STANFORD, Calif. -- Losing the 2016 NBA Finals might have given the Golden State Warriors a big win.
Kevin Durant said Monday night that the Warriors' collapse against LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers helped his free-agency decision.
"[My agent] Rich [Kleiman], who's here, we were watching Game 7," Durant told reporters at a ceremony in which the Warriors were presented with the ENCORE Award from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. "Well, as it started to unfold, it was, 'No question, no way could you go to this team.' And I was just like a kid, like, 'I'd really like playing with these guys. I'd get wide-open 3s, I could just run up and down the court, get wide-open layups.' I was basically begging him. I was like, 'Yo, this would be nice.'"
Durant continued, explaining how his thinking changed as the Finals progressed and the Warriors went from being up 3-1 to losing the title.
"As they lost, it became more and more real every day," Durant said. "You start to think about it even more. To see if I would fit. Then once I sat down with these guys, everything that I wanted to know about them, they kinda showed me. But we don't have to talk about [what would have happened if the Warriors had won the title], because they didn't get the job done, and they came after me.
"I guess you could say I'm glad that they lost."
Durant is averaging 18.3 points on 10 shots per game through three games this preseason.
The Warriors' first regular-season game with their newest All-Star is slated for Oct. 25 at home in Oakland against the San Antonio Spurs.
