Kevin Durant on 2016 Free-Agency Meeting with Warriors: I Needed That Validation

The Golden State Warriors provided Kevin Durant three All-Stars and the 2015 Finals MVP to play with.

But they also provided him with the thing he needed most: validation.

Durant discussed what led to his decision to sign with the Warriors as part of an oral history of the 2016 meeting in the Hamptons, per Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. 

At that time in my career, I didn't know how other people felt about my game. And I knew that I was pretty damn good and I knew I worked extremely hard, but I needed that validation from my peers and teams and GMs, people that are really into the game, to really help me feel good about myself and help me feel confident and let me know that what I was doing was working.

So when they all came, and they all put stuff to the side to come to the meeting, I was like, man, this is amazing. Best team in the league, some of the best players, most accomplished players want me on their team and want what I do, what I bring to the table. It was pretty cool, you know what I'm saying?

Because I'm looking at this whole basketball thing from a kid's perspective. I'm still excited, I'm still learning. So to have that much love in the room for how I play basketball, that's cool. They'll get to know me as a person, I was confident with that. But the basketball side, I was, like, man it's pretty damn cool that people enjoy the way I play and want me to play with them.

From an outside perspective, it seems almost silly for Durant to say that. He'd already won an MVP, led the league in scoring four times, racked up seven All-Star appearances and led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Finals in 2012 before he signed with Golden State. He was a future Hall of Famer and the consensus second- or third-best player in the NBA.

When Durant sat down with the remainder of the now-famous Hamptons Five, his first question was about why the Warriors would want him.

"Everybody looked at me like I was crazy," Durant said. "It was just like, 'Why wouldn't we? This would be super special.' I'm like, 'I want to be part of something super, super special.' It was just perfect. Everybody was just thinking the same way I was. Just no egos."

The results speak for themselves. Durant won Finals MVP a year ago, and Golden State lost just one playoff game on the way to its second title in three years. The Warriors are heavy favorites to win a second straight championship against the Cleveland Cavaliers, especially after escaping a surprisingly close Game 1.

But it's possible none of it would have happened if the Dubs' initial core didn't give Durant the assurance he needed.