Earlier this month, when Kevin Durant announced that he’d be leaving Oklahoma City after 9 seasons to join forces with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green like Voltron in Golden State, people were angry. Basketball commentators and writers were peeved, at least one teammate made snide remarks on Twitter, and even NBA Commissioner Adam Silver publicly admitted that he wasn’t thrilled about Durant’s decision.
However, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more pissed off group of people than Oklahoma City Thunder fans, who have seen Durant and their hometown team try so desperately to bring a title to Oklahoma since they first made the playoffs in 2010. Injuries and LeBron James are likely the reason OKC doesn’t have at least one championship to their name, and just when they were on the cusp of it, the best player in their franchise’s history departs for greener pastures as he enters his prime years. You don’t have to be a basketball fan to imagine how angry that might make a city and community.
Durant knows this, which makes his comments at a recent Team USA practice totally understandable. According to USA Today‘s Sam Amick, they went a little something like this:
I didn’t leave my bed, because I was like, ‘Man, if I walk outside somebody might just try to hit me with their car or say anything negative to me,'” Durant said. “I just stayed in. I was trying to process it all. I wanted to be around family, and positive support. It felt different.
I mean I’ve been somewhere for so long and then to make a change like that (which) nobody knew was coming, that nobody didn’t think I would do, of course I didn’t know how it would be received afterwards. But at some point, I just said, ‘Look man, life goes on. Life moves on, and I can’t hide forever,’ so I just had to face it.
The guy was so scared about hurt and angry fans that he hid in a Hamptons mansion for a few days. Talk about ball is life.
