Since Kevin Durant made the choice to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors last summer, much has been said about the numerous factors that affected the decision-making process.
In a recent piece by Lee Jenkins of SI.com, there was a recounted story from Warriors forward Matt Barnes when he was a member of the Los Angeles Clippers telling Durant that Russell Westbrook was the only one stopping him from becoming an NBA champion.
When the Thunder faced the Clippers, Matt Barnes defended Durant while Chris Paul drew Westbrook. “The only person in the world who can stop you,” Barnes crowed, “is your teammate.” The most effective trash talk, Barnes has discovered in more than a decade of NBA rabble-rousing, is the kind spiked with the smallest shred of truth.
This only brings in more external push that Westbrook was a major part of the reason why Durant decided to leave the Thunder after being just a game away from reaching the NBA Finals for just the second time. In truth, the conversation around the relationship between the two All-Stars has been an exhausting topic because of its repetition of the same narrative.
However, the fact that other players away from the team saw the same thing only points to it being a more realistic assessment of the situation. Oklahoma City had become a powerhouse in the league but just couldn't get over the hump in the playoffs. Be it the playing style of Westbrook or something else, it just wasn't working the way they hoped and had hit the proverbial wall as a team.
There are obviously other reasons that factored into Durant leaving, but this decision has immediately worked out for him winning his first NBA title in his first season with the Warriors. This at least makes his tenure with the Thunder looked back upon in retrospect as a necessary chapter of his career to help get him where he's at is now as an NBA champion.
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