Kevin Durant: Warriors Trade 'Didn't Make Sense;' I Want To End Career 'On My Terms'

Kevin Durant wasn't against returning to the Golden State Warriors because he didn't want to play with Draymond Green again.

Take it from the man himself speaking to, well, the other man himself.

The Phoenix Suns star appeared on Wednesday's episode of The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis and said (h/t Bob Harkins of The Athletic) he wasn't that interested in being traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Warriors ahead of the deadline earlier this month because, "I don't feel like there was a need to make that big a change right now. It didn't make sense to me."

He also pushed back at any suggestion he was against being teammates with Green again or was worried about being criticized like the last time he joined Golden State.

"You don't want to play with Draymond no more," he said while mimicking his critics. "You don't want to go back (to Golden State). I'm like, 'Yeah that s--- is annoying, and I don't like it, but I can play under anything."

As Harkins explained, Durant made it known he wasn't interested in being traded to the Warriors before the Feb. 6 deadline. Golden State responded by trading for Jimmy Butler instead.

It was easy to speculate that Durant might not have wanted to hear the same criticisms that came his way when he joined the Warriors as a free agent in 2016. Yet that was a very different situation, as Golden State was coming off an NBA-record 73-win season and just so happened to defeat his Oklahoma City Thunder in the previous Western Conference Finals.

It was a fruitful move for the future Hall of Famer, as the Warriors went to three straight NBA Finals and won two championships during his tenure with the team.

Durant was the NBA Finals MVP in back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018 and largely secured his legacy as a champion even though some might have thought he took the easy path to those titles.

He was also asked on the podcast whether he believes he will be with the Suns for the foreseeable future even though he explained he didn't want to give up on his teammates and coaches this season.

"I want my career to end on my terms, that's the only thing," Durant said. "That's the only thing I'm worried about, you know what I'm saying? … I want to keep putting in that work to make that choice on my own."

His choice this time was to not return to the Warriors, although not for the reasons some may have thought.