The NBA world is still shaken up after Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Warriors. Durant’s decision came with a great deal of backlash from Thunder fans and mixed reactions to say the least from other NBA stars.
Most recently, 18 year Dallas Mavericks legend, Dirk Nowitzki opened up about what he thought drove Durant away from Oklahoma City and landed him in the Bay area.
“Every player has to know for himself, what he wants to do,” Nowitzki told Omnisport's Gabrielle McMillen at a charity event in Germany on Tuesday. “Of course the NBA wanted to prevent this with the salary cap and the strike a couple of years ago. They wanted to prevent a team gathering three, four, or even five star players and get an easy road to the finals … But Kevin is all about winning. He was close a couple of times, but maybe he feels the pressure to win a championship.”
Durant’s move to Golden State now means the Warriors have the last three MVP’s in the same starting line up (Durant 2014, Curry 2015 & 2016). It’s hard to image the Warriors having a better regular season than last year’s when they broke the regular season record (73-9), but they certainly have the super team to contend it. Their loss to the Cavs in game 7 of the NBA Finals made them overly aggressive this NBA free agency and Durant appears to be the answer (at least on paper).
Durant has been highly regarded as one of the best players in the NBA to never win an NBA title. As Dirk noted, this move is Durant’s answer to all the critics criticizing his inability to win a ring.
Nowitzki was not desperate for offers after being linked as a possible candidate that the Warriors were looking at to complete their dynasty team. Dirk, having just agreed to a two-year, $40-million contract with the Mavs, never openly expressed interest in leaving Dallas.
[button width=”full” button size=”bigger” color=”custom” align=”center” textcolor=”#ffffff” texthcolor=”#ffffff” bgcolor=”#8b0000″ link=”https://clutchpoints.com/dirk-nowitzki-dallas-mavericks-agree-new-deal/”]NEXT: Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks agree to new deal[/button]
Follow Us
Subscribe