Kevin Durant changed the landscape of the NBA when he agreed to sign with the Golden State Warriors on July 4, 2016. Now it appears that Durant was set on Golden State soon after losing to them in the Western Conference Finals as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
According to Drew Shiller of NBC Sports Bay Area, Andre Iguodala's business partner, Rudy Cline-Thomas, spoke to Durant right after the Western Conference Finals.
“Remember 2017, you just lost to the Warriors — no 2016, you had just lost the Warriors, May — you and I get together after the game. I thought I was just gonna focus on not talking about basketball, and you wanted to focus on talking about Silicon Valley — asking me how it was out here.
“You had been following what Andre and I were doing, how it was being surrounded by all these CEOs, innovators and entrepreneurs. And I was like, ‘Wow. First and foremost, like yo — this dude just told me he's about to sign with the Warriors, right (laughter). So, I was like I'm not gonna tell anybody, didn't tell anybody whatsoever, didn't want any rumors to get started…”
Durant did everything but outright tell Thomas he was signing with Golden State. It's clear that signing with Golden State was on Durant's mind before the series was over.
If the Thunder managed to close out the Warriors when they were up 3-1, who knows what Durant would have decided. But it's clear that he had Golden State on the mind as soon as the Thunder collapse was complete.
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