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Nonetheless, for Jrue Holiday, there’s an even bigger yapper on the Team USA roster. Durant can be incisive with his trash talk, but for the Boston Celtics guard and two-time NBA champion, Anthony Edwards’ mouth runs even more loudly than that of Durant’s. “Anthony Edwards [is the biggest trash-talker on the team.] 100 percent. 100 percent. He’s a great player and you see him trash-talking for a very, very long time,” Holiday said in an interview with media members during Raising Cane’s “Golden Birthday”, via Justin Turpin of WEEI.
Chapters of Dennis Rodman’s story have been retold over the last month thanks to ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” a 10-episode documentary that focuses on Michael Jordan’s last season with the Bulls in 1997-98. The final two episodes will air Sunday night. Rodman was the star of Episode 3, but his time sporting blue and gold at Southeastern Oklahoma State University was only chronicled by a few seconds of grainy footage. How Rodman arrived in Durant, Oklahoma, is what Reisman can only describe as a “fairy-tale story.”
Kendrick Perkins, who was a teammate of Durant’s in Oklahoma City and played for Doc Rivers in Boston, further fueled the Durant-to-the-Clippers talk when he sat down with Kristine Leahy on her show “Fair Game.” “Don’t be surprised if K.D. signs with the Clippers,” Perkins said. “Everybody is screaming New York but do not be surprised if K.D. signs and plays for Doc. I don’t even have to recruit him. He likes the organization. He likes Doc Rivers.”
Others have given Westbrook the blame for Durant bailing on being beloved Oklahoma City and heading for greener pastures with the Golden State Warriors, a team that is loose, shares the ball and has an elite coach. Durant is not intense like him, and others view him leaving as the belief that he couldn’t win a championship with Westbrook as his co-pilot. “It wasn’t as much to do with Russ as the media made it look like at all, I know that for a fact,” Morrow said. “He wanted to build on his legacy, he wanted to win. He felt like we tried, 10 years, it ain’t work… I could tell you that that’s how he was thinking about that.”
What’s next? Recognition. Durant was ninth in blocks last season, 30th the year before -- his last in Oklahoma City. With defensive gurus Ron Adams and Mike Brown on the Warriors staff, it’s an altogether busier Durant on defense, particularly in the painted area. Durant last season received zero votes for Defensive Player of the Year, an award that went to Green. More telling, eight forwards -- including Paul Millsap and Robert Covington -- received more votes than Durant for the league’s All-Defensive team. With the season Durant is having that’s sure to change.
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Nash typically spends only a few days a month with the Warriors in his role as a player development consultant, but he’s as close to Durant as anyone in the organization. They were introduced late in Nash’s playing career by the Brooklyn Nets assistant Adam Harrington — one of Nash’s former teammates in Dallas — and started building a friendship long before Durant made the polarizing (and landscape-changing) decision to leave Oklahoma City for the Bay Area in July 2016.
Never mind that Westbrook would later make it clear that the two are still not on speaking terms, or that this was just the second time Durant had seen his old team since his surprising exit from Oklahoma City last July. This, Durant explained after his 40-point, 12-rebound, four-assist, three-block performance in the Warriors’ 121-100 win at Oracle Arena, was nothing more than your typical playground scene. “That’s all it was,” Durant told USA TODAY Sports. “You talk a little trash. (There’s) no tension. Nothing went on out there. Both teams played hard. He did what he’s supposed to do. I went out there and did what I was supposed to do. It’s nothing serious, man, nothing that we’re going to take off the court, you know what I’m saying? It ain’t gonna seep into the real world. It’s just basketball talk.”
His agents didn’t make the decision, nor his family or friends. Durant did. He wanted to leave Oklahoma City. He wanted to play for the Warriors – and with the Warriors. For Durant, the choice wasn’t some kind of a measure of his character, but simply a window into his priorities and preferences. “We haven’t had any talks about how he fits in here,” Green told The Vertical. “It’s a natural. Those are the talks that got him here – how he fit. He’s definitely a person who believes relationships matter.”
It wasn’t the first time Durant had done something like this—he surprised a group of Oklahomans by showing up to play in their flag football game during the 2011 National Basketball Association lockout—but spending a day as a Postmates delivery guy wasn’t pure whimsy. Durant has good reason to drum up attention: he quietly bought a stake in the company this spring.
That said, both sources indicated that the Oklahoma City Thunder is still the front-runner for Durant who has spent his entire nine-season career with the franchise (first in Seattle and now in Oklahoma City).
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Durant, the biggest catch on the free-agent market, has met with five teams over the past three days -- Oklahoma City, Golden State, San Antonio, Boston and the Los Angeles Clippers. His final meeting is Sunday with the Miami Heat. Oklahoma City, where Durant has played the first nine years of his career, has requested another meeting with Durant after he sits down with Miami, but no decision has been made on whether that will take place, sources said.
For what it's worth, a person with connections to Horford told CBS Sports on Saturday night that rival executives assembled in Orlando for Summer League still believe that the most likely scenario for Durant is staying in Oklahoma City. In the end, Durant is the only one who can make that decision.
Despite having meetings lined up with six other teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the front-runners, with some around Durant saying someone is going to have to convince him to leave, rather than the Thunder convincing him to stay. His heart is in Oklahoma City, a place he affectionately refers to as a "home." But he's willing to listen, and therefore, willing to leave the door wide open to the possibility of leaving. At this point, some 48 hours before the free-agency window opens, it's all up in the air.
ESPN reported last week that Golden State is "all-in" on the pursuit of Durant, but sources said this week that the 2015 champions plan to retain Barnes and try to sign a proven big man -- sources say Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah, David West and Timofey Mozgov are all potential targets -- if Durant stays with Oklahoma City or chooses to sign with another team.
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