Durant: Green spat no big deal
In his first one-on-one interview since his muchpublicized argument with Draymond Green late in an overtime loss to the Clippers on Nov. 12, Warriors forward Kevin Durant said that his recent spat with Green will not influence his free-agency decision next summer.
Durant told Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes on Tuesday, “At the end of the day, I’m just a ballplayer that’s just trying to be in a great environment to play basketball and groom my skills every day. And I want to compete on a level that once the game starts, I’m just totally comfortable with my surroundings, with just going out there and being me.”
Durant, who is expected to enter free agency in July, stressed that he is intent on moving past the expletivefilled tirade Green unloaded on him at Staples Center. There had been speculation that Durant’s tensions with Green upped the odds of Durant leaving Golden State after this season.
“I was upset (about the argument), but I know that I can’t hold on to something like this,” Durant said. “I know that I’ve got to make a choice with myself, like how long are you going to be upset about this to the point where you’re going to let it affect what you do on the floor or how you approach the game?
“Once it gets there now, I’ve got to make a grown-man decision and tell myself, ‘Look, man, no matter what, you’ve still got to come to work every single day. It’s going to work out. It’s going to figure itself out.’ And I think everyone’s been handling it the best way they could, and we’re just trying to move forward with it.”
More than the actual incident with Green, Durant has been bothered by the relentless media coverage it brought.
“My whole thing is I didn’t create any of this,” said Durant, who was fined $25,000 Tuesday by the NBA for “directing inappropriate language toward a fan” in Saturday night’s loss to Dallas. “That’s just my whole thing. I was just playing basketball. Now, I’ve got to answer questions, now I’ve got to talk about this, now I’ve got to feel a way when I was in a great zone playing basketball.
“Now, it’s always going to come back. Like, ‘Are they all right? Man, he didn’t play well. Is he going to leave?’ Why do I even have to think about that at this point? … Then it turned into, ‘K.D.’s going to this place, he doesn’t like the Warriors (anymore). He should go here, he should go there.’ More distractions.”