NBA rumors: Kevin Durant's move to Warriors prompted by frustration with Russell Westbrook?
The deal is done. Kevin Durant will be playing with the Golden State Warriors next NBA season.
The former Oklahoma City Thunder small forward just inked a two-year deal worth $54 million early this week. This means that he will play besides Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and the rest of the Golden State Warriors in the 71st NBA season.
Not all fans welcomed Durant's decision to change courts next season. Some of them even angrily took their frustrations on the Facebook page of the 2014 NBA MVP's restaurant called KD's in Oklahoma City, according to SF Gate.
But Durant knew that his decision would hurt some of his fans. In his blog post on The Player's Tribune, Durant wrote:
"It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career."
He also said that he will miss Oklahoma City, his friends and former teammates who played with him for the past nine years.
Meanwhile, several speculations surfaced regarding the real reason why Durant chose to drop the Thunder.
According to Howard Beck of Bleacher Report, the 27-year-old former NBA Rookie of the Year awardee was frustrated with his OKC Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook.
A source reportedly pointed out how Durant got fed up with his situation within the team. "Ultimately he got frustrated and felt that they had plateaued," the source said. "[Donovan] came in, and he still had the same issues that he had with Russ under Scotty. The offense didn't change much. He still had to take a ton of contested shots every game; and that's when he had the ball at all."
Other rumors claim that Nike urged Durant to leave OKC Thunder for a bigger market. In a Twitter post of The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski, he said that the six-time All-NBA team member felt the pressure from his inner-circle in order to get more money from endorsements.
There's been tremendous pressure within Durant's inner-circle to make dramatic move, to ride endorsement wave of change. Well, he did it.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) July 4, 2016
But whatever reason Durant has for leaving the team that he helped build for nine years, his performance within the GSW roster will be carefully watched by NBA fans next season.
