Why Did Kevin Durant Leave the Golden State Warriors? All These Years Later, Fans Still Ask

Widely considered one of the best basketball players of all time, Kevin Durant has played for three different NBA teams over the course of his career, though you'll often still find fans asking why he ever left one of them — that is, the Golden State Warriors.

Kevin (or KD, as he's known) played for the Seattle Supersonics (which became the Oklahoma Thunder) from 2007 to 2016, then joined the Warriors from 2016 to 2019 before heading over to Brooklyn Nets, where he played until 2023, when he left for the Phoenix Suns.

Still, it's his time with the Dubs that fans often talk about. So why did he leave?

Many fans believe that KD made a mistake in leaving the Warriors, as his move to Brooklyn — where he teamed up with Kyrie Irving and James Harding — didn't pan out, thanks in part to team dysfunction, injuries, and the pandemic. And after KD joined the Phoenix Suns, they ended up being the first team eliminated from the playoffs in April 2024.

As ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said on First Take (via NBC) in April 2024: "The bottom line is this: You left Steph Curry to join Kyrie Irving. You departed from Brooklyn to go to Phoenix. The situation was self-inflicted. And that, especially when you go out like this, is going to be as, if not more, remembered than the titles that you won with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson."

So why did KD leave the Dubs, with whom he won two championships? Some believed he kind of wore out his welcome, especially after his spat with Draymond Green, and the rumors of KD's desire to join the Knicks.

But as KD explained in Washington Post profile in late 2022 about his departure from the team: "It was another pivot. I just wanted to play ball somewhere else." He added:

"But a lot of people see it as I’m chasing something. And I think it probably stems when I said, ‘I don’t want to be number two no more.’ I was number two in high school, in the draft. But what I had to explain to people was, I had just lost in the Finals. I wanted to go back and win the Finals. It wasn’t about: ‘I want to be the best ever. I want to be better than LeBron or [Michael Jordan].’ I don’t give a s--- about that. I want to wake up every day and do what I do. If we win, I know that stuff comes with me being the best that I can be."

He also marveled at the "life lessons" he was learning via basketball, the NBA, and the business around it. "There is so much to learn here," he told the paper. "So every stop along the way is an experience in order for me to accelerate and be better in the next part of my life."