When Kevin Durant decided to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder and join the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016, it became one of the most shocking moves in NBA history. The Thunder had just lost to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, and Durant\u2019s decision helped create a superteam poised to dominate the league for years. It raised questions about the NBA\u2019s competitive balance and Durant\u2019s integrity for joining the very team he couldn\u2019t beat.<\/p>\n
Overnight, KD became public enemy number 1. He was labeled as a \u201csnake,\u201d and NBA fans \u2014 OKC fans in particular \u2014 badgered him wherever he went. His mother, Wanda, would feel it too when the Warriors were on the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As expected, Golden State reached the NBA Finals in 2017. After all, Durant had joined a team that had just recorded the most regular-season wins in NBA history. But before the Finals began, Wanda appeared on Undisputed on FS1 with Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless to open up about the backlash she and her son faced that year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did discuss it, we didn\u2019t know it was going to be to this magnitude. I could not have foreseen this. I really could not because Kevin is so loved by so many, and I didn\u2019t really think that they were going to question his character towards him, or his integrity as a man, because he chose teams. But we\u2019re here now, and that\u2019s fine,\u201d she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n One could tell Durant\u2019s mother was bitter over the whole ordeal. And how could she not be? Her son was being made fun of and questioned regularly. That would make any mother upset. However, Wanda knew her son had made his bed when he decided to join the Warriors. So all she could really tell him to do was lie in it.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I told him, he has to walk it out. He has to maintain who he is as Kevin. He has to be solid in his line of demarcation, his constitutional fortitude, and go on with your life,\u201d Wanda added.<\/p>\n It was great advice from Durant\u2019s mother at the time. At that point, there wasn\u2019t anything else her son could do aside from own the decision and embrace the hate, which he handled like a natural.<\/p>\n The Warriors would go on to reach the next three NBA Finals. They won the first two easily against LeBron James<\/a> and the Cleveland Cavaliers, with Durant winning both Finals MVPs. However, in their bid for a three-peat, he tragically tore his Achilles tendon in Game 5 against the Toronto Raptors. The Dubs lost the series in six games.<\/p>\n