NBA free agent forward Kevin Durant, 27, has announced on The Players' Tribune that he's leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder after nine seasons to sign with the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors deal will reportedly be worth $54.3 million for two years, with a player option for the second year, per ESPN. Known as a "1+1" contract, it allows Durant to re-enter free agency in 2017 and potentially earn a much larger long-term contract.
Durant, a partner and "deputy publisher" at The Players' Tribune, published a short personal blog announcing his decision on Monday.
The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player — as that has always steered me in the right direction. But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors.
As an integral part of a renewed Oklahoma City community since 2008 and the leader of one of the NBA's annual championship favorites, his choice to sign with the Warriors over the Thunder comes as a shock. And he knows it too:
It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career.
The seven-time All-Star and 2014 NBA MVP became a free agent this offseason, and had spent the past week fielding pitches from the Thunder, Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers in The Hamptons. The Thunder, despite the franchise's frustrating inability to win a championship with Durant and superstar point guard Russell Westbrook, were still considered the prohibitive favorites to re-sign their franchise star, who they drafted No. 2 overall out of the University of Texas in 2007.
The thought was, even after taking the 73-win Warriors to a 3-1 series lead in the Western Conference Finals and blowing it, Durant would feel compelled to re-up with the Thunder for at least one more year, out of loyalty. Just to see if he could finally deliver a title to a town that "truly raised me."
Instead, Durant will join the record-setting Warriors (although he can't officially sign until July 8), the team he nearly defeated in the 2016 NBA playoffs. Lead by two-time MVP Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green (a reported Durant recruiter), their dazzling small-ball, three-point shooting crew set the NBA's regular season win record with a showtime-like 73-9 run. With Durant inserted into their best five, arguments over "the best ever" five-man lineups and teams will ignite -- Curry, Thompson, Durant, Green and Andre Iguodala all playing together is a video gamer's dream.
The rest of the NBA is on alert like never before: the Warriors have two NBA MVPs on their roster who are both in the prime of their careers. In an unprecedented coup for the Warriors, Durant and Stephen Curry, the league's top two scoring phenoms, will join forces. Coming off of a disappointing NBA Finals loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, all of basketball has rubbernecked their heads to the Bay Area once again.
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