A report from Chris Haynes of ESPN.com late on Sunday night suggested that members of the Warriors’ organization were “furious” and “bewildered” by the Thunder’s treatment of Kevin Durant leading up to Durant’s Oklahoma City return last month. According to Haynes, the Warriors felt that the Thunder’s decision not to more publicly address Durant’s return and thank him for his time in OKC – either through the media or via the in-game operations staff – played a part in creating an “unsettling, hostile atmosphere” during the Warriors’ visit to OKC in February.
Asked today about that ESPN report, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr disputed the idea that the franchise was upset or displeased by Thunder management or ownership for their handling of the Durant situation, as Anthony Slater of The San Jose Mercury News details.
“I don’t agree,” Kerr said. “Sam Presti’s a friend of mine. I know Clay Bennett. It’s a class organization all the way, so I don’t really pay any attention to a story like that unless there’s an actual name name that’s put on it. I assume it’s just sources. Is it ‘sources’? I don’t know who that is. It’s nobody with the Warriors. We have great respect for them. Sam’s been a friend of mine forever. They’re first-class, so I don’t know where that comes from.”
The Warriors will make their second trip to Oklahoma City tonight to play the Thunder, and Durant won’t be active this time around, as he continues to rehab his troublesome knee. Still, even with Durant and Russell Westbrook not going head-to-head on the court, there will certainly be no love lost between the two teams — Chesapeake Arena figures to be an especially hostile environment for the Warriors in the wake of Haynes’ latest report.
ESPN hyped it up not okc
Who cares if GS is mad at OKC or if OKC is mad at GS. Why can’t two teams or for that matter two people (Durant and Westbrook) not like each other? Why does everybody have to be friends and pretend like everything is sunshine and rainbows?
I agree with Dark Ghost on this one. Sports leagues often try to force rivalries where they don’t exist so having one occur organically is a good thing. Real rivalries drive ratings and help fill arenas.
The nba has no business playing politics, which is all they seem to do these days. If the league wants to further the liberal agenda, they should lose tax status, and stop pretending to be a neutral league. The officiating has become almost laughable, the league keeps pushing this anti warrior narrative, and they actually punish teams based on the liberalness of their laws. Warriors aren’t some Valliant team, quite the opposite actually!
Please be more specific. What do you mean by punish teams based on the liberalness of their laws? Not sure if you are intentionally being ambiguous, but I find your post difficult to understand. I also believe that when you say “the league” that you really mean to say the media that covers the league. There is a huge difference between the two.
Villain, not valiant.