Dubbed Dynasty as a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Drayvon Green drives ahead finishers nicely three long break, Etchcott, cracking on great from forty down, chow ravon Green, Oh brain down for another, He's got thirty seven.
Those were some of Draymond Green's better moments from Game three in a twenty sixteen second round series against the Portland Trailblazers. Pick any catch all advanced stat and it would likely list this game as the second best playoff game of Green's career, Thus far minor issue though Golden State lost that game. I'm Israel Gutierrez and this is dubbed Dynasty. Draymond finished that Game three with a playoff career high thirty seven points, including eight three pointers, nine rebounds,
eight assists, a steal, and a block. It was a game without Steph Kirk, who was recovering from his sprain knee suffered one series earlier. Despite it being the only loss in the series, Green put on display why he's more than just the relentless defensive minded soul of the team. His best career playoff game also came this twenty sixteen postseason. It would also come to loss, a much more meaningful loss, not just for the twenty sixteen playoffs, but for the
course of NBA history. It would be Draymond's summoning all of his powers to help his team overcome what had been the most costly mistake of his NBA career.
Well, the thing with Draymond is that he's the ultimate competitor and winner, and he's loyal. And I will go to war with that guy forever. I mean, I just I will I do. That's how much I believe in him. But with that passion, with that edge that he carries, that chip on his shoulder, comes a fury inside of him.
Steve Kerr would know best about how Green channels that anger into outstanding performances. Draymond was about to do that
once again on the NBA Final stage. Last we left you, The Warriors and Cavaliers were about to engage in their second straight NBA Finals, a much anticipated series where the Warriors look to close out the best season in league history, while the Cavaliers were looking to avenge the twenty fifteen Finals loss and bring the first pro sports championship to Cleveland in fifty two years.
Seventy three wins taking their place in the endows of the NBA well, the.
Greatest regular season r time. If there was going to be a foil to this Golden State Dream season, it would have to be the two time champion and four time MVP Lebron James.
Deep down, it was only right there we got an opportunity to play coach State after wave the last year. Me personally, I wanted to see go State again.
As Rachel Nichols explains, the Warriors had to go through the final boss if they were going to stake their claim to NBA history.
I think, especially as they were going along the twenty sixteen season, it became clear that they were on a pace to, if not set, at least come close to and ultimately they did set that win record. I think there was a feeling, Man, this team is rolling. This is incredible. Step feels unstoppable. They don't even need to coach X y Z. But until you play Lebron James in the NBA Finals with his full team, I don't
think anyone thinks they're rolling at that point. Lebron was the only conversation happening in the NBA when you got to who's the best player overall. Sure, we might have other MVPs, but you know the old Bill Simmons, the Aliens came to Arke and said, you had to play a basketball game to save the planet. Who's your first pick? At that point, it was still Lebron James. For people, it was still this is the best player. We all
know he's the best player. So the fact that the best player by consensus that people had at the time, the most dominant, the most physically gifted player in the league in a stretch where a guy already at that point we were saying, is Lebron going to be better than Michael Jordan? Is he going to go down in history as the number one player.
Of all time?
The fact that that guy was not on the Warriors team made the fact that even though the Warriors were winning at a historic pace, it did not feel, at least to me inevitable that they were just going to go win another title. I want to see it, man, I wanted to see the Royal Rumble. And I was so excited when we got eight in the finals in twenty sixteen because that's what it felt like. It felt like, Okay, lebronze teams at full strength, this Warriors team is record setting, historic.
Stepcourry is playing like we've never seen before. He's shooting threes from the locker room, and here we go.
Here we go, with a lot of help from Kevin Love, the Cavaliers forward had missed the previous finals with a shoulder injury, but he was familiar with the Warriors just from watching in twenty fifteen. This time, he'd play his part.
We were well versed in what they were trying to do on both sides of the ball. And at the same time, I know they had Steph who was the unanimous MVP that year, but we felt like we had the best player in the game that could lead us to the Promised Land, and so we felt very comfortable and confident coming out. But again in those first four games, it didn't go in our direction for a number of reasons, and it was because they were historically great.
The Warriors have six players double figures, and Carrie and Thompson are not those Squivingston.
Again, it was Sean Livingston who led the Warriors in scoring in that game one with twenty, but six other Warriors also scored in double figures. That included Draymond Green with sixteen. Points, eleven rebounds, seven assists, four steals and a block shot.
I speeded side with Draymond Green all the.
Pants for like a dollar.
The Warriors outscored the Caps by seventeen points. When Green was on the floor, No other starter had a plus minus better than seven. The Splash Brothers barely made a ripple with twenty points combined.
Warriors take Game one, Curtesy out there, betch.
Game two might have been even stranger. Lebron had nineteen points and seven turnovers, Kyrie Irving added just ten, and the Cavaliers as a whole shot thirty five percent from the field.
Now the Warriors have set a new NBA record.
They have outscored the Cavaliers life forty eight in the first two.
A lot of that was due to Draymond who also led the Warriors in scoring in this game with twenty eight, including five more threes. Kevin Love suffered a concussion in that game too, keeping him out of the next game, but the Cavaliers didn't seem to miss him, with Richard Jefferson stepping in and playing thirty three minutes and Cleveland running away by thirty.
Hey, that will do it.
The Cavaliers playing Game three by thirty points.
They'd been undefeated at home in the postseason to this point, so it was no surprise Cleveland rebound in Game four, though finally Curry erupted. After averaging just sixteen through the first three games, Steph had thirty eight, twenty four of those coming in the second half.
Shot buck up seventh Curry fakes poked up a great sorry Jefford Curry from downtown at the ten point games.
And with just under three minutes left, the Warriors were effectively coasting up ten and with possession, possession of the basketball, but also possession of the series, on the way to leading three games to one. Teams holding that lead in a seven game series go on to win it ninety five percent of the time in NBA history, but with just under three minutes for me, an exchange between Lebron James and Draymond Green would provide the ultimate UNO reverse card for the series.
Green and James joying at each other wall play for ten years the Gazala to pull off that at a double Bowl, It's gonna be called.
After setting a screen on James and getting tangled up with him at the top of the three point arc, Green fell to the floor in an attempt to get back into the play, James stepped over Green. You could say it was an unnecessary path for Lebron, given how easily he could have stepped around Green, and in the NBA Finals in particular, the stepover summons an iconic level of disrespect, famously or infamously if you're a Lakers fan.
Alan Iverson stepped over Tyron Lu during the two thousand and one finals after hitting a shot father by.
Lou How about that steps Toronto.
With Lou now watching as the Cavaliers head coach Draymond was not about to let that type of disrespect fly without retaliation, so he swiped up with his right hand as he was attempting to get back on his feet. That swipe made contact with Lebron's groin, and a second backhanded swing in James's direction missed and tired. James and Green had to be separated afterwards, as Green was letting his feelings about James be known.
Green and James joying at each other, walk place to tenures like a dollar.
The pull off that one.
Goal and a double fowls gonna be called channing cry. Getting in between Lebron James of six. Green starting to walk away, and he does four words. Remember Raymond, Green's one flagrant foul and two technicals away from being suspended.
To this point in the postseason, Draymond had already accumulated three flagrant fouls. One more and it would mean an automatic suspension. One of those three flagrant fouls came in the previous series when Green kicked Stephen Adams and the groin. Many argued that foul deserved a suspension as well, but none King.
Putting a move on Adams, and here is how come down goes out once again. Washed the way, Oh I don't follow through on the foot gets you in trouble every time.
That's the second time. But three have let's say, Bronwood luck without it.
You did it in Game two and the officials were going to take a look at him.
The judgment on this foul against Lebron wasn't whether by itself it was suspension worthy, but whether or not it was a flagrant foul. It was called as much during the game and it could have, in theory, been reversed
between Games four and five by the League office. There was no reverse and the suspension stood The Warriors were still leading three games to one and were in great position to win the series, but after Lebron was literally poked by Draymond during the game, Clay Thompson gave the bear a figurative on the postgame podium.
I don't know how the man feels or.
But obviously people have feelings, and people's feelings get hurt even if they're called a bad word. I guess his feelings just got hurt. I mean, we've all been called plenty of bad words in the basketball court before.
That message was relayed to James once it was his turn on the podium.
What did you say?
Clay said, Play said, I guess he just got his feelings hurt.
Oh my goodness.
The transcript will support that.
I'm not gonna comment on what Clay said because I know where it can go from this sit in. It's so hard to take the high road. I've been doing it for thirteen years. It's so hard to continue to do it, and I'm gonna do it again.
Quite the drama for a series that appeared over and done with. Even if the Warriors were to drop Game five without Draymond, there still wouldn't be many people believing the Calves can come all the way back, not with the potential Game seven in Oracle Arena. The had chances of winning this series is zero as far as I'm concerned.
Everybody is saying that we can't get this done and it's over.
Rachel Nichols was at these finals and she did send some belief from the Calves and some doubt from the Warriors.
So much in the twelve hours after that game ended seemed to be hinging on what is the League office going to do about Draymond? Would they really suspend him?
How is this going to go?
And so much import was put on that, and it was such a twenty four hour news environment between sort of the way the Internet had sort of changed things for us getting news in the news cycle and again kind of being the height of NBA Twitter that that ball rolling down hill was so heavy that it almost became oh, he's not playing, Oh man, now the Cavaliers
have a shot. And I think there was belief on the cab side that they did have a shot, partly thanks to that, partly thanks to what Ty and Lebron were doing behind the scenes, and I think frankly there was a belief on the Warriors side of Oh, we're in a little bit of trouble here.
While Lebron announced to everyone he was taking the high road regarding Play's comments, James chose a much more private setting to announce to his team the road it would take to come back from this three to one deficit. On the team bus heading from their team hotel in San Francisco to Oracle Arena before Game five, James gave a rousing speech that mapped out the path to victory.
When we were going over the Bay Bridge.
I just remember being on the back of the bus with all our guys and you know, Lebron speaking that it's already written. Man, They've opened up the door. They've given us more than enough reasons. I see it right now. We're going to win Game five. We're not losing at home, and like everybody says, too bad Wars Sports. Game seven, we felt like anything could happen.
At that point.
We just needed to win this game and get it back home. We said we're not losing at home, and then in game seven, hey, let's roll the dice and see what happens.
It wasn't just motivation that would help the Cavaliers get back in this series. The Warriors, after all, would be without Draymond Green for Game five, and Draymond wasn't just enough play. At this point in his career, Green was building a resume to where he could be considered the best defensive NBA player ever, and through these first four games, he was establishing himself as the likely Finals MVP should
Golden State close it out. So the Cavaliers had a decided edge in Game five without Green on the floor to defend James or to protect the paint. Kevin Love had the assignment on Green the entire series. He felt the flagrant foul and ensuing suspension were warranted, and he knew the Cavs would benefit because Green had been giving him work all series.
It's those antics and those you know, whether he's consciously or subconsciously doing it, you know, it's obviously just something that you know you can't do, So you know, that's just it's it's.
Part of the game.
There was so much at stake, and whether it was the right call or not, it was just the situation that we found ourselves in. Like, like I say, I was indifferent about it, but I did feel like we were going to find our way, and we still had that belief system whether he was playing or not. But just saying, you know, didn't help us on the other side would be alive.
It's not just the defense that suffers when Green is out either.
You can say all the things you want about Draymond Green, but Steph Curry plays better when Draymond Green is in the lineup. We have numbers, we have stats, we have the emotional weight of watching them together and the eye test and all of that, but it's just it is an irrefutable fact. Steph plays better when Draymond is next to him, and the energy and the bravado of that team is different when Draymond Green is on the court.
And so I think even before they tipped ball in Game five, there was a real feeling of oh, things are changing here.
Irving, just twenty four years old, set it over and over again. When he's healthy, a sensational offensive talent nearly falls drives now spins back to fall away shot.
It's good.
Games against rush Leans in trying to draw the foul got him up count it handle one forty points for Lebron James and the lead Balloons to fifteen as Cleveland force is a Game six What a road victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as the NBA Finals will return to Cleveland on Thursday night.
And I think we saw that in the result and through the Cavs just walked through Game six and then Game seven of course went.
Back to game dog fight.
The Cavaliers didn't walk through Game six in Cleveland, they strutted. In fact, Game six might have featured the most confident James has ever looked in any singular moment. With less than five minutes remaining and the Cavaliers looking to blow the game wide open, James blocked a driving Steph Curry at the rim, sending the ball out of bounds on the baseline. After the block, Lebron started to walk away, but then looked back at Curry with a few choice words.
It's pebble of hair and playbook hyry.
Block by James, making a statement of both sides of the floor says to the two time MVP, get it out of here, not a bar washing.
That meant game set on the Warriors home floor. Normally that would be an automatic Golden State win, although sportsbooks at the time had the Warriors as just a four and a half point favorite, and where's the buzzer?
Game seven Sunday night, It'll look you feel like we.
Could have closed it out a long time ago.
But here we are.
He's tied up three to three and we're going back home.
So if you told us to UNI season one game to win a championship in Oakland, I won't take that any day of the week.
But a quick glance at the Warriors going into that Game seven should have given an indication and upset was on the way. Andrew Boget wasn't happy about his team extending itself in the regular season to reach those seventy three wins, and now he was part of the group either not playing at all or not playing like their
usual selves. There was Steph still not moving laterally as well as normal with the spring knee, and Andrea Aguadala was suffering from back issues that wouldn't let him play close to the level he did the previous year in winning finals MVP. Here's both.
Game five. I go down. I think in the first half block jaw Smith shot. He does a cannon ball right into my knee. I'm like out, I'm out eight weeks. Can't move my knee like just blows up swollen. It was a massive bone bruise and a tour actually tore my fear behead, which I didn't know at the time, but tore my. If you have a ligament off that so couldn't even attempt to rehab back. So then you
lose that interior piece, you lose. And I felt like, coming from that previous finals roles bench, I thought I was having a really good impact on that final series, blocking shots, rebounding, doing what I do. Drayone as well. So now you go to Game five, we lose that one. I mean, there's Champagne getting ready in the back. We lose that one. Now you're like, okay, now momentum starting. You can feel it starting to shift. We have to go to Cleveland. We didn't expect to go to Cleveland.
We thought it'd be over. Draymone comes back in the lineup. Now the rotation is a bit different. I'm out, we're going to start differently. We go to the small ball lineup. That's not as efficient because Andre literally can't move, So now other guys I need to play more minutes, and it kind of you know, things change along that way. And give credits to Cleveland. That's why there were seven game series. You know, they just completely took momentum back.
We couldn't salvage, you know, just trading water, trading wader, and by game seven Olephants was spottering. It became for your isolation based especially in that second half.
The Warriors and Cavaliers were two great teams, but neither was immune to the stress of a game seven. In the previous series against the Thunder, game seven was easily the lowest scoring game of the series, and the finals Game seven, with the ring on the line, would match that energy. In the eyes of many an Oracle Arena that night, the only reason the game was being played was because Draymond Green delayed the inevitable by getting suspended
for Game five. But if anyone could summon the type of effort to make up for his mistake, it would be Draymond. He's an absolute dog in big moments and he would certainly be in this huge game. Steve Kerr has clashed with Green several times throughout their time to get it, but he's well aware that the positives of Green far outweight the argumentative.
Was sometimes that that anger comes out and in some ways we're similar in that regard. You know, I always think about this quote my wife read to fitting.
By the way, the dog is barking now we're talking about Draymond.
Yeah, that's right.
But my wife was reading a quote one day and she said, oh my god, this is you. And I said, what is it?
She said, Beware the fury of a patient man. And that's me. I'm a very patient man. But if there's a fury inside me, every once in a while, I
just blow over. And so Draymond and I have had some real doozies over the years where we battled, but it always came from a place of desperately trying to win, and we always got over that stuff quickly and realized he was part of our teams need for what he brought, you know, amidst this culture of joy and fun, A big part of it too, was our competitive spirit and fight, and he represented that part of our culture and our team.
Whether Game seven was a rock fight or a dog fight, Green was the perfect player to have on your side, and he delivered with the aforementioned greatest playoff game of his career.
If Raymond's wide open takes another three, five.
Five, Wow, I keep feeling it, attempting to make the game five suspension a mere footnote in Warriors history. Green finished with thirty two points, including six of eight from three, fifteen rebounds, nine assists, and two steals. Green missed four shots, he had two turnovers, he missed zero free throws, and he helped hold the Calves to forty percent shooting and
Lebron to just thirty eight percent with five turnovers. It was practically two games worth of production in one crucial forty eight minute span, and yet somehow this game would come down to the final minutes with only one made field goal in the final four minutes and fourteen seconds of action. Mike Green remembers how thick the tension was from the start.
Well, the first thing is it seemed and there are a lot of games like this, but I don't remember one that was quite this emphatic in terms of every single possession seemed to matter from the opening tip. I mean every single possession, and if you would lose, make a bad turnover and they'd score easily down the other end in the middle of the first quarter, you could imagine that could cost them the game. That's how intense it was from start to finish, and that's what made
that game so dramatic. And there were stretches where there was great basketball, and there were stretches where between the pressure and the defense, it wasn't great. It was hard to get accomplished what you wanted to go get accomplished. And that's because, again, is that the ultimate playoff game
where every possession matters. And then down the stretch, you knew the history that was involved, both for the two franchises and for the individual players as well, and that's what made it so intense, and you knew that somebody was going to have to make a big player to win it.
With one fifty five left in the game, Kyrie Irving missed the jump shot that ended up in Andrea Wodala's hands. He raced up the court, passed it to Curry, then got the ball back for what looked like an easy bucket in a fourth quarter that was starved for any offense. After a twisting J R. Smith made a Guidala double clutch, a force of nature named Lebron quickly timed his steps as he approached and blocked the shot millimeters before it hit the back flip, practically pinning it to the glass.
Bigodala to Curry Black black back James, Lebron James with.
A rejection dam not of nowhere, Sky's to the ram eight backs in a.
Way huge, huge defensive plate, but a four time MVP. The ball then fell into j R. Smith's hands and the Caves headed the other way. Kevin Love had a perfect view trailing the play.
I just remember how fast paced that play was from in front of their bench going all the way down and Andre is an incredible athlete, Like, let's not get it twisted. Like he's one of the better athletes that we seen, especially from that era. And you know at the time, there's the reason he's getting this jersey retired by the team, right, Like he was that good and for him to get out in transition, he's putting you again in a tough spot. He was one of those
guys that was a Swiss Army knife. It could do a lot for him. So when he got that ball and you know, you see Lebron starting to track him. It wasn't until after I had seen the replay that and so many people have broken it down now. But if it wasn't for that swipe over the top from you know Jr. And made Andre bring the ball down and try and lay it up off the glass, and it gave Lebron just that split second of enough time to come there and block the shot.
Hopefully this isn't hyperbole.
I don't mean to make it sound like it is, but I mean it has to be the greatest defensive play maybe in the history of basketball, considering coming back from three to one, a historically great team, time and score, what the championship meant to Cleveland as a fifty two year drought. I mean, there's so many things that factor into that, and that play in particular, I think will go down as I mean potentially his number one right that he'll be most remembered for.
It certainly iconic.
You know, the play itself is iconic when the call of the play is just as iconic. All hurry.
Block by James, Bron James with the rejection.
Google block by James, And of course you'll find this play. But the reason it's called that is the memorable words of Mike Breen, who sounded just as shocked as that crowd when it happened.
You just knew that that was one of the most spectacular plays in the heat of the moment, at the most critical moment that I've ever seen. And you know, we all love the dunks and the three pointers. A block shot has always been one of my favorite. And to make a block shot that wins you a championship, that to me is again the beauty of basketball. There's a lot of ways to win a game, and that's certainly one that not only won a game, but won
a championship. There's nothing more exciting than big in a score and then all of a sudden it doesn't happen, and you could almost steel the Cavs.
You know that we're not going to lose this game.
After that, And not that the Warriors felt that they were going to lose after what a deflating block shot. They still think they're going to win the game, but it was clearly one that changed everything. And the way Kyrie Irving played in that series, sometimes he doesn't get is enough credit into how spectacular an individual talent he is, and you didn't get any there was no feeling whatsoever that he was going to miss that shot.
That shot by Kyrie, the three pointer that gave the Caves the league, the one NBA fans remember as among the biggest shots in the league's history. That happened a whole minute later. It was the one shot hit in that final four minutes and fourteen seconds. Irving had gotten the necessary switch and had Curry defended. Kyrie sized up Curry with eight dribbles before finally taking that right sidestep, slightly fading three pointer that hit the back of the
rim and went through the net. Irving is Curry one on one, Irving puts it up, catch God, Kyrie, Irvi cut down. Kevin Love was on the left wing, spot it up and watching Irving take that shot. Love crashed the paint once the ball was in the air, but there would be no offensive rebound opportunity.
He's shown you time and time again that that shot for him again, iconic shot in Cleveland sports history and for Kai and he you know that step back, you know, going to his right and kind of like doing that little slight fade. He had done that time and time and time again. So it wasn't surprising that he had taken the shot, and that shot in particular. I think he wanted that moment. He lived for that moment, and
he was you know, he's such a cerebral guy. He thinks the game, He understands where he can get to his spots. And again, like so I spoke about ty Lu and everybody knows Lebron has made for those moments.
He's shown you that time and time again.
But Kyrie is.
Not.
Many would argue that Kyrie Irving is built for big moments. He's widely considered one of the most skilled players to ever play, so muscle memory often takes over regardless of the stakes of the game. Even less folks would argue that Kevin Love is built for perimeter defense. The power forward, known for owning the boards and scoring from various spots on the floor, was not a particularly nimble defender, especially
not out on the perimeter. So with the championship on the line and his team leading by three, naturally it would be Kevin Love stuck guarding the world's greatest marksman thirty feet from the basket.
You know, you know I have to like I still have PTSD, like being on an island against stephf I know, like everybody likes to make a big deal about the stop that I had. I forced him into a tough shot. I mean, for me, I wanted to keep my feet down and at the very least like if I was compromised that I wanted to send him into the paint, draw another defender and force him into a really tough shot or make him kick it really to anybody but play right. And we had gone over that play time
and time and time again. And when we switched and he got the ball, I had stayed down. He'd given the ball up to Draymond, who was guarded by Jr. And I was actually supposed to deny that ball back. We had went over that play their Endo game play more than any other play, and all of our walkthroughs, in all of our film sessions, time and time again. We had talked it out, and in that moment I just kind of got caught ball watching and wasn't able
to deny that ball back because of that. And when Steph had received the ball, I thought, okay, just got to lace them up and force him into a really tough shot again, stay down, and worst case like just fun of.
Them into the paint.
And Steph has been on record saying it too that it's very likely that I could have just drove past him and tried to create and again forced him into a really tough shot that he's made many, many times. It was just considering the time and score, the gravity of the moment. It just so happened that the ball bounced my way and I was able to force him into a heavily contested shot.
Curry thanks to three steps back cross over, what's up? A three?
James Curry missed, Lebron rebounded, and just one more point was scored in the game, a James free throw that gave us the final score ninety three to eighty nine. Just like that, Lebron James was yelling, Cleveland, this is for you. Just like that, the Warriors seventy three and nine season was rendered empty, incomplete, and just like that, Draymond Green would be blamed for losing a championship. Maybe no other player gets as much direct blame for losing
a title. Draymond would get plenty more chances to redeem himself, but this one would sting for quite a while, and it sucks.
Obviously, you hate to lose. Being we had a three to one lead, you know, so you think about all that stuff. You think about, you know, what if what if I would have done this, What if I would have done that? All that stuff we're playing your head, but you gotta get him a lot of credit. You know, they were down three to one, they continued to battle, and you know they never quit their leader's lad Lebron put the team on his back, Kyrie put the team
on his back, and everybody follows suit, you know. So Trishan was amazing, you know, throughout the course of this series, and like I said, everybody else follows suit. So I'm not sure if it's more so about what we did, then you just gotta get them credit. They battled and they deserve to win it.
If block By James felt like a bomb inside Oracle Arena that night, the aftershocks might have been even more intense. After the break, A somber FaceTime between rivals turns into much much more. In the NBA, at least over the last thirty years or so, the compelling drama isn't limited
to the ninety four feet apart. In fact, over the last couple decades, even the NBA Finals in late June have served almost as an appetizer to the anticipated smorgasboard of player movement that begins in free agency in early July. No one knew it at the time, but the historic Cavaliers win that broke a fifty two year Cleveland championship drought would serve as a precursor to the offseason move
that shocked the entire league. That's because after the Warriors Game seven loss, Draymond Green and sat in his team's locker room, assessing the entire situation. He'd FaceTime a friend who was recently an opponent, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City thunder Now. For some time, this exchange was reported as Green speaking with Durant in the parking lot after the game. It was even suggested the discussion got emotional. Green and Durant have since clarified that it was a
locker room FaceTime, but the message was clear. This was a painful finish for Golden State, and maybe Durant, a free agent in just a couple of weeks, can keep this feeling from ever repeating itself by joining the Warriors in the same way that not many believed Lebron James would lead Cleveland in twenty ten, there was a strong feeling Durant would re up with Oklahoma City an attempt to complete a title run with Russell Westbrook and new coach Billy Donovan, but the Warriors losing and doing so
in the heart wrenching fashion that they did, left the possibility over for an earth shattering move. Anthony Slater writes for The Athletic but was a beat reporter for the Oklahoma at the time, covering the Thunder team that had gotten to four conference finals and one NBA Finals with Durant. Slater was following Durant especially closely this offseason, given that it was the largest free agency decision in Oklahoma City's history. Slater recalls the first moment a Katie returned to OKC
wasn't as certain as many belief. It happened in the city where Durant attended college, Austin, Texas, weeks before free agency open.
So this is twenty sixteen free agency. So like late June, I went down to Austin, Texas because at the time, obviously all the Oklahoma cared about was this impending Monster decision. You sensed the level of optimism, but like kind of scared optimism from the Thunder at that time, which was late June, and I went down to Austin, Texas because he was doing a shoe release, you know, on the campus of the University of Texas. And this is at the same time the finals that he believed he should
have been playing in was going on. It was I remember Game seven was the night before his shoe release, and now here in retrospect, I was not in the room at the time, but Rich climb and his agent and him were watching Game seven where the Warriors lose, which I think is a very important factor here. The Warriors win that title, they've won two in a row.
I'm not sure Kevin goes there. You know, some people might tell you differently, but anyway, the Warriors lose, and within that apparently in that room, he kind of mentioned to his agent at the time, Rich Climben, that you know, I'd be like, I could help these guys. That's the kind of style I want to play. And then I also from that trip, remember when I was around him, especially that next day and there was a thunder. There
was a few hundred people down there too. But I was starting to get the vibe that it's not as sure a thing that he's going back as I thought it was. You know, his eyes seemed to be wondering, and it was like, oh, he's going to take meetings he's going to do this Hampton thing that I working on the thunderside of it. That's and I started to get an idea, but he could actually.
Go that's right, Kevin Durant might actually change teams. And where will the former MVP make this incredibly difficult life decision that can impact the lives of so many in a place that screams elite vacationing more than any other place in America. The Hampton's Durant and his team met with the Thunder in Oklahoma City before leaving for the Hamptons, where he met with the Spurs, Heat Clippers, Celtics, and Warriors.
The Warriors contingent included Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Andrea Woodalla GM Bob Myers was there as well. If Durant were to join the Warriors and replace Harrison Barnes, who didn't play well in the twenty sixteen finals, those five would be the new version of the Warriors deathline. Given where this group first met, the nickname of that even dead lane closing lineup would be ironically called the
Hamptons Five. The Thunder would also be granted a final meeting with Durant after all those other teams had made their pitch. Okay, see, thought they'd built just the right team around Durant going full As Slater tells it, the Warriors offense intrigued Durant more so than upgraded personnel did in Oklahoma City.
Steve Kerr loves to call it like the democratic, egalitarian offense, where everybody's sharing it. He felt he could grow his game that way. And also, and again he saysn't something he necessarily directly got into, but I think he was ready for a lifestyle change and ready to move from Oklahoma City to the Bay Area. I mean, it's just a very very different place to live and he wanted to experience that, and it was different and he had the success he wanted to. But obviously other stuff came
after that. I think because it was such a tough decision at the end that I think every factor does kind of matter in here, including like the Thunder. The
Thunder had basically a commitment from Al Horford. The time that he was gonna come over, they had just traded Serge Ibacca to Orlando for Victor Oladipo in the draft pick that was demonis a bonus, they were gonna have the starting lineup that was russ Oladipo, kd al Horford in emerging Steven Adams, and I think that pitch maybe would have got them over the finish line if also it was like, hey, the one team you were thinking
about going to. Yes, they won seventy three games, and you know, in a lot of ways, he faced the wrath of that, Hey, you just joined the seventy three win team. But I just think it would have been harder for him if it was you just are joining the seventy three win team who's also a two time champ. You could at least spin it in. Hey, they failed, they lost in the finals. Joe lacob is leaving the arena in Oracle after Game seven upset, saying, you know,
I'm gonna go fix this. We're gonna go get Kevin Durant. We're gonna be super aggressive. You have the entire Warriors conglomerate going to the Hamptons, and look, they if they won two titles and they were back to back, they may have done that anyways, but they more more desperately seeking him out, saying you're a missing piece.
By the time the Thunder got to the hamp didn't. For their second meeting with Durant, circumstances had changed. No longer did they feel confident that their original pitch went over Durant.
They walked into the Hampton's mansion and it was like something changed here.
They hadn't.
They were not told that night that Kevin was gone, But when you were talking to people around it, they were leaving that mansion in the Hamptons like pretty much knowing they had.
Lost it.
On the next dub Dynasty.
So we would wrap up practice and I would go to the side of the court and at one end was Steph went through his routine. At the other end was Kevin going through his routine. And you know, it's like we're watching Mozart and Bach, you know, at the exact same time composed music. He was stunning.
I can tell you how like how mad I was when Katie signed with the Warriors, breaking breaking news. I was so mad. I said, who's gonna beat them? I said, this is not fair. My wife, my kids, like Dad, why are you angry? I said, it's not fair.
So much of the Durant backlash felt like you're you're going to the enemy, like the team that just kind of slayed you essentially, and like there was a I think there was a lot of people at the time that really wanted to see Thunder Warriors again the next year, right, and.
I approached Pop always kid kidding and me being young, being competitive. It didn't matter who was where. We always thought they were vulnerable or they had vulnerable spots, and nobody was invincible to us. You know, they're not these guys from Boston back in the other Lakers back in the day. He's like, well, Michael Jordan's and Chicago Bulls, they're not that good. So he was putting in our minds like they're beatables.
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