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  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) goes up for a...

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) goes up for a layup against the Houston Rockets during the first half of Game 6 of the NBA Western Conference finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, May 26, 2018. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Houston Rockets 115-86. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers chats with Golden...

    Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers chats with Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) during a practice session before Game 2 of the NBA Western Conference finals at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, May 16, 2018. Durant wears a size 18 shoe. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) goes up for a...

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) goes up for a dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the first quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, June 1, 2017. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) reacts after shooting a...

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) reacts after shooting a 3-point basket over Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James (23) for the go ahead basket during the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday, June 7, 2017. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 118-113. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) defends as New Orleans...

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) defends as New Orleans Pelicans' Anthony Davis (23) attempts to drive past during the third quarter of a NBA game at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) goes up for a...

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) goes up for a lay up past Houston Rockets' Iman Shumpert (1) during the second half of Game 3 of their NBA second round playoff series at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on Saturday, May 4, 2019. The Houston Rockets defeated the Golden State Warriors 126-121 in overtime. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Kevin Durant faces a big decision in the next couple...

    Kevin Durant faces a big decision in the next couple weeks. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) shoots the ball against...

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) shoots the ball against Houston Rockets' Austin Rivers (25) in the first quarter of Game 5 of an NBA second round playoff series at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) stands on the court...

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) stands on the court during the playing of the U.S. national anthem before Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario on Monday, June 10, 2019. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

  • Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) is all smiles after...

    (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

    Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant (35) is all smiles after defeating the Portland Trail Blazers during their NBA game at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, Nov. 23, 2018. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 125-97 (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

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Gary Peterson, East Bay metro columnist for the Bay Area News Group is photographed for a Wordpress profile in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Thursday, July 28, 2016. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
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“I have run I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”

Full disclosure: I have no insider knowledge of Kevin Durant’s musical tastes. But if Warriors coach Steve Kerr is to be believed, you’d think U-2 would be a fit.

This week we learned how Kerr spent part of his summer vacation — sitting down with Bill Simmons as Simmons was writing the recently released “The Book of Basketball 2.0,” an update of his first “Book of Basketball” published in 2009.

During their conversation, Kerr told Simmons why he believes Durant left the Warriors for the Brooklyn Nets. The nice folks at thescore.com were kind enough to cull the following excerpt from a podcast that you can find here.

“The same reason we got Kevin in the first place was the reason we lost him,” Kerr said.

“His first year with us, he was a sponge and he would ask questions constantly. I think he embraced it, he enjoyed it. That team was unstoppable, between the ball movement and the off-ball movement. With the isolation brilliance of Kevin, that team was unstoppable.”

Not quite, but close. The Warriors were 67-15 in Durant’s first season with the team. They won their first 15 games in the playoffs, finishing with a postseason record of 16-1.

“The following year we lost some of that,” Kerr said, “and it started to drift, and I felt like Kevin started to drift. My feeling was, he started to get restless. Like, ‘This is all there is? We won the title last year, we’re rolling again this year, but whatever it is I’m searching for, I’m still not finding it.'”

Durant expressed that exact sentiment this summer while appearing on — what else? — a Bill Simmons podcast.

“After we won the (first) championship, I had Taco Bell and it ran through me just like it would a normal person.” he said. “I thought I was immune to everything, but no.”

Kerr: “We had a really good thing and then you could just feel it start to slip.”

Cue outro and another track Durant might want to consider for his playlist:

 


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