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You knew it had to happen at some point.
The Athletic is reporting that there is a sense within “Warriors circles” that Kevin Durant will re-sign with the team this summer.
Hey, it was the only rumor left. Shabbily sourced reports have had him going to the Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Clippers, Cirque du Soleil, the Audubon Society, the Fraternal Order of Masons and the cast of NPR’s “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me!”
From Sam Amick: “There’s a recent sense in Warriors circles that maybe he’ll think twice about joining them on this trek across the Bay Bridge, that the recent stretch of domination and fan appreciation might be the kind of thing that convinces him to — cue LeBron James’ personal motto that hasn’t exactly panned out in Laker Land — RWTW (Roll With The Winners).”
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If you’re of a mind to take an everyday moment and imbue it with deeper meaning, here are a couple of vignettes you might want to consider:
One, Durant has been serenaded with the “M! V! P!” chant from the Oracle crowds during the postseason. Almost every rumor the mill spits out asserts that Durant wants his “own” team and wants the kind of adulation that Stephen Curry gets from Warriors fans. If the assertion is on the mark, you’d have to think the chants would be meaningful for Durant.
And two, the riff he laid on Yahoo Sports after the Warriors’ Game 2 win over the Rockets: “This is where this (stuff) is fun, this is when it’s serious and I’m just embracing it,” said Durant, who doesn’t often emote with that degree of enthusiasm. “I’m just having so much fun right now. This time of year is what I’m geared for. I’m just hooping at a high level and enjoying the competitiveness of the playoffs. You go through such a long season to get to this point, and now it’s time to produce.”
Reality check: The Knicks haven’t reached the postseason in six years. Ditto the Lakers. The Nets have one playoff appearance in four years. It’s been four years since the Clippers (admittedly a good-looking club) won a playoff series.
Now let’s hear from Marcus Thompson II, Athletic columnist and author of a soon-to-be-released book about Durant.
“I feel stronger about the Bay Area than at any other time,” Thompson told the New York Post. “One thing is very clear, Kevin is going to do what he wants to do. He’s shown he vacillates and struggles about stuff and thinks about stuff, weighs it, feels it and it changes. He’s being more ‘him’ now. I don’t know how people are saying it as such a lock.”
P.S.: These comments came before Durant was injured Wednesday in Game 5. As we speak, it’s not knowable how the postseason will play out or how the results affect Durant’s decision-making process.
But you can be certain the rumor mill will be on the job.
