Durant-Green Interview Wednesday Could Finally Settle Durant's Exit

With his right hand on his chest, Draymond Green asked the question still hanging over fans’ heads almost three years after a disagreement on a game-ending play against the Los Angeles Clippers.

And this time it was just Kevin Durant, showing love for the Bay Area with an Oakland A’s hat, who was prepared to provide the answer for his former teammate.

“How much did our argument against the Clippers drive you to ultimately leave the Warriors?”

This all came via Bleacher Report’s social media Monday, announcing an interview between the two former teammates on Wednesday’s full episode of “Chips with Draymond Green”.

The conversation would not be the first time the Warriors and Nets forwards addressed the elephant in every room the two of them have entered. But the tone of BR’s teaser post made it seem like the All-Stars – who won two NBA titles together and captured their second Olympic gold as teammates in early August in Tokyo – would be having their most honest conversation yet.

Green, Durant and co-host Eddie Gonzalez did sit behind the mic for Durant’s “The ETC’s” podcast in April, and the two forwards agreed the media had overblown the argument in the Staples Center when Green dribbled the ball up to court to take the final shot while Durant pleaded for a pass. The pair was congenial, showing no animosity as they discussed at length their time as teammates and some post-playing aspirations.

However, there is clearly more to analyze about the end of Durant’s Golden State tenure in free agency after the 2018-19 season, and with Green’s proclivity for never pulling punches, it should be interesting as rumors for Wednesday are already starting to fly.

@WarriorsWorld teased on Twitter that during the interview, Green and Durant are rumored to say the Warriors’ brass “F--ked It Up”. If this is revealed to be true in Wednesday’s interview, it could absolve either of them as the antagonists they have been painted out to be and potentially diminish the importance of their verbel feud from the Staples Center in the end of Golden State’s dynastic core.

This interview will remind Warriors fans of the demise of their most dominant age of basketball, and also comes at a point of tension between the fan base and front office with difficult decisions having to be made about going all-in for the upcoming season or investing in the future, which resulted in the latter with the selections Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody in the 2021 NBA Draft. 


Corners of the fan base could also have their dissatisfaction with Steve Kerr further exacerbated after the team missed the postseason in 2021 and with Kerr’s role in Durant’s exit being potentially more fleshed out in the interview.

Luckily, although even more questions could be raised than are answered, the speculation will end when the 24-minute interview is posted on the BR App and Bleacher Report’s YouTube page at 8 a.m. PT on Wednesday.

And Durant, whose decision to leave the Warriors after three straight NBA Finals was a primary reason for the interview, seemed ready to go at the end of the teaser video.

“This is gonna be an incredible interview by the way,” Durant said. “This is gonna go crazy.”

FeatureMichael WaldmanDraymond Green, Kevin Durant, WarriorsComment