The Golden State Warriors have been the dynasty that has run the NBA for the past decade or so. They have won four of the last eight NBA championships, and for a point in time, it simply looked like there were no teams that could even come close to beating them. That stretch lasted from 2016 to 2019, when Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors and made them nearly invincible.

Durant helped lead the Warriors to two straight titles in 2017 and 2018, and had he not torn his ACL in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors, the Warriors might have won their third straight title that season.

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Durant ended up leaving the Warriors for the Brooklyn Nets after the 2019 offseason in free agency, which shocked many NBA fans. Durant hasn't talked much about his decision to leave Golden State, but opened up on the move in a recent interview with The Washington Post.

“It was another pivot. I just wanted to play ball somewhere else. But a lot of people see it as I’m chasing something. And I think it probably stems when I said, ‘I don’t want to be number two no more.’ I was number two in high school, in the draft. But what I had to explain to people was, I had just lost in the Finals. I wanted to go back and win the Finals. It wasn’t about: ‘I want to be the best ever. I want to be better than LeBron or [Michael Jordan].’ I don’t give a s— about that. I want to wake up every day and do what I do. If we win, I know that stuff comes with me being the best that I can be.” – Kevin Durant, The Washington Post

It's certainly interesting to see Durant explain his decision a bit here, as the Warriors have managed to climb their way back to the top of the league even after he departed. Durant's time with the Nets has certainly been rocky, but it doesn't sound like he regrets his decision to leave Golden State, even if they did end up winning the 2022 NBA Finals without him.