{"id":871014,"date":"2026-08-28T03:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871014\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T03:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:54:10","slug":"kevin-durant-explains-why-the-2019-warriors-were-the-best-team-hes-ever-played-for-with-nets-a-close-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871014\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Explains Why The 2019 Warriors Were The Best Team He’s Ever Played For, With Nets A Close Second"},"content":{"rendered":"

As NBA superstar Kevin Durant<\/a> prepares for his 19th NBA season, he recently took some time to reflect on his journey and the circumstances that led to where he is today. As a two-time champion, former MVP, and 16x All-Star across five different teams, Durant has plenty of stories to tell, and not all of them are positive.<\/p>\n

So when he was asked to name the best team he\u2019s ever played for, Durant jumped at the chance to relive some of his best moments. Initially, one might think Durant would pick one of the two championship teams he played for, but he went in another direction instead. According to Kevin, the 2018-19 Warriors<\/a> team has the top spot, even though they lost in the Finals that year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2019 team was crazy, but we got hurt,\u201d Durant said<\/a>. \u201cWith Cousins at the five, that\u2019s probably the best team I\u2019ve been a part of. I forgot about Cousins because I didn\u2019t play with Cuz a lot that year because he got hurt, but when you look at it on paper\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

On paper, there are few teams in NBA history that can stack up with that Warriors squad. Besides Durant and Stephen Curry<\/a>, they also had Klay Thompson<\/a> and Draymond Green<\/a> in their primes, along with Andre Iguodal<\/a>a, Shaun Livingston<\/a>, and DeMarcus Cousins<\/a>. They finished first in the West that season at 57-25, and likely would have won their third straight championship had major injuries not befallen Cousins, Thompson, and Durant at the worst possible times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Durant\u2019s eyes, it\u2019s more than depth that separates that Warriors team from the previous ones. In 2017 and 2018, neither Klay nor Draymond was as established or decorated as they are today. In fact, Durant says the Brooklyn Nets were better than those championship teams; at least, on paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the straight roster and nothing else, I would say Brooklyn,\u201d said Durant on \u2018Boardroom Talks\u2019 with Speedy Mormon.<\/a> \u201cKyrie, James, Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap, Patty Mills. We had names on that team if we\u2019re looking at straight paper. I know people are going to say the Warriors, but if you look at the team at that time, Steph was an MVP, but Klay and Draymond didn\u2019t have the accolades at that time. They were like one-time All-Stars. These dudes I\u2019m talking about had already completed their careers; they had all their accolades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant left the Warriors to build his own thing in Brooklyn, and what followed was the formation of a new superteam that included stars like Kyrie Irving<\/a>, James Harden<\/a>, Blake Griffin<\/a>, and LaMarcus Alrdidge<\/a>. That group had the potential to go down as the greatest offensive team in NBA history, but they never got past the second round after a mix of injuries and off-court drama ruined everything<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been so dope seeing that in Brooklyn,\u201d Durant added<\/a>. \u201cThey would have handled it so crazy in New York. Just riding down Atlantic for real, and the parade. All our fans would have been there in all black; it\u2019s the only thing I think about. When you realize injuries were the reason, it wasn\u2019t because we played bad, and that\u2019s what takes the sting out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant has been fortunate with his history of co-stars, but it\u2019s by design. Unlike other stars, Durant has no qualms about forcing his way out when things turn sour. When things get stale in one situation, he hand-picks another pre-established team to try his luck elsewhere. It\u2019s a smart strategy for Durant, even if the results have been mixed.<\/p>\n

So far, Durant has struck out in all title attempts since leaving the Warriors, but there\u2019s still time to add to his illustrious resume. As the main star for the Houston Rockets<\/a>, he\u2019s aiming to lead them to victory and pull off what he was never able to accomplish in Brooklyn or even in his last year in Golden State. He won\u2019t have the same support he did with those teams, but it will only make success all the more impressive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As NBA superstar Kevin Durant prepares for his 19th NBA season, he recently took some time to reflect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-871014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}