Stephen Curry said the Warriors had discussed the possibility of bringing back Kevin Durant to the Bay Area after the former MVP requested a trade out of Brooklyn this offseason.
“There was a conversation internally amongst us about ‘If he was available, would you?’ Every team has those conversations, and obviously in our situation, they’re gonna call me and ask me, ‘How do you feel about it?’” Curry told Rolling Stone for the magazine’s October cover story.
Curry said he was “never hesitant” when considering a possible reunion with Durant, whom the Warriors star said is a “really good dude” who’s “misunderstood.”
“The idea of playing with KD and knowing who he is as a person, from our history in those three years, I think KD’s a really good dude. I think he is misunderstood,” Curry told the magazine. “He has had certain things happen in his life that hurt his ability to trust people around him, in a sense of making him feel safe at all times. So all of those things, I understand, having played with him and gotten to know him. I love that dude.”
Curry said he genuinely enjoyed the three seasons he played alongside Durant, during which the Warriors won back-to-back NBA titles before the two-time Finals MVP left for Brooklyn in a 2019 sign-and-trade deal.
After winning their fourth title in eight years, Curry has “complete confidence” the Warriors can make another championship run next summer even without Durant.
“And if you said, ‘Oh, KD’s coming back, and we’re gonna play with him,’ I had so much fun playing with him those three years, I’d be like, ‘Hell, yeah!’” Curry said. “Then you have to think: What does that actually mean? What does it look like? You tell me I’m playing with [current Warriors teammates Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, and Draymond Green], I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah!’ There’s all types of emotion and things that happen to the league. And if anybody’s saying that you wouldn’t entertain that conversation — no disrespect to anybody on our team — but you don’t know how things work. But you also understand, like, if we run this thing back, I’ve got complete confidence in my team that we can win it again, as constructed.
“So, all those things were true. And it started with me wanting to play with KD at the beginning. Yeah, it’s about winning, it’s about having fun, playing the game of basketball. And that was part of the reaction of, like, ‘Yeah, it’d be amazing.’ What does that actually mean?”
The Durant trade was just one of the many topics covered in the Rolling Stone’s October cover story. Curry also discussed his previous beef with Under Armour, athlete activism, mental health and some politics.
