For nearly a decade, Kevin Durantaa stored his frowns beneath his pillow.

He showed up, put his head down and tried to make it work in Oklahoma City. His bond with his teammates felt real, and the connection to the city ran deep. Through the injuries, the near-misses and the constant outside noise, he never spoke ill.

“For nine years, he refused to speak a word against that team — he loved those guys and that city,” said his mom, Wanda Durant, after her son’s July 2016 free agency decision distorted the sports landscape. “But this summer he said, ‘Mama, I can’t do it anymore. They’re not in this thing with me, we’re not together like we were – I feel like I need something different.'”

Oklahoma City had just finished one of the most painful collapses in modern playoff history — a blown 3–1 lead against the 73-win Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference finals. Up 13 with six minutes to go in Game 6.

Three chances to finish it. To just need four more wins for a title. They never got there.

And neither did Durant.

The writing on the wall

The end was a hurtful unraveling. A rupture at the seams of what had once looked like a dynasty in waiting. Durant was 27. Already a four-time scoring champ. Already an MVP. He’d battled injuries, headlines and heartbreak. He’d given everything to Oklahoma City.

And suddenly, he felt like he was all alone.

“It felt like that whole thing was set up for me to leave,” Durant said in the aftermath of Oklahoma City’s postseason collapse, “especially after they blew a lead in the Finals, because I damn sure wasn’t going there if they’d won. But after Game Seven, I called up my agent and said, ‘Damn, dude, Golden State – what if?'”

Before July 4, 2016, Durant was still the face of the Thunder and the guy who carried a small-market franchise to relevance, who nearly toppled Kobe Bryant in 2010, who came one win away from the Finals in 2014, and who’d just come within one win again.

But afterward, he was a Warrior.

It was a move that detonated the NBA’s competitive balance and a decision that gutted Oklahoma City. A transfer of power that echoed through every arena he walked into afterwards.

But there was something deeply human about it: exhaustion. Durant had emptied himself for nine years — and for the first time, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his journey wasn’t shared anymore.

Lost passion

Even Game 7, the one they lost in Oakland, had felt like a goodbye dressed in heartbreak.

“Man, I saw us in the ball caps and T-shirts, with our fans going crazy and dancing,” Durant remembered. “That town was so good to us, showed us love even when we lost. I wanted it more for them than even me.”

Durant scored 27 points that night on 10-for-19 shooting, but the Thunder scored just 88. Russell Westbrook went 7-for-21. They turned the ball over 12 times. Klay Thompson had just torched them in Game 6. The Warriors outlasted them with poise and movement. The Thunder had the edge in talent but lost the war in cohesion.

And perhaps, that was the thread Durant couldn’t unsee anymore.

He knew how good he was. But he’d stopped believing it was enough and that the partnership beside him worked. It stopped feeling like the franchise could evolve fast enough to match what the game was becoming. Golden State had shown him something — not just in how they played but how connected they looked.

So when the cap spike hit and the Warriors could magically create max space, the stars aligned.

The world thought he was selfish, leaving poor-ole Russ high and dry. But Durant thought there was no more juice left to squeeze in Oklahoma. So he left.

And while those fans down in Bricktown may never warm to his decision to depart for the enemy, they can’t ignore that Durant’s exit nearly a decade ago was the first domino in the Thunder’s path to title glory.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 28, 2025, where it first appeared.