Kevin Durant Has No Reason to Return to the Golden State Warriors

With two titles and two Finals MVP awards under his belt, Kevin Durant needs a fresh start. 

The unceremonious end to the Warriors’ dynasty was foreshadowed in the regular season, with tensions rising high between Durant and Draymond Green.

Green apparently told Durant the Warriors could win without him, which proved to be untrue in this year’s Finals. KD never seemed to mesh well with the already-established core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Green, and is also upset with how the Warriors organization dealt with the calf injury that caused him to miss time, according to Bleacher Report. 

With Durant expected to miss all of next season, there’s no sense in mending broken fences in hopes to compete with the same team in two years. 

Even with a torn achilles, Durant is this year’s most-coveted free agent aside from Kawhi Leonard. Rumors have swirled around a KD-Kyrie Irving pairing, which would be a championship-caliber duo when healthy. 

Leaving Golden State gives Durant power to build his own team for an organization that hasn’t tasted glory like the Clippers, Knicks and Nets. Winning for a starving city is perceived much more positively than winning on a team that won 73 games regular season games and made the Finals. 

Durant accomplished what he needed to in Golden State and it’s time to move on. KD’s injury and eventual return should spark a hero’s arc, which would be impossible to complete if he remained with the league’s biggest villains of this decade.