Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti addressed chatter that there is any animosity between the team and Brooklyn Nets’ superstar Kevin Durant, who infamously spurned the Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors back in 2016.
Durant raised eyebrows with comments he made about the organization, the city, and Thunder fans during an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“I eventually wanted to come back to that city and be part of that community and organization, but I don’t trust nobody there,” Durant said. “That s— must have been fake, what they was doing. The organization, the GM, I ain’t talked to none of those people, even had a nice exchange with those people, since I left.”
Despite the harsh words from Durant, Presti took the high road and said there is no animosity between the two sides.
“If there is anything that Kevin Durant ever, ever needed from me or from anyone here, it would be a moment’s notice for that to happen,” Presti said, according to ESPN’s Royce Young.
“I also think if you work with people for eight years like we did, he and I — he was 19 when he came into the NBA, I was 29. We both went through a lot of changes together, and I have nothing but positive things to say about him and his tenure here. You’ve asked me that in the past. You’ve asked me that today. You can ask me that in the future if something like this comes up again. I’m never going to change that tune because that’s how I feel.”
“I would always be there if he needed anything from me, and I truthfully believe that I think that would be the case if that was — it would be reciprocated, as well,” Presti said of Durant.
Presti also responded to Durant’s claim that he hasn’t had a “positive conversation” with anyone in the organization, stating thatDurant’s contributions to the Thunder “monumental”.
“I’ve never made it a habit of getting into my personal conversations with our former players other than to say I feel really good about those relationships, and I think you can hear in my voice the way I feel about him,” he said. “That hasn’t changed, and it won’t change.”