From the second LeBron James announced his intention to leave the Miami Heat and return to his boyhood home of Northeast Ohio to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2014, the questions started. When the time came for another MVP small forward to enter free agency two summers later, would Kevin Durant decide to stick with the Oklahoma City Thunder … or follow in LeBron’s footsteps, make a pilgrimage back to his home of the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, and sign a deal to join the Washington Wizards?
“First of all, it’s always an elephant in the room when you’re talking about that stuff,” Durant told Michael Lee of The Vertical during a November 2015 visit to D.C. for the Thunder to take on the Wizards. “I don’t want to, like, totally just dodge it. I know it’s coming. I know the situation.”
Ultimately, Durant decided to go a different route, leaving the Thunder not for the Wiz, but to strike out for the West Coast to join the Golden State Warriors in a move that stunned the basketball world (even if, perhaps, it shouldn’t have). Durant never even met with the Wizards before making his decision, which many observers took as an indicator that he’d never seriously considered coming home to join a team that, despite the presence of All-Star point guard John Wall and rising shooting guard Bradley Beal, had just wrapped up a disappointing season that ended with 41 wins and no playoff berth.
With the Warriors on an East Coast road swing and heading to the nation’s capital on Tuesday to take on Wall, Beal and the Wiz, Tim Bontemps and Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post caught up with Durant to find out whether he’d ever entertained the possibility of a homecoming. Durant answered clearly and unreservedly: no.
Read more at: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/why-kevin-durant-didnt-pick-the-wizards-i-really-just-didnt-want-to-play-at-home-214052491.html