Draymond Green says he cost Golden State their second straight championship last season, but he also may have delivered the Warriors Kevin Durant in the process. After the Warriors’ crushing loss to the Cavaliers in Game 7, Green didn’t spend much time wallowing in misery.
Green’s mind immediately shifted to how the Warriors could get revenge the next season, which brought him to the inevitable conclusion that they needed more. As he explained in a Zach Lowe feature on ESPN Thursday, Green began recruiting Kevin Durant to Golden State after the Warriors lost Game 7 to the Cleveland Cavaliers in last year’s NBA Finals.
It wasn’t the next day or later in the week. No, Green said he actually started the process of getting Durant to Oakland by making two phone calls in the parking lot of Oracle Arena.
“I look at it as we lost the Finals, but we ended up with KD,” Green said. “That’s a helluva consolation prize.”
Green was already working on that as he left Oracle Arena after that gutting Game 7 loss. Green sat in his car in the parking and called Myers, telling him he had to sign Durant. “It’s on you,” Green told Myers.
Green hung up, stayed in the parking lot, and made another call — to Durant. “That was my very next call,” Green said. Two weeks later, Durant signed a maximum contract that put him in a Golden State uniform for at least one season, with several more seasons likely to come.
Green has insisted it’s fair that the Warriors signed Durant, but now it’s clear he was a huge factor in KD’s decision to join the Warriors. In fact, without his suspension during the Finals last season, it may have never happened at all. Now, the Warriors are on the precipice of an historic 16-0 playoff run and a second title in three years.
