Kevin Durant spoke with Zach Randolph and Tony Allen on the Out of the Mud podcast about the motivating factors that contributed to his decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors nearly a decade ago.
Durant starts off by admitting he "understood" why his departure would make Thunder fans feel "pissed off."
"People enjoyed having me around, simple as that," he said at the 36:28 mark. "They love having me around OKC, so me just leaving, just like that, when we were close to getting to the Finals, yeah, I understood why people was pissed off. But I couldn't make a decision based off of what other people wanted [me] to do."
In a Feb. 2024 interview on Boardroom, Durant also said he understood how Thunder fans felt because he was seen as a member of their family. "I respected how real those feelings were and how real that family was built," he said at the time. "I think regardless of me having that jersey on, it's still going to feel that way."
KD also told his former Warriors teammate Draymond Green on the Bleacher Report video series Chips in 2021 that he made a "basketball decision" when he left OKC for Golden State.
"I felt like I was the absolute perfect fit for what you guys were doing on both sides of the ball," Durant explained. "And I knew my game reached the point where I needed to see what that looked like."
While the basketball side was certainly one contributing factor, KD revealed to Randolph and Allen that there were several things he "wanted" that OKC simply could not provide.
"It's not one reason why you make a big decision like that," he said. "I feel like it's a lot of different factors into why I wanted to leave OKC and a majority of it is, I wanted a new experience, I wanted to play a different way, a different style."
"I wanted to live in a different city, experience a different life in a different city," KD continued. "That's all I knew was OKC. I wanted to play for a different management. You know, I just wanted to experience what life was like with a different organization."
He added: "On top of having the opportunity to play with some of the best players that knew how to play, that matched my skillset, so everything aligned."