Kevin Durant Admits to Regretting Signing with Warriors at First Due to Backlash

Kevin Durant's decision to join the Golden State Warriors in July 2016 has already paid dividends in the form of a Larry O'Brien Trophy. 

But in a recent interview with San Francisco Magazine's Jon Steinberg, the reigning NBA Finals MVP and his agent, Rich Kleiman, admitted Durant had some regrets about ditching the Oklahoma City Thunder after initially announcing he was departing for the Bay Area.   

"We were all messed up on jet lag," Kleiman said of the duo's trip to China last summer for a promotional tour with Nike, "and I was up at 6 a.m. and he calls me and says, 'Yo, are you up?' And I’m like, 'Yeah, what’s up?' And he’s like [yelling], 'Why the f--k did you let me do this to my life?' And I’m like, 'Ohh s--t, I'm coming over to your room.'"

Durant disclosed the meeting with Kleiman in his hotel room was "rock bottom," and that hearing so many people say "f--k you" over social media took an emotional toll on him. 

"Because I truly had invested everything I had into the people I played for," Durant said. "... And for those people that I know and love and trust to turn their back on me after I was fully invested in them, it was just…more than I could take. I was upset."

More recently, Durant has found himself in hot water after he posted messages on his Twitter account asserting he left the Thunder because of head coach Billy Donovan and the team's roster outside of Russell Westbrook. 

Speaking at a TechCrunch panel in San Francisco on Tuesday, Durant apologized and called his actions "idiotic." 

"I happened to take it a little too far," he said, per USA Today's Sam Amick. "That's what happens sometimes when I get into these basketball debates about what I really love, to play basketball. I don't regret clapping back at anybody or talking to my fans on Twitter. I do regret using my former coach's name and the former organization I played for. That was childish. That was idiotic, all those types of words. I apologize for that."