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Draymond Green Finally Reveals What Caused Rift Between Kevin Durant and Warriors

The Golden State Warriors signing Kevin Durant caused a lot of noise, not only in the entire NBA, but also within the team.

While Durant fitted well with the Warriors as they continued their dominance and eventually won a championship in their first year together, a sense of displease and discontent on Durant’s side came looming and affecting Draymond Green and the rest of the team just right after 2017.

In an appearance on Showtime’s “All The Smoke” Podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Green finally revealed what actually happened with Durant and the Warriors after winning the championship in 2017.

“In my opinion he got the best of ‘Bron [in the 2017 Finals], like Kevin was f—in rocking,” Green said. “After that, that was kind of that moment of like, damn Kevin should be the best player in the NBA now because of what he just did to LeBron. And it’s like, you turn on the TV the next day, and the f—in headline is, ‘LeBron James still best player in the world?’ You’ve got Stephen A. [Smith], you’ve got all these people debating it, and everybody’s still saying LeBron James is the best player in the world. That’s when I kind of felt like it took a turn. And then we came back for the 2017-18 season, and Kevin just wasn’t as happy.”

“All of a sudden it was kind of just like, ‘F**k, why’s Steph shooting this shot?’ or ‘F—, he ain’t pass the ball’ or ‘Why’s Klay shooting this shot?’ or ‘Why he ain’t pass the ball?’ And I’m just sitting there like, ‘Yo, that’s the same Klay and Steph I’ve always played with. Like, they ain’t playing no different than they’ve always played.’ And I know those two guys, they’re definitely not looking you off. They may not see you, because they’ve f—ing got tunnel vision at times, which most scorers do have tunnel vision at times, and that’s why they’re great scorers, but they ain’t gonna never just f—ing look you off. I’ve been playing with them since I came into this league. That ain’t who they are.”

Draymond says he feels KD changed when LeBron was still being considered the best player in the NBA after the 2017 Finals. pic.twitter.com/dJd3yRP492

— Chris Montano (@gswchris) April 23, 2020

Draymond’s feeling that Durant became jealous of LeBron is not surprising. The 2-time Finals MVP appears to crave for the best player status for some time now, and after putting up 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists on 55.6% FG against LeBron and the Cavs in the 2017 Finals, the majority of fans were still unwilling to give the torch to KD, not even after they swept the Cavaliers the next year, with Durant winning his second Finals MVP award.

The things happening behind the scenes are as interesting as it could get. The change of demeanor from Durant could be noticeable after seeing him feud with Draymond a couple of times during their last 2 years together. But the reason and the totality wasn’t as completely transparent and clear as it is now.