During last summer's free agency, Kevin Durant received great interest from many teams that wanted to have his services. He scheduled meetings with them in the Hamptons and listened to their pitches, finding out what they could offer him aside from a max contract.
Teams became creative with their ways of impressing the former MVP. The Boston Celtics‘ recruitment team brought with them four-time Superbowl champion Tom Brady in an attempt to convince KD to jim them. However, the Golden State Warriors took things in a different direction and used technology to give Durant a glimpse of what it would be like being part of their team.
With the use of virtual reality, the Dubs were able to show him the “Warriors experience” and helped his decision become easier to make, via NextVR executive chairman Brad Allen.
“He goes, ‘The only thing he's going to remember is what he sees in VR and he was talking about KD, of course. He couldn't say that at the time. So we ended up creating a Warriors experience. He goes, because you can't take a player and bring him into the locker room and everything else. He's playing for another team. So we actually put together a Warriors experience in the huddle, in the locker room, practice, all those kind of things, in the tunnel going out. And I guess it worked. I guess it helped.”
The VR experience definitely did wonders for Golden State as Durant ultimately decided to sign with the team. Other teams who are looking to sign big name free agents in the future might want to consider using their technique in the offseason or even come up with another idea which is better than what the Warriors did.
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