The courtside tiff between Golden State Warriors players Draymond Green and Kevin Durant was like a shot heard 'round the NBA world. Usually, it's opposing teams who bump heads; however, sports fans watched as Draymond went off on Durant following a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers last season. The team's year would end with a championship loss to the Toronto Raptors and an injury for Durant, and in a surprise move, the forward decided to switch things up and leave the Warriors for the Brooklyn Nets.
Durant recently visited ESPN's First Take where he answered a myriad of questions from the hosts, including Stephen A. Smith who wanted to know if that cringe-worthy incident aided in his decision to leave the California team. "Yeah, I wish that wouldn't have happened," he said. "I feel like that was a situation that definitely could have been avoided. It really came out of nowhere. For us, everybody was just looking for something to tear us down and I think they used that. That just brought in the firestorm from free agencies."
"Every day was about my free agency," he continued. "Every day it was about my disposition as a player, what I looked like on the bench, what it looked like during the game. It opened up a lot of nonsense I think that could have been avoided. And me and Draymond talked about it." It was something that annoyed the team as a whole because it was affecting their game.
"Draymond knew that he was out of line and as a man we talked about it," Durant said. "Everybody around tried to get us to med it fast because it's season and they wanted to win but he had his process on how he wanted to handle things and I respected that. I had my process and eventually, we came together." Smith pressed just a bit harder one last time for clarification ad asked once again if Draymond's behavior aided in Durant's leaving the Warriors.
"A little bit yeah, for sure," Durant answered. The hosts looked surprised at his response. "A teammate talks to you that way, you think about it. We talked about it, but definitely, for sure, I'm not gon' lie about it." In the end, he said overall, "he needed a switch." Check out the full clip below.