Kevin Durant may have joined the Golden State Warriors and won two NBA titles and formed a superteam in Brooklyn with Kyrie Irving and James Harden, but the Nets star says winning championships is not why he plays the game.
At least not anymore.
Durant, in an interview Saturday with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, said that while he enjoys winning, it is not the ultimate factor in what drives him to play basketball.
“And once I won a championship [with Golden State], I realized that, like, my view on this game is really about development,” he said. “Like, how good can I be? It’s not about, you know, let’s go get this championship. I appreciate that stuff and I want to win to experience that stuff, but it’s not the end-all, be-all of why I play the game.”
To be clear, Durant does acknowledge he still has a desire to win, but it is secondary to his own self-development as a player and how good he can be.
The 32-year-old admitted that being away from the game for so long — missing all of last season while recovering from an Achilles tear — also impacted his perspective.
“I’ve been around, been out of the game for two years and having anxiety about like, ‘What am I going to do when I get back?’” he said. “Being out with an Achilles has you thinking about the game differently. And my goal is to be out there, you know. Who knows what’s gonna happen when I’m out there. I just want to be available. And I think that’s all I really want out of this, to be available for as long as I can. And we’ll see what happens between the lines.”
It has not exactly been an easy road back for Durant. He’s missed 23 games this season due to a hamstring injury before returning to the court on Wednesday night.
He did not start, though, but scored 17 points in 19 minutes off the bench in a win over the Pelicans.
Meanwhile, the Nets sit tied atop the Eastern Conference with the Philadelphia 76ers despite Durant, Irving and Harden having only played together seven times this season.
Durant believes their chemistry they developed playing together on Team USA will allow them to continue to have the same success when they are all on the court together.
“I love what we’re building,” he said. “…Everybody bring their part to it. Everybody’s valuable. And we’re just trying to create something pretty cool for people to watch, and for us to get the players to come play in.”
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