Latest / The Right Time with Bomani Jones / Logan Murdock on Why Kevin Durant Chose the Warriors 10 years ago | 06.30

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Logan Murdock on Why Kevin Durant Chose the Warriors 10 years ago | 06.30 · The Right Time with Bomani Jones

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Wave.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A wave original.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: My name is Beaumont Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: a hater. We are in Time Machine Tuesday. We are
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: talking about the day that Kevin Durant Broke the NBA
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: and signed with the Golden State Warriors 10 years ago
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: in the year of our Lord 2016. Joining us. Check
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: him out at the Ranger. I didn't realize they called
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: him Lolo, but apparently that's what they say in the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: background of this. Check out real ones available on your podcast.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Give it away free. Logan Murdoch was going on.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: What's up, man? Hey, man, I didn't take my shoes
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: off in your place of residence earlier before the pod
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and pre-pod, so I just want to publicly apologize that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I'm here, and I'm excited to be here.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the invitation, because I.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Was out here wilding. You are, you are. It's cool, though.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: And look, we need a Lolo on this show that
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: like me, because that Lolo Jones does not. It was earned. Yep.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It wasn't so, but let me know, though. It wasn't
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: earned I just understand where she might be coming from.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: There you go. That's called growth.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: There we go. I always understood it. I didn't and
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: don't care, but I always understood it. But, Logan, you
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: had interesting timing in your career, and we have talked
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: a lot on this show up until this point about, really,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: these 2016 Golden State Warriors. We did an episode with
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  Speaker 2: you about the 2016-2017 season. We talked to Ethan Strauss.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: about the 2016 NBA finals but now this is Kevin
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Durant showing up and then what happens after and one
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: thing that we touched on that hovered over the season
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: and hovered over the NBA finals and really the playoff
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: run though I guess it was easy to forget a
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: little bit during the Golden State Oklahoma City series because
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: these teams are going against each other but Adrian Wojnarowski
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: put it out there right at the all-star break yo
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Kevin Durant's gonna go to the Warriors like We all
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: kind of had this hovering belief and understanding that this
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: was going to happen all the way to Draymond Green
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: later telling us after they lost game seven, he's on
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  Speaker 2: the phone telling Kevin Durant that he needs to show
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: up there. But I ask you this is somebody who
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: was in the Bay. How much thought were you giving
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  Speaker 2: to the idea of Durant showing up or were you
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  Speaker 2: so caught up in or were people so caught up
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: in the 73 win season that there was no reason
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to think about anything else?
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  Speaker 1: I think there was two trains of thought. One, I
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: don't think it was two trains of thought and one
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  Speaker 1: going into one tunnel, which is, wow, this is crazy
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that the Warriors are this good. This is just incredibly crazy.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: For anyone that grew up during a similar time period
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: in the 90s like I did and going into the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: early 2000s and the mid-2000s and coming of age during
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: this time, it was like, this is crazy. This is
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the team that I used to watch lose. I would
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: go to the Coliseum to go watch the other team lose. play, right? Like,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I will go see Dirk. I will go see Kobe.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I'll come see LeBron.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: And people will be in there smoking.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: That's the thing. A sorry team in Oakland, indoors or out.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I got news for you, Bo. When they were really,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: really good, they were still smoking. It was still a
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: cloud over the perimeter.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: But it's different if you've ever been where a team,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: especially a team in the upper deck where they get
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: bad and they're like, man, ain't nobody about to do shit.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: They're just glad we're here. Oh man, absolutely. Especially like
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: in a place like California where it was decriminalized all
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: my life. That's all you would see like a summer
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: jam at anything at any concert. My favorite thing, before
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: we get back to this, my favorite thing about going
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: to the Coliseum back in the day as a kid is,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Watching the show for Summer Jam and then the lights
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  Speaker 1: go on in between acts and then you just see
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  Speaker 1: this fog in the Coliseum. It would just seem like, oh, OK,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that's why. Is that a contact I have? I'm 11
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: years old. I'm not supposed to have this. What's going on?
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And then it would go dark and then you would
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  Speaker 1: see the smoke going through the lights. It was a vibe.
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  Speaker 1: You would have loved it. But anyways, smoking weed, which
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  Speaker 1: gives us a great transition back to Kevin Durant. But no,
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  Speaker 1: I think it was two trains of mind. Right. Which
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  Speaker 1: was it's crazy that this is happening. And also, like,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: is Kevin Durant going to come on our team? Because
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  Speaker 1: you got to think, man, before this, the Warriors were,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: by and large, homegrown, right? Their biggest signing was David Lee,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and then after that it was Andre Guadagla, right? But
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: they had also gotten spurned by Dwight Howard in 2020,
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  Speaker 1: I believe 2023, or one of those times. I believe
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  Speaker 1: he had taken a meeting with the Warriors, but he
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  Speaker 1: just didn't. 2013. Exactly, yeah. but ultimately didn't go, right?
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  Speaker 1: But the Warriors were in the process behind the scenes
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  Speaker 1: of like putting together a product that would attract the
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. And you also got to think about the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: other side of this, which is the booming tech industry
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: at the time, right? I know at this point, tech
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: has taken a bad rap, but like in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it was booming and everybody wanted to be
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  Speaker 1: out here because it felt like just a new coming
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  Speaker 1: of age. And Kevin Durant was a part of that, right?
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  Speaker 1: He had invested in Postmates, and that was a selling
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  Speaker 1: point for the Warriors at that time. So from the
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  Speaker 1: basketball standpoint, you have this once-in-a-generation shooter in Steph Curry.
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  Speaker 1: You have one of the greatest defenders of all time
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  Speaker 1: in Draymond Green. You have Andre Guadagla running out the roster.
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  Speaker 1: And more than anything, you had this culture that the
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  Speaker 1: Warriors were building, or at least the culture that they
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  Speaker 1: were selling, which is, hey, man, we're going to have
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: fun and we're going to beat the shit out of
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: everybody while we're having fun, right? There's this big anecdote
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: that is always permeated around the Bay Area, which actually
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: happened during the 2015 All-Star game when I believe Steve
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Kerr was coaching that team because they had the best
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: record in the league. And after the game, the coaches
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: were just drinking. I think Modelo's, that was Steve's drink.
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  Speaker 1: And KD pops into the coach's office like, oh shit,
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  Speaker 1: this is how y'all get down? And that was like,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: kind of got the ball rolling on what he wanted
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  Speaker 1: to do. And the Bay was just a place to
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  Speaker 1: be at that point before investors and people like Andre
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  Speaker 1: Godala who wanted to invest in tech and people like
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  Speaker 1: KD who was already doing it, but you can only
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: do so much. It's a difference between being in Oklahoma
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: City and coming to the Bay twice a year and
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  Speaker 1: seeing these tech people versus actually seeing them every day
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and talking to them and conversing with them because boardroom
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and the stuff that he's doing right now was just
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: an idea. So it was one track for Kevin, the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: business of him, but also it was like, oh, this
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: team is off the hook. And I got an out
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: because they kind of need me, right? That was like
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the missing piece for the Avengers in a lot of ways, right?
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Because they had this offense that we hadn't seen before,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: but they didn't have somebody that can kill in the mid-range.
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  Speaker 1: Every great team has gaps, and KD was just the
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  Speaker 1: one who was like, no, I'm going to fill this gap,
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  Speaker 1: and we're going to be one of the greatest, if
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  Speaker 1: not the greatest, assimilation of talent that we've ever seen.
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  Speaker 2: I want to jump on that tech thing right fast
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  Speaker 2: because that's an angle I had not thought about. And
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  Speaker 2: I think it was something that in 2016, right? That
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  Speaker 2: was around the time that people were realizing that, yeah,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Durant invested in Postmates and you could put your money
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: in this stuff. But those cats like rappers, a lot
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: of them were pulling this off. I had one rapper
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  Speaker 2: call me about getting in a bit of a collective
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  Speaker 2: that was on this. You ain't even have to invest.
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  Speaker 2: You just needed to pull up, be there, have somebody
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  Speaker 2: at one of these companies who thinks you're really cool
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: and that you could be some sort of ambassador and
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: you get your money in equity there. And so like
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: that's a thing about being basketball player rich is the
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: added level of it puts you around even richer people.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: But you seem cool to those even richer people.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And so at that time, everything felt brand ass new
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  Speaker 2: and everybody had a startup that they were going and
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: they get these valuations on. And then going from there,
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  Speaker 2: like that was a time.
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  Speaker 1: And by and large, too, when you think about these guys,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: like what did these tech guys like? What was their ethos?
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: They loved hip hop and they basically they like to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: fetishize black people. That's basically what it was of that age. Right.
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  Speaker 1: They loved hip hop and they loved basketball. And they
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: wanted to be the cool guys in in pictures with celebrities,
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  Speaker 1: particularly black celebrities. Like it was a real cool thing
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: to be like, oh, stop. I got Kevin Durant. At
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: my such and such thing. Oh, snap. I got Nas
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: at my company retreat. Right. It was just it was
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: a time. And also it was just so much free
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: money out there. There was so much capital to spend
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: during that particular time because, you know, the Bay Area
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: wanted to be the center of the tech universe and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: they were going to do whatever they could to do that. Twitter,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: do you want to set up shop in downtown San Francisco?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Cool.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Here is a really, really dope. leasing opportunity for you. Facebook, okay,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: come on. You could build a sprawling campus with all
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: of this free money that we have. And that's another story. But, like,
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  Speaker 1: you could see what attracted young, rich people to this
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: area at that given time. There was just so much
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: money going around, and KD was attracted to it. And
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: it was different than in New York or in L.A.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: This was something new that was going on here. And,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: you know, it attracted a lot of athletes. And it
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: was kind of spearheaded this Warriors run in a roundabout way.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll get to the basketball part of it also,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: but I think we have to remember, because, I mean,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: it really has been 10 years ago, which is a
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: crazy thing to think about. But there were a very
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: particular set of circumstances that allowed this to happen, because
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: the truth is, never is a team as good as
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the Warriors were, right? To win 67 games one year
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: and then win 73 the next, to win 140 regular
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  Speaker 2: season games within two years. How are you even in
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: a position where signing Kevin Durant to a market value
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: contract is even an option? And it really just comes
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: down to they redone the CBA. And there were two
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: options in terms of how to handle a big cap
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: spike that was coming because I think they did a
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: new TV deal.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: There was the.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Option of what they called cap smoothing, which was adding
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: a little to the cap here, a little to the
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: cap here, a little to the cap here until you
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: got up to what the right number was. Or there
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: was the option of a spike. Take all the new
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: cap room and do it immediately. The players chose to
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: take the money immediately. And the logic was pretty simple.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: I don't trust y'all. You know what I'm saying? Like,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: why are we waiting for the money that's ours? No,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: let's just go ahead and get that money now. That
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: money played itself out in the cap. And so what
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: you wound up with was a really weak year of
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: free agency, except for Kevin Durant. But it also led
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: to a circumstance where the Warriors, if they renounced a
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: couple of contracts, could add Kevin Durant. And it was really,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: truly only at the expense of Andrew Bogut. Harrison Barnes
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: was somebody they also wound up without, but they were
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: switching out Kevin Durant for Harrison Barnes. To me, the
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: cost of the transaction was Andrew Bogut, who was hurting
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: the finals that year, and you do it 10 times
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: out of 10 is what I'm saying.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Right. Absolutely.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: But it could never it couldn't have happened any other year.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: It couldn't have happened any other time if there was
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: a measure of luck involved. But I also say for
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: the Warriors, there was a measure of having and maybe
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: they wouldn't have done this if they had won the championship.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Maybe Durant doesn't do it. If Oklahoma City had beaten
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Golden State, I'm not sure how it plays out. But
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: everything worked out in such a way where the window
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: was just open enough. And the best regular season team
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  Speaker 2: of all time added who might have been the best
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: player in the NBA.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely. I mean, and on the Harrison Barnes point,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: like it was, yeah, we could swap Harrison Barnes for KD,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: but also like we were getting up to a point where,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: you know, Joe Lacob was, was pretty tired of Harrison
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Barnes at that point, especially, and especially after he stuck
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: up the joint in the 2016 finals.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: He did not shoot the ball particularly well. Um, and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: you saw the limits of their offense. And I mean,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: you know, when I, when you go back to, um,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: you know, just the limits of Golden State's offense and
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: just KD plugging that in. I mean, you could see
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: this once in a generation, you know, cap spike and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: all those things. But like the backlash to that that
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: came so swift of KD coming more was just like, damn,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: like we have never seen a perfect team before. And
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: there's for the next like there was funny when I
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: was covering Golden State, we would literally book our finals
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: travel in September. We were just like, oh, they're There's
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: no way. Even if there's one injury, they're going to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the finals, right? We would just book in seven different
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: cities and be like, so we can get the rate.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: But that was the backlash that you would see from
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the rest of the league. It's like, we don't have a...
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: It's not competitive anymore. I'm sure we're going to talk
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: about it later, but if you look at those postseason stats,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: especially that first year, there was nothing the rest of
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the league could do with this, right? It got to
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the point where we were kind of manufacturing controversies with
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: this team, right? We were trying to, I think that
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: first year, we were trying to make them into like the,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the heatles. And that's the team that they were compared to.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Like anytime there was a yelling match on the, on the,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: on the, on the sideline, we would think, oh damn, it's, it's, it's,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: is this, is this the end? Then you look at
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the record, like, oh no, they just went, they went
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: 12 and one in this month. It's fine. They're fine.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: It's okay. This is January. We're good.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: There, there, there was no, the closest parallel that you
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: would have to this. And it wasn't even close is
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: like the Lakers being able to draft magic Johnson when
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: you already had Kareem or if Lynn bias had not died,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: adding him to what might've been the greatest team in
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: the history of the NBA up until that point. But
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: even then land bias was 22, right? Durant, I said
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: he might have been the best player in the NBA.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It's hard to think that anybody was better than LeBron
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: James at that point. I will just point out in
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: the 2017 season, I talk about this all the time,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the stat that maps most closely to the MVP winner
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: is win shares per 48 minutes. Durant missed a lot
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: of games in 2017, but the league leader in 2014
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: was Kevin Durant, and he won the MVP. The league
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: leader in 2017 was also Kevin Durant. He just missed
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of games. And this was playing on the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: team that he was on. But what did you think
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: of the idea of you went seven with these boys
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: and now you're jumping on the squad? We see that
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: kind of thing happen with like mid-level exception level players
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: in various sports. We had just never seen anything like
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: that happen with a guy that was as good as this.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: But on the Warriors' end, I don't want to run
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: away from the question, but on the Warriors' end, I
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: agree with you. They did need a small forward. So
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: what were they supposed to do, right? Get... Nah, he
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: too good, right? What was he supposed to say?
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: The thing is, bro, no one thinks like that. No
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: one thinks like that in regular life, that, hey, we
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: have the best... I talked to KD in 2022, I believe,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and he said... I asked him, like, what do you
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: think about– I forgot how the question was broached, but
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: he answered it and was like, I may not be
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: one of the top– considered one of the top players
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in NBA history, the top 10 players, but if we
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: were to pick just all-time 10 players to play a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: pickup game, I'm getting picked. And that's how it is
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: on the park, bro. Like, even if you're Steph Curry,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: you're Draymond, and you're at the park, you're like, yo,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I want that dude on my team if I can
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: get it in a player draft. That's what you do.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: That's literally how you– how you do this. And so,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: what was your question? I went on a tangent there.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: What was the question?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Did you think that there was anything untoward about him
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: making that move?
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting because when he got When he signed
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: with the Warriors, I was in Atlanta. I was interning
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: for Turner Sports at that time. So I remember taking,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: I was doing intern work, like, you know, taking clips
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: from this press conference, right? And at that moment, then
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I was like, you know, why would he do that, right?
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: And then a year later, I'm covering the team and
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I'm getting to know him a little bit more. I've
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: known Kevin Durant since I was 18 years old, but
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: this was the first time that I had seen him
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: on a day-to-day. And when you see him on a day-to-day,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: you increasingly realize that there's two sides of him, right?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: There is his ability and there's also his mindset. His
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: ability suggests that he should be the best player on
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the team and a number one option and all those things.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: But his mindset is like, yo, I just want to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: be one of the guys. Like, I really just want
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: to be one of the guys. I want to, he
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: said some stuff like that on the Simmons pod a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: few years back, but like, I want to be one
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of the guys. I want to kind of be in
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: within the locker room, And that's kind of what the
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: group that went out to the Hamptons from the Warriors standpoint.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: That's what they kind of fed off of. Like, yeah,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: you can be one of us. You can be you.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: You want to get to your spots. Cool. We have
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: an offense that has an equal opportunity for everyone. You're good.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: You want to build camaraderie with us. Let's do it.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: And I think that's something that he's always been searching for.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: And that's something that he finally got in the Golden State.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: And I think that's something he's also been searching for
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: ever since he left Golden State.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they just walked through the NBA. That was insane.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: And the thing about it was, and I think this
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: is something that's easy for us to forget about Kevin Durant,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: even though it's at the top line of the resume,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: is that he's seven feet tall.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: And I bring that up in that way because I
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: feel like We think of the Warriors as playing small
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: and they had lineups that could go small and that
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: could destroy you, but they were never really a small team.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Like I'm talking about this all the time. Steph Curry
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: is not small for an NBA point guard. Clay Thompson
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: is not small. Draymond Green has ways to make up
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: for his height disadvantage, but he's not really small, right?
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: All of these things. Kevin Durant is a seven foot tall,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: small forward. Even when you decided to go small, there's
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: a guy seven feet tall in there that can protect
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: the rim. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, you're
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: never actually going small as long as Kevin Durant's on
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: the floor. When Oklahoma City that year before would be
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: running like Ennis Cantor and Steven Adams at the same time,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: they're running them with Kevin Durant.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, we talked about it last pot. We
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: talked about it the last pot we were in. One
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of the big reasons why Thunder were so successful is
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: because of the playoffs against Golden State is because the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: defensive acumen of that team and chief among that is
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: because Kevin Durant can switch on two At that time, Steph,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: he could switch on to Andre Guadagnole. The big reason
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: why they went up 3-1 is because of how much
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: of a disruptor he was. I remember in the 2017 season,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: 2018 season, for the first few months of the season,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: he was getting defensive player of the year buzz. I
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: think he had six blocks in one game against New Orleans.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: He was a bona fide defender, and he unlocked a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: lot of things within that defensive structure. And honestly, man,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: it allowed them to play the Warriors to play faster
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: than normal. Right. Because you don't have to have a,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: you know, a guy like, you know, Festus Azili kind of,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: you know, coming around the back or Andrew Bogut being
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a traditional center.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: The Warriors played a lot of times without a traditional center.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: And a lot of that had to do with Draymond Green,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and his ability to read angles in a way that
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of players in NBA history
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: have been able to do. And he could play center
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and play a lot of those positions. But it allowed
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: also for you to have a– you had three bona
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: fide great shooters on the floor as well, right? You
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: had Klay Thompson. You had Steph Curry. And you had
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Steph Curry. You had Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. And so, like,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: it really was a cheat code watching this team, man.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Shit was just not fair. I remember there was a
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Memphis game where Draymond gets into it with KD. And
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I remember that as a talking point. And I remember
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: that being a talking point. Like, oh, it's early in
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the season. How are the Warriors going to get their
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: shit together? Yeah. I went back before we did this
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: podcast and I looked at what, what date that was.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: That day was January. It was January 6th of the season. Right. Like,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and they had already kind of, they were already had
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the best record in the league. Like we were trying
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: so hard to like find storylines to like kind of,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you know, normal, like media storylines. Hey, we're going to,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: we're going to try to find some controversy because it's
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: a Tuesday in January and it's right before the NFL playoffs.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: And we really don't have anything. We need to get
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: drum up something. And then they reel off like nine
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: straight wins after that. It was really, It was really just,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: it was too easy for them. It was way too
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: easy for them in a number of different ways, especially
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: down the stretch of games because KD can kind of
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: get that mid-range and he could be the anecdote to
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Steph Curry, who was just all of this chaos. And
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the Warriors have been trying to find a guy like
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: KD who could stabilize the offense ever since, even with
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: guys like Chris Paul. And it just hasn't worked because
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: KD was just so good in that role.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Think about this. One of the craziest things about how
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: good and balanced that team was Nobody made first-team All-NBA. No.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: No.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Nobody made first-team All-NBA. Curry had 25.3 points a game.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Durant had 25.1. Thompson had 22.3.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Like, it was just, your turn. You want a bucket? Okay,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: you can have a bucket. Oh, you want to get
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: you a bucket?
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: All right, cool.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: It was also quite literally one of the best 2K
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: games ever, or best 2K teams ever of all time.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: I haven't played video games in a very long time,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: but my thought with the Warriors was, and this is
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: part of why the thing with Durant landed, hey man,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: it's some teams you're just not allowed to use.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: You are not allowed to use a 2017 Warriors on 2K.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: There's no way that you're allowed to use them, man.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: What you doing? Go pick the Wizards with John Wall.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: What you doing, man? Why you gonna do that? That's forbidden.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I remember like the The 2000, like, 08 Patriots were
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: one of those teams, right? The one with Randy Moss, right?
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Those were one of those teams. I think the Vic
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Madden teams were always like, bro, why are you doing that?
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Chicago and San Francisco on the first Tecmo Bowl. Like,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: you can only use them if we playing each other.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Except with the Warriors on 2K, there's no other team
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: to play each other with, right? The Warriors were that good.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: He was like, there's no other team you could like.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Even on 2K, I can't pick the Cavs because they
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: weren't going to be as good enough to play against
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: this Warriors team. You had to play like the dream
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: team against this Warriors team on 2K. It was that
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: out of pocket.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: When you look at the regular season numbers, this team
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: shot 49.5% from the field, 38% from three as a team.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: yeah um 79 from the line yeah right what what
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: what was anybody supposed to do with this and this
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: is why two things one it was obviously why I
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: was frustrated for a lot of people that he went
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: there in the first place like I don't think I
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: don't know what else people expected for him or the
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: team to do under those circumstances right um especially if
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: he'd been in Oklahoma City nine years he just felt
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: like it was time for something else why would you
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: not want to be a part of this if you
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: got the option okay cool however in combination with the
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: 73-win team not winning the championship, I contend that Kevin
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Durant going to Golden State ruined the regular season in
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: a way that the NBA has yet to recover from
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: because it really didn't matter, right? And so I say
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: it's in two ways. This team won 73 games and
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: didn't win a championship. So what does the regular season matter, right?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: The greatest team in the history of the NBA. What
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: does it matter? And then you add Durant, and it's
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: just like, the part that I didn't like about that,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: though I understood where people were coming from, was I
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: don't think there was ever a point as it normally
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: is with a team that is that excellent. And I
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: guess we did it the year before, so we were
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: burnt out on the idea. But I don't feel like
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: there was a time where the basketball-watching public was able
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: to just stop and just spend every night being amazed, right?
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Like we should be telling stories about how, man, I
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: got up every, I mean, I stayed up every night
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: watching the Warriors on a league pass. I'm sure there
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: are people who did that, but that's not the way
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: that we received this team. We received how good they
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: were negatively because they low-key broke basketball.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you even think about the team that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: preceded them, the Chicago Bulls, who won 72 games. They
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: had playoff battles, right? That's how you really, you know,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: either figure that you love the team or hate the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: team is that you can feel like you can be
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: a long journey with them. Right. And that's not to
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: say the Warriors don't have those games. But what I'm
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: saying is like during that 2016, 2017 season in particular,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: that was a rare time when, you know, the hubris
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: was on the horizon. But the vibes there were like
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: just so immaculate. Right. They went through the. I think
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: they didn't lose a postseason game until the finals.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And even then, I believe that was a game. Was
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: that game three of that final or game four of
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: that final series when they were already up 3-0 in
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the series?
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They had a chance to run a Boston on
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: the whole NBA.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Right. And so what you want in sports is
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: you want your best team to be tested.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: You want to see that. Those games in 2016 and 2017,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: if you go back and look, there weren't many games
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: that were that compelling. Like, juxtapose that with the 73-9
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: season where the regular season did matter and there were
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of compelling games. I can't really think of
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a game. I think about... Well, there was one.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: There was one that was compelling.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: That was a Christmas game. I remember there was a
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Christmas game that was amazing. But other than that, there weren't... Like,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: you would go into a lot of games when you
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: would go out to Oracle during that time and a
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: lot of people would leave because they're up 30 going
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: into the third quarter. It's like, okay, we saw the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: third quarter run. It's time to go bounce out, get
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: the hell up out of East Oakland, and let's wait
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: for the next game, right? And we weren't seeing the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: drama that we like to see out of teams, particularly
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: in that year, right? And that had a lot to
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: do with the fact that KD just wasn't the malcontent
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: version of him didn't show yet, right? And so it
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: was great until it wasn't.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to say, like, the compelling game of
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: the 2017 season was the one where the Spurs went
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: up 25 or whatever it was, and then Zaza took
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: one for the team and got Kawhi out of there,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and then that lead went boop. Like, that was the
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: series that had a chance because Kawhi, quiet as is kept,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: at that point was now a legitimate challenger for being
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: the best player in the NBA.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: He was an Omar to NBA at that point. He
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: was definitely an Omar to me.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Two years later, after suffering significant knee injury, he led
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: a team to a championship. No matter what happened with
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: the Warriors, that was still Kawhi Leonard on a team
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: whose second best player was what, either Kyle Lowry or
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Pascal Siakam?
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Right? He did that.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: There's no telling what it would have been, but for that,
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: that season to me is just like a big old
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: giant blur in a lot of ways because they were
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: just that much better. But you just touched on it.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: We'll get to this coming up next, which is it
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• 30:27
  Speaker 2: with that boy Lolo. You know what I'm saying? Check
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: out real ones. The 2018 season.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: It didn't go as smooth in the 2018 season for
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: the Warriors. I don't, like, is there anything about the
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: regular season that stands out to you about that team?
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Just that they were bored, right?
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Like, they had done everything. Like, at some point, you
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: get tired of beating the game.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think they were bored during that time of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the game of, of, of, of their run. Um, that
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: was the 17, 18 season was my first official season
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: on the beat. Right. And I'm coming into the beat like, Dan,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: there's all these good vibes. This is great. And then
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: when you, I got there the October right before the season,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I got on the beat at the San Jose Mercury news.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: And then you just see like, why is it all
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: this dread? Like, why are y'all not like happy as
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: y'all were last year when I was coming periodically? But, um,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I think it was just boredom. There were some, um,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: it was some injuries to Steph at that point. Um,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and there was just also the assumption that, Hey, we're
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: going to get there for whole, we're really not tripping.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: And then you see the rise of the, um, the, the, the,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the Houston rockets, what's finally like, we go back to
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: last season where it was like, there's nobody challenging this team.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: You finally saw a challenger kind of coming into the
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: fold with Houston. Right. And they were everything that the
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: warriors weren't right there. The warriors are pride themselves on, um, on,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: on ball movement. and three-point shooting and good shot selection.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: And then you have Houston who was led by a
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: ball-dominant guy who has his, if you look at his co-stars,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: they're always like this whenever they're in the corner and
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: they're like this and then they're like, okay. My favorite
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: thing is to look at PJ Tucker during that run
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: because he's like looking for the ball and he's like, yo, yo, yo. Anyways,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: but what you saw was you saw the Rockets kind
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: of come into the national scene as a team that
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: could potentially knock these guys off.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, they were the number one seed.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: They were the number one seed, and they beat– James
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Harden had two big games against the Warriors that season,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: both at Oracle, if I remember correctly. There was the
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: opening night game where the Warriors get up to a
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: 20-point lead. It was the Nick Young game. And the
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Rockets storm all the way back to win that game.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: And I remember that game in particular because Steve Kerr
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: was just so pissed off at the team. Like, why
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: are you guys, like his biggest thing was trying to
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: find things to motivate this team. Sometimes he would have
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the players like draw plays just to keep them interesting.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: And so they lost that first game in opening night
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: against Houston. And then there was a mid-season game where
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: James Harden hits a three at the buzzer. That was
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: fucking incredible. It was one of the great, you guys
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: go look back up that. I think it was an
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: early January game, but the Rockets seem to have their number.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: And then the more important, they seem to have the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Warriors attention. So it was always like, okay, we're going
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: to see them later. And the Warriors were a two
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: seed when I think that they were, they were definitely
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: a better team than Houston, but they became, they were,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: they were a two seed. And they, that was, we
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: were like, let's just get to the conference finals. It
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't as, I don't, I don't remember it being as
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: much hype. as the Spurs OKC matchup, but it was
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: like that. It was like, OK, we're going to see
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: how they are because this is going to be the
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: real NBA finals and we'll see who the best team is.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: And then you had whispers of, the early whispers of
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: KD's malcontent, right? And that, you know, he just not
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: starting to fit in, not starting to feel like he's
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: part of the group anymore and he's starting to isolate himself, right?
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: But it was, those rumors were just starting and then
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: it was like, Wow, is the culture of Golden State
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: really going to be, first, it's good enough to bring
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Kevin Durant here, but is it good enough to keep him?
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: And that was always a lingering question that was starting
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: to come up as you get into that 2017-2018 season.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: So I think it's interesting to juxtapose kind of two
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: ideas about what happens when you win championships. Pat Riley
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: would talk about the disease of more, right? Like after
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: you get the championship, now that everybody's got that goal,
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: now it's time to get more. I want more shots.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: I want more playing time. I want more endorsements. I
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: want a little of this. I want a little of that.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Ethan Strauss wrote a book about this run called The
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Victory Machine, which was interesting. And the point that I
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: thought was interesting about it was he was like, well, really,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: what happens when you win this championship and it doesn't
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: make you nearly as happy as you expected it to?
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: What else is there for you to do at this point?
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: And the Warriors, I think, throughout this whole run, did
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: a great job of staving off the Moore problem. Even
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: with Draymond Green and his issues with Kerr not giving
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: him enough rope, I don't even think that was Draymond
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: wanting more as much as Draymond not wanting less, which
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: is what it ultimately became once Kerr came back. And
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: then obviously once Durant got there, that's when he becomes
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: triple single guy because there just aren't buckets. left there
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: for him to get. But they did seem to have the...
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: So why exactly are we doing this again? That's what
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: it feels like when that team starts running as it
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: did in 2018. And look, Chris Paul doesn't have the
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: hamstring injury in 2018. It is entirely possible that the
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Rockets win that series. I don't think it's likely because
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: we've seen enough of James Harden's movies, but... There's the argument.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: And Chris Paul's movies. Yeah, yeah.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Like, that might have happened. They wound up winning the
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: championship that year. They went in there and they played
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: against Cleveland. And they, I mean, we cannot ignore the
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: fact that they swept Cleveland out, basically, those last two years.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: A 4-1 and a 4-0. And that, I mean, that
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: 2018 Cleveland team, that was when they just, like, when
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: your mama go in the fridge and be like, what
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: we got? I'm going to make dinner out of something.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: And that's what that whole roster was, right? Like, they
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: just went and made trades and just put some goulash together.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: And just said LeBron.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: No, they had LeBron. They had LeBron. Like, that's really
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: what it was. It was late-stage great LeBron who could...
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I think that was the last time that LeBron could
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: do that, right? That could just single-handedly just go ahead and, like,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: just take a team. They just had randos just coming
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: And, I mean, they made a trade to get a
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: collection of randos. Yep. Like, that was what they did.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: We're going to trade our randos for these other randos.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: We're just going to see how it shakes.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll make rando goulash. But watch,
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: it'll be good. Yep. It'll... It'll... It'll... You'll be fine.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Like that's that's kind of you know, that's that's kind
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: of what they went with. But then by the time
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: you get to year three of this, now the malcontent
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: stuff is is coming out loud. And the one place
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: I always defended Duran on this was it has to
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: be annoying to have a bunch of strangers trying to
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: ask you if you're happy. Because to all of us
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: on the outside, of course you'd be happy. You got
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: exactly what you said you wanted by coming to play
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: for this team. But part of what I always thought
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: was interesting about that coming together, and I'm curious your
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: thoughts about this. We treat Stephen Curry like he's a saint,
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: and Stephen Curry is ultimately a human being. And it
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: was his squad, right? I think this is as comparable
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: as it is to Derek Jeter when Alex Rodriguez showed up.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Derek Jeter should have gone and played second base and
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: let Rodriguez play shortstop, except I'm the shortstop. Yeah, I'm
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: the shortstop. What are you talking about? Like, I earned this.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: I'm the captain. I'm staying right here. And not to
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: say that Steph did anything explicit like that with Durant,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: but the reality was he was always going to.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Be the captain.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: And I thought it was fair and understandable for Durant
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: to be like, yo, man, I'm two-time finals MVP, and
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: y'all still looking at me like I'm a number two,
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: even though I am in his eyes, clearly the best
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: player on this team, and I think he was the
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: best player on this team. Like, was that something that
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: was palpable to you guys there?
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think that there was that, right? Like, I
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: think that there was, we were talking about beforehand, where
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I think KD ultimately, like, as we're 10 years removed
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: from it, I think KD came to the Bay Area
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: in search of something that was far beyond basketball, right?
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: He came to find community. and find community on his terms.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: And purpose, and happy. And purpose, and happiness, right? And
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: going into his career, he's coming up in Kobe land,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: he's getting compared to LeBron, and what is taught to
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: him throughout this whole time? What is going to provide happiness?
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: It's going to be rings, right? It's going to be
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: the finals MVP. It's going to be the glory. It's
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: going to be Rihanna coming front row to come see
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: you play, right? That's what it's going to be. And
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: then when you get that I think he realized the
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: internal foundation around him wasn't strong enough for him to
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: actually enjoy the title that he had. Right. Because after
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: he gets the title, he thinks it's going to bring,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, we, but we've all been through this, right.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Where we just put this thing is like, okay, this
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: thing is going to solve all of my other problems.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: And when we get that thing, it doesn't solve all
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: of our problems and we all fucked up. Right. And
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I think that that was something that kd was going
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: through right so after after he wins the title then
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: he's trying to like conquer other things right can i
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: conquer this team and not necessarily wrestle away from steph
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: but more of just thinking like man why they don't
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: love me like they don't love steph right like and
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: then he has other um you know things that are
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: going on in his head yeah draymond brought me here
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: but like He don't work hard as me. How come
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: he don't get the glory? How come he get more
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: glory than I am? How come he, you know, why
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: doesn't he get every... Why can't I get the love
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: that he get, right?
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: They treat him like a carpetbagger.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Right, but, like, I think what... I think that what
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: he was going through during that time, again, he was
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: searching for something way beyond what the Warriors could ever
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: have provided for him because at every turn, they tried
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: their best to coddle him and tried to... I'm going...
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: whatever you need, KD, whatever you need. But then you
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: started seeing other things, right? Like when KD first got to,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: he started isolating himself. Like when KD first got to
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the Bay Area, he had a nice house in East
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Oakland overlooking the Bay. And who else was in the
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: East Bay, in the hills? He lived down the street
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: from Clay Thompson. He lived down the street from Andre Iguodala,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: lived over the hill from Steph Curry. And then you
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: start seeing around 2018, what happens? Even though they're playing
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: in Oakland, he moves to a high rise in San Francisco, right?
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: And he just isolates himself from the group. And you know,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: if you know the Bay Area, you know that San
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Francisco is a completely different world than Oakland, right? And
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: it's not just easy saying, like, I'm just going to
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: go over a bridge to go hang. So after practice,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, I'm jetting to the city, and I'm
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: getting my other stuff done. So he started isolating himself
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: from the group. And it was a self-fulfilling prophecy for him, right? Like,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not those things, and I'm going to convince myself
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: that I'm not, like, loved by this organization. And then also,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: you know, he was on Twitter a lot. And, you know,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of the fan base, he read all the comments,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: and he was honestly like, it was like an everyday
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: news story, like, of him trying to protect his legacy
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: in real time instead of, like, you know, going and
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: joining the Bay. And that was, whatever he was searching
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: for in the Bay, the Warriors tried to provide to
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: him And it still wasn't enough.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: Ultimately, I think there's another part that we don't talk about.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: And that is like my buddy Nick said this and
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: it made big guy controversial on the Internet. I've been
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: saying this for years, which is my belief that there
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: was never a time that Kobe Bryant was the best
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: player in the NBA. It sounds crazy to people, but
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: there are arguments like you had. You could have your
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: argument that Kobe was a better like. if you believe
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: that Kobe was a better player than Shaq in 2001,
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: and there's an argument that Kobe would have been the
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: best player in the league, right? If you think that
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Tim Duncan by O2 had become the best player in
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: the league, which I'm inclined to think, then the Kobe
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: window gets weird. And if you think that he carried
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: that for a while, and then when LeBron picks it up,
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: but either way, I know why that makes people mad,
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: but there's a case for it. Just as wild as
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: it may seem, the idea that somebody might think that
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: Kobe was never the best player in the NBA is
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: There is never a point at which we have ever
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: treated Kevin Durant like he was the best player in
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: the NBA. And this is even after he won the
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: 2014 MVP and he didn't win it because LeBron missed
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: games or anything like that. He was the best player
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: in the NBA.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook was out that year too as well, right?
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Like he was carrying that. Russell Westbrook was out that
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: year for a large extent of time. So he was
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: like carrying that Thunder roster to 60 games or something
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like, he was that guy. Then, if you
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: don't want to say he was the best player in
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: the NBA at that point, okay, right? He comes to
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Golden State, and it's like this. Well, I won a championship.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: I'm Finals MVP. I seal a championship, hitting a shot
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: in LeBron's eye, in LeBron's house. Okay, so... There's a torch,
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: and you're supposed to hand it to me, right?
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Nope.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: We didn't even think about it. Now, part of that,
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I think, is because we had started to give that
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: torch to Steph and then 2016 game seven happened. And
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: we're like, damn, we scared to give it to anybody
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: other than LeBron. But I think that Durant was looking
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: at it like, OK, I don't think I can get
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: I don't think I can win a championship here where
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: I am.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: I don't think I can reach the benchmarks that you
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: normally have to reach when people say you're the best
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: player in the NBA. Right. I just went and did
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: that and it never happened. And what it made me
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: think about was it's the scene in the wire where
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: they in the, um, they over there in that, uh,
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: that off brand office, they got way off in the
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: cut and it's Lester and Jimmy talking. And Jimmy is
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: talking something about how, you know, the work being you
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: less to do maybe five, 10 guys out here can
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: do this. And, and, and less than this, but he
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: was like, how do you think this is, huh? You
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: think it's going to be a Jimmy McNulty day? You
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: think it's going to be a ticker tape parade? Like,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: What do you think? Do you really think that's what's
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: going to happen? And Lester says to him, Jimmy, a life,
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: you know what that is? It's what happens while you're
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: waiting on moments that are never going to come. And
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Kevin got to a place where, in my opinion, because
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know him like that, he was waiting for
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: moments that were never going to come And then it
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: becomes this huge thing by that third year, because now
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: he's a free agent. And it's like, well, what are
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: you going to do? Are you going to come back?
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: And Draymond called you a bitch in front of everybody.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: And you're like, and there's nothing you could do about
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: it unless you go punch him in the face, which
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: isn't an option.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Right? All you got is homework. I mean, it is
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: an option. It is an option. I think if he
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: would have did that on camera.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: It's an option when you're 23. It's not an option
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: by the time you're in year 11. You can't really
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: do that. And so he's just like, what am I
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: supposed to do here? This cat just told me, we
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: don't need you. Everything I've always worried about and felt
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: about you guys not feeling like we really gang over here.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: You just told me that we not. And they ain't
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: make you do nothing. And then we ain't even talk
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: And that's the other thing about the Warriors culture that
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I speak about, right? It was vibes. It was like, hey, man,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: we're all happy. We're all happy. But, I mean, I
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: don't know if you've been in this situation, but anytime
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: I see somebody that is like manufactured happiness, it means
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: that they're sweeping something under the rug. And what the
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Warriors culture ultimately became was a place that would sweep
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: things under the rug for Draymond Green, right? And that...
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: really like that pissed K off that pissed him off
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: a lot. Like I just referenced the, you know, Kevin
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: saw a guy that, you know, is really good, but again,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: he's not putting in the work that I'm putting in
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: on a given, any given night and, or, or staying
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: after hours, like say what you want about KD, but like,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: he's probably one of the most refined basketball players of
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: his generation. And the reason why that is, is because
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: he's one of the most meticulous workout players that I
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: think I've ever seen.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: And you juxtapose that with Draymond, who is one of
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the smartest basketball players that I have ever been around.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: But he doesn't necessarily have the work ethic of a
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: lot of people. Right. Like that also was a point
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: of contention a lot for Golden State. But he sees
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: that and he's like and on top of the fact
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: that it's like, damn, bro, you called me. You're the
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: one that called me. You say we don't need you.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: You called me to come here. Right. And then that
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: even puts the isolation even further, because I remember like
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: even in the first round, One of the best series
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: that I've ever seen from Kevin was against the 2019
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: first round against the Clippers.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: And that's the I'm Kevin Durant series.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was a bad motherfucker that series. Right. But
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: as he's playing well, you hear coaches behind the scenes like, yeah,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: he's not he's not coming back next year. It's over. Right.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Like he's he's not he's just not going to come back.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: Like they were and they weren't sad about it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: And they were not sad about it. because they had
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: all coalesced around Draymond. And also like, you know, Kevin
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: started to isolate himself from people. So it was just
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: it was just a perfect storm of events to get
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: him there. But it was a perfect storm of events
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: to get him out of there as well.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But let's talk about this, though. That 2019 postseason
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: after the I'm Kevin Durant speech, after people acted like
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Patrick Beverly was shutting him down. He was as good
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: as anybody I've ever seen. They made the we're going
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: to run through Kevin Durant call. And yeah, they made
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: some subtle changes to the offense to allow him a
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: little more time to cook and everything else. But no,
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: they decided we're going through this guy in that series
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: and up until the calf strain. Woo! Boy.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Bo, even in the finals, I remember when he came
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: back for game five. If you go look at the first,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: because there was, he has the calf injury, KD does.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: Then we go through where it's like we're having this
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: identity crisis. This is when the Warriors are actually interesting, right?
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Like this is when they became, you know, late-stage dynasty.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: But you're going through this about three-week stretch where it's like, man,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: is it Kevin's team? Is it Steph's team? Is it
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: what's going on? Can they win one out? Because they
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: had the big win against Houston to close out the series.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: And it was like, oh, yeah, we were reminded this
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: team was actually good before Kevin Durant. And then it's
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: like they go and they play against Toronto. And, you know,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: they get down. And it's like, oh shit, is Kevin
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: going to get them out of it? Are they still
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: good without him? And then he comes in game five
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: and he's just nails before he tears his Achilles. You
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: go look at him. You go look at him before
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: he tears his Achilles. It's like, oh shit. Warriors are
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: going to wrap this thing up. It's all good. It's
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: over with. It's fine. We understand what this is and
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: how good he is. Then he tears his Achilles and
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: that is a turning point in his whole career. from
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: then before Achilles tear and then afterwards.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah everything after that is almost in the end we
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: go act like none of that shit happened oh absolutely
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: it's weird it's been a string of seven irrelevant years
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: what's weird is not that Jose not that he was
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: irrelevant no but nothing that happened there matters.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: The NBA kind of passed him by after that which
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: was wild right and I think the other thing is
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: like I think KD for for a long stretch of
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: his career post-Golden State, has spent a lot of time
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: both relitigating how that experience went, but also trying to
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: run away from it and trying to be something else.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: But it's weird because I think when we go look
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: back 20, 30 years from now, he's going to be
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: known as a Golden State warrior. He's going to be
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: known for that stretch in particular, if we're being honest.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: For a long time, it's going to be the only
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: retired jersey he has. Cause Laker has said that they're
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: going to do it and they absolutely should.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I think, I think, I think OKC will as well.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: I think OKC will. Eventually. Eventually. I think so. Cause
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: I remember when he, when I talked to him in 22, he,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: you know, he was in Brooklyn and he said all the,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: it was funny. He said, all of these teams that
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: I play for should retire, retire my jersey. It's only
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: good for the game. Including OKC wouldn't be good for
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: basketball if they didn't. And I was like, wow, this
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: is going to be crazy. And when the story dropped,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Sam Presti, they had an alumni night in Oklahoma City.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Sam Presti did a toast and said, everybody is welcome here,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: including from past, present, and future. And that wasn't so subtle, right?
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: And ever since then, they've been trying behind the scenes
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: to repair that relationship. I think it'll be figured out.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: So I think he'll get his shit retired.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: Eventually.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Eventually, in Oklahoma City and in Golden State. Golden State
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: is first, though.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Golden State's the only one that I'm sure is
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: going to do it because Lakeham has said explicitly that
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: they're going to do it.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, see, the jersey just might appear in their arena.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: It just might appear up in the rafters.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: But it's still salty. Like, when they go play games
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: there now, he still gets booed. Like, to me, it's
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: crazy that it's still salty. Because I didn't feel like
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: it ended and they didn't want it to, but I
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: didn't feel like it ended acrimoniously.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Well, you got to think, though, man. They....
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: I hear you, but it's been 10 years is all
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: I'm saying.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: No, man, but they don't forget stuff.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: Toronto got over Vince, and that was the coldest one.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: There's a lot more stuff to do in Toronto to
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: get over the fact that Vince Carter left you. In
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, you just sit there and you just wait
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: and you're just like, I don't know. I guess so.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I remember one time I went to go cover a
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: game in Oklahoma City, and I made the mistake of
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: telling the Uber driver that I was coming from the
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: Bay Area, and The look on that man's face was sick.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: And I did not know if I was going to
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: get to my hotel on time. There's a disdain for
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: the coastal elites in places like Oklahoma City. And the
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: fact that KD left for a coastal elite town, that
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: plays a large part in how they think about him.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's because he left to the team
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: that beat him in seven.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: But that's.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: It's an interesting story that he gave us and so
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: much that spins off, really a decision that makes all
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: the sense in the world unless it doesn't. That's Logan Murdoch.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: Check him out at Duranger. Check out Real Ones. Check
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: out his articles. He does articles. He does all kinds
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: of stuff, man. My brother, I appreciate you.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Man, I appreciate you too, man. Thanks so much for
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: having me on. I love always coming on here. It's
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: a pleasure.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: No problem. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining
• 52:39
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• 52:41
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• 52:43
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• 52:45
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• 52:48
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• 53:02
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