When Kevin Durant makes his regular-season debut for the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night against his former team, he doesn’t forecast an act of revenge or anything just because he will be playing his former Warriors teammate.
During Durant’s journey in Golden State from 2016 to 2019, the Warriors never missed the Finals in those three years, pushing their total to five straight Finals appearances.
How does Kevin Durant look?
Well, he looks like Kevin Durant.
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) December 21, 2020
In 2009 final’s game 5, Durant tore his Achilles tendon as the Warriors lost to the Kwahi and Raptors. Less than a month later, Durant signed as a free agent with the Brooklyn Nets teaming up with his good friend Kyrie Irving.
Kevin Durant is just happy to back hooping and looks forward just playing his first NBA game in 18 months will take care of that.
“I feel like each game is important to me, and it’s no more important because I’m playing against my old teammates,” Durant said.
“The game of basketball is going to have me on that level anyway.
“It’s going to be good to see some of my old teammates, good to play against them, good to see some of the people I worked with in my time in Golden State; but nothing more than that. The game of basketball is always going to have me on that level. I’m going to play extremely hard every time I’m out there.”
Durant former coach Steve Kerr had a notice about both Durant and his Nets that should serve as a warning to the rest of the NBA.
“I saw the Boston game the other night which was kinda scary for the rest of the league,” said Kerr.
“ … I couldn’t tell one difference between seeing him 18 months ago to seeing him the other night.
Kerr added when asked about facing the loaded Nets:
“I probably deserve this given that I was coaching a team like that for five years.”
In Durant’s Warrior career, he had two NBA Finals MVPs and was on his way to a third before the ACL injury occurred.
“Everything I’ve been a part of is my own,” Durant said.
“I understand what I bring to the table [but] I never looked at it as mine. I never looked at the Nets as mine: It’s our team. From the fans to the owners to the players, it’s our team.
“My game is going to speak for itself. But personality-wise, individual-wise, I try not to make myself bigger than the group. I know what I add to a basketball club and I felt that way with the Warriors.
So, it wasn’t about me going to the Nets to try to prove that I can make my own thing, whatever the hell that means. It’s just that I’m coming here to play basketball and add to a group of great guys.”
Even Durant admitted to nerves before the Nets’ preseason games and admits it’s going to take him some time to build back toward playing his MVP-level basketball.
Although fans will be excited to see Kevin Durant go against his former team when Nets meets Warriors on Wednesday, 23/12/2020. IST at 5.35 AM
