Al Horford and Kevin Durant (Photo : Getty Images)
The long-awaited decision has been made and now Kevin Durant will join the Golden State Warriors and form a superteam that we haven't seen before.
There would be many backstories behind the free agent decisions. NBA players, specifically the superstars, have a lot of money and it's not simplistic to say they would stay with their team just because they can offer more money.
Take Kevin Durant. He has a Nike endorsement contract that is allegedly worth $300 million over 10 years. He won't be swayed by money that much-he would really choose where he wanted to go.
However, Michael Saenz of Sir Charles in Charge has brought up the possibility that Durant could've stayed in OKC if not for Al Hordord.
"Rumor has it that Durant was recruiting Horford to Oklahoma City, which even prompted the Thunder to explore trade options in order to clear cap space to sign the star free agent center," Saenz wrote. "After it was reported that Durant was recruiting Horford, that idea was quickly shot down after it was revealed he had his reservations about playing there."
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical at Yahoo Sports took on Al Horford's angle on why he refused.
Sources: Kevin Durant had been recruiting Horford to OKC, but Horford eliminated OKC with no assurance Durant/Westbrook staying long-term.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) July 2, 2016
To clarify, this is not to insinuate that Al Horford's refusal was the sole determining factor that drove Durant to Golden State. There are some who claim that Durant has long been an admirer of how the Warriors played-perhaps since they won the title in 2015.
Nevertheless, this shows that Durant was indeed torn. He really felt like the Thunder roster was not good enough, that he needed to make some adjustments to win a title-hence recruiting Horford.
The former Atlanta Hawks center has his own motivations behind his decisions, and Ken Berger of CBS Sports revealed why Horford left Atlanta in the first place.
"Factor No. 1, according to league sources: Horford was none too pleased with how reluctant the Hawks were to come forward with a full five-year max. Factor No. 2: Atlanta's signing of Dwight Howard. Could there be a more contradicting force in the NBA to Horford than Howard, in terms of substance vs. style?" asked Berger.
"He didn't want to play with Dwight," Berger quoted a person familiar with the situation.
Free agency is complex-this is the time superstars can have their own way-they were not able to choose their teams in the draft. Sometimes, a team can get lucky and just have the right situation at the right time. There is an argument that if the Warriors won the 2016 NBA Finals, Durant would not have picked them-and probably stayed with OKC, or maybe picked Boston. We would never know.
But in this timeline, Durant will be a Golden State Warrior and the rest of the league will have to deal with it.
