Joe Lacob Says Kevin Durant Leaving Warriors 'Made No Sense' to Him
Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob wasn't upset when Kevin Durant left the team in free agency, but he didn't necessarily understand the decision.
Lacob discussed the situation Monday on Joe, Lo & Dibs:
"Which, to me, made no sense. Like, you're the best organization, I hope he thinks, in the world," Lacob said, via Karl Buscheck of 95.7 The Game. "Winning. Other great players. I mean, the new arena. To me, there was like every reason in the world to stay, but I'm not going to be mad at him because, you know, it's his life. And he earned the right. And for whatever reason, he decided he wanted to leave."
Durant spent three seasons with the Warriors, winning two titles in his first two seasons. He helped bring the squad to the NBA finals last year until a ruptured Achilles knocked him out of the playoffs, with Golden State eventually losing to the Toronto Raptors.
He left for the Brooklyn Nets in free agency during the summer, apparently to the surprise of Warriors' leadership.
"As time went on, I started to realize I'm just different from the rest of the guys," Durant said in September, per WSJ Magazine's J.R. Moehringer.
Earlier this month, he admitted his decision to leave was made much earlier.
"I knew just about the halfway point through the year," Durant said on the All the Smoke podcast (h/t Michael Kaskey-Blomain of CBS Sports). "I could feel, you know, the separation between the two."
It left the Warriors without arguably its best player from the previous few seasons, an issue that was exacerbated by injuries to Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry. After going to five straight finals, the team entered Monday with an NBA-worst 12-45 record.
