Speaker 1: the coastal elites in places like Oklahoma City. And the
[52:06] Speaker 1: fact that KD left for a coastal elite town, that
[52:10] Speaker 1: plays a large part in how they think about him.
[52:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's because he left to the team
[52:14] Speaker 2: that beat him in seven.
[52:15] Speaker 1: But that's.
[52:17] Speaker 2: It's an interesting story that he gave us and so
[52:19] Speaker 2: much that spins off, really a decision that makes all
[52:22] Speaker 2: the sense in the world unless it doesn't. That's Logan Murdoch.
[52:25] Speaker 2: Check him out at Duranger. Check out Real Ones. Check
[52:27] Speaker 2: out his articles. He does articles. He does all kinds
[52:30] Speaker 2: of stuff, man. My brother, I appreciate you.
[52:32] Speaker 1: Man, I appreciate you too, man. Thanks so much for
[52:34] Speaker 1: having me on. I love always coming on here. It's
[52:36] Speaker 1: a pleasure.
[52:37] Speaker 2: No problem. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining
[52:39] Speaker 2: us here on The Right Time. We do this four
[52:41] Speaker 2: days a week, but we're moving to summer hours, so
[52:43] Speaker 2: we're going to be doing this a couple days a
[52:45] Speaker 2: week from now until the football season starts. Ryan Brumley
[52:48] Speaker 2: handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the
[52:50] Speaker 2: voicemail line 323-596-7767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like,
[52:56] Speaker 2: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
[52:58] Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[53:00] Speaker 2: a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple
[53:02] Speaker 2: of days. Take it easy.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.
