Durant says he’s staying with Warriors
CLEVELAND » Kevin Durant will be back with the Warriors next season.
The All-Star forward put to rest any doubts or rumors Thursday in an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols.
“I’m planning on staying with the Warriors, and we’ll figure the rest out,” Durant said, before adding that only “small details” remain to be settled.
Durant’s current contract — a two-year $51-million deal he signed last summer — contains an opt-out clause after the first year. In April, ESPN reported that Durant would opt out and then sign a new deal with the Warriors as a free agent. Durant, 30, gave up almost $10 million in salary last summer so the Warriors could afford to keep Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston on the roster.
According to ESPN, one of Durant’s options now would be to sign a fouryear, max contract worth around $158 million. He also could repeat what he did last summer — a twoyear with an opt- out — or he could make it a threeyear deal with an opt- out after two.
Presumably, those are among the “small details” that Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman need to figure out.
• Durant responded to his hecklers on Thursday as calmly as he’d shot that 30-foot dagger in Game 3.
After that game, as he made his way back to the team hotel, Cleveland Cavaliers fans berated Durant. Among the insults was the ever- popular “K. D., you suck!” New to the proceedings was an apparent reference to the University of Texas, where Durant played one year: “K.D., UT’s butt.”
This remark, as viewed on a TMZ video, inspired Durant, dressed in white sweats accessorized with headphones, to turn and peer around a corner. A team official gently pushed Durant back toward the sanctity of the hotel.
Asked about the whole thing Thursday, Durant’s reaction was the equivalent of a yawn.
“I mean, whoever is screaming and heckling at grown men even after the game, I think that’s just pure ignorance,’’ Durant said. “That’s just who they are at that point. So I get it.”
Durant scored 43 points in Game 3, leading the Warriors to a 110-102 victory in Cleveland. The Warriors are now up 3- 0 in the series. All 13 of the previous teams to go up 3- 0 in the NBA Finals went on to win; eight of them in sweeps.
Still, that did not stop another heckler from yelling: “Where LeBron at? K.D.! LeBron! He gonna yam on you.”
Alas, that barb never reached the intended target. Durant never learned of the yamming in his future.
“No, I just kept hearing somebody saying K.D., K.D., and I didn’t hear what they said after that,’’ Durant said. “I just wanted to know what they said. I wasn’t going to do anything. I just wanted to hear what they were talking about.”
• One of the Warriors’ greatest strengths, says Draymond Green, is barely recognized by the public. It isn’t merely talent that has the Warriors on the precipice of their third NBA championship in four seasons. There also is there is basketball IQ.
“IQ isn’t everyone’s strength,” Green said Thursday. “You look at LeBron, he’s probably one of the smartest guys to ever play the game. You can’t say that about the rest of the Cavs team. He’s special in that aspect. But it’s on him to make sure what he does rubs off on them, and he puts themin the right spots. And he does that.
“As far as we go, when you look at guys who have a high IQ on our team, it’s our job to make sure we’re doing whatever we can to help other guys who may not be as strong in that area. That all comes with the system we play in, the culture that we’ve built. I think it’s one of the most underrated things when you talk about the success we’ve had— because you can’t really measure it.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr often singles out Green and Andre Iguodala for their court wisdom. LeBron himself singled out Green as “one of the best defenders and minds we have in our game.”
Said Green: “You have a ton of guys in the league who are super talented. But if you don’t have the brain to go with it, you end up with just that, a bunch of talented guys who usually don’t fit together.”
• It wasn’t a concession speech, but LeBron James acknowledged Thursday what has become terrifyingly obvious: The War- riors are at another level. And may be for a while.
“Obviously, from a talent perspective, if you’re looking at Golden State from their top five best players to our top five players, you would say they’re stacked better than us. Let’s just speak truth,” James said before rattling off Golden State’s embarrassment of riches.
“Kevin Durant,” he said. “You’ve got two guys with MVPs (Stephen Curry the other) on their team. And then you’ve got a guy in Klay (Thompson) who could easily be on a team and carry a team, scored40 in a quarter before. And then you have Draymond (Green), who is arguably one of the best defenders and minds we have in our game. So you have that crew.
“Then you add on a Finals MVP coming off the bench (Andre Iguodala), a No. 1 pick in (Shawn) Livingston and an All- Star in David West and whatever the case may be. So they have a lot of talent.”