Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant received a lot of criticism for joining the Golden State Warriors back in 2016. Many of his critics believe that he didn't earn his two rings with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018; however, Durant believes otherwise.

During a recent appearance on “The Old Man and the Three” podcast with JJ Reddick, Durant was asked if he thought he took an easy route to win his championships with the Warriors.

“No,” Durant said, via NBC Sports. “What does that even mean? I just never understood what that means, because I still come to work every day. I go through every rep at 100 percent speed. So, I just don't understand that.

“And I played at an elite level in the Finals in all the biggest moments. And I could understood if I didn’t play well at all. But I played the best that I could play in both Finals for that team. So, I felt like I got up every day and held myself to a championship, elite-player standard and reached it pretty much 98 percent of the time in practice and games and shootarounds.”

“So, yeah, of course, I earned that.”

There's no doubt Durant played at an elite level with the Warriors in the 2017 and 2018 NBA Finals. Without Durant, it's very likely the Warriors wouldn't have beaten LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the 2017 Finals, Durant averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists, shooting 55.6 percent from the field. Then in the 2018 Finals, Durant averaged 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists.

As Kevin Durant said, if he didn't play at an elite level then he would understand why people would say he didn't earn his two rings. However, Durant did play at an elite level and also outperformed James in both Finals; so, therefore, Durant did earn his rings with the Warriors.