We’ve all heard the Kevin Durant and Draymond Green carpark story from the 2016 Finals, but now Draymond is claiming he was planning on KD coming to The Bay a whole year before then.
The story about Green crying and begging KD to join the Warriors in the carpark after the Warriors Game 7 loss has been told way too many times.
However, what hasn’t been revealed is that Green was thinking about the possibility of Durant joining the Warriors well before then.
He says it was the summer before, a whole year prior to KD coming to Golden State.
In 2015, Green was in contract negotiations with Golden State after his rookie deal expired.
Right before then, the Warriors won their first championship in 40 years and of course, Green was a vital part of that, so his new contract could have commanded a $93 million max deal.
But Draymond explained how he took less money so that if the Dubs got the opportunity sign Durant, they could do it with less financial constraints.
“When I signed my deal [in 2015], B.J. Armstrong was my agent,” Green said 7PM in Brooklyn. “The conversation me and B.J. had was, ‘listen, here’s [the Warriors’] whole [salary] cap table. Here’s what it is next year. The cap next year jumps to this. Look who’s a free agent next year. KD. Here’s [the amount of money] you can take, and y’all will still be able to pay [KD] max. The number was five [years] for $85 [million].'”
Green ended up signing a five-year $82 million deal with Golden State and of course, Durant signed with the franchise the following summer as a free agent.
Now of course, this could be some classic Draymond Green cap.
But either way, the Warriors ended up dominating the league with KD in their team and became arguably one of the best teams in NBA history.