If the Golden State Warriors faced any hurdles when discussing a potential reunion with Kevin Durant this summer, franchise icon Stephen Curry‘s feelings on the matter weren’t among them.
The Warriors, like any team in the NBA, would’ve had serious conversations entertaining a move for Durant once the all-time great requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets this off-season. When they came to Curry for his thoughts, he was “never hesitant.”
“If you said, ‘Oh, KD’s coming back, and we’re gonna play with him,’ I had so much fun playing with him those three years, I’d be like, ‘Hell, yeah!'” Curry told Rolling Stone.
“The idea of playing with KD and knowing who he is as a person, from our history in those three years, I think KD’s a really good dude. I think he is misunderstood. I think he has had certain things happen in his life that hurt his ability to trust people around him, in a sense of making him feel safe at all times. So all of those things, I understand, having played with him and gotten to know him. I love that dude.”
When Durant first joined the Warriors back in 2016, it shattered the league.
At that point, Curry was at the peak of his game: coming off a unanimous MVP season and 73-9 campaign (albeit losing in the NBA Finals). Still, he put his ego aside to court another superstar in Durant for the better of the Warriors.
The result? Two championships, three Finals appearances and one of the most dominant three-season stretch the league has ever seen. But Curry, with Durant on the squad, took somewhat of a back seat compared to previous back-to-back MVP campaigns.
Durant outshined Curry in many respects. He won both Finals MVPs, he earned acclaim as the best player in the world alongside LeBron James.
On the other hand, Curry remained the unequivocal face of the Warriors franchise no matter Durant’s success. And Durant never earned quite the respect he deserved because of the feeling he’d joined an already-built “Super Team” in Golden State — so he jumped to Brooklyn in 2019.
Despite it all, here’s Curry, with another championship and his own Finals MVP under his belt from this past season — proving he doesn’t need Durant to achieve greatness — and he’d still be happy to welcome him back.
Curry keeps on proving he’s an all-time NBA teammate.
