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Kevin Durant took significantly less money in free agency to help the Golden State Warriors re-sign Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. Durant spoke about it with Anthony Slater for The Athletic in his first interview since his decision.

"Well, I'm a smart guy and I want to keep this thing going and looking at Andre and Shaun (Livingston) and Steph (Curry) — they all should make the most money that they can make and get what they deserve," said Durant. "Because they were all underpaid and I knew at some point they'd want to get what they deserve. So I just took a step back and let the chips fall where they may. Then I took it in my hands. I wanted to keep the team together and I thought it was going to help the ownership bring all the guys back. And on top of that, it's my money. It's my decision. I can do what the hell I want with it."

Durant received criticism from some members of the media and fans for taking less money.

"They only (criticized) it because it's the Warriors and it's me and they love to hate anything we do right now. A lot of players have (taken pay-cuts). It wasn't that I wanted the praise. I've learned from Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki and how it has helped them over the years and I thought, if they did it, why can't I? Why shouldn't I sacrifice? People wanted the money to break us up and I didn't want that to happen."

Durant confirmed that he brought the number to the Warriors.

"Yeah, like I said, I'm a grown man in this league and I'm at the point of my life and career where I'm able to dictate what I want to do with my future. So me and my business partner (Rich Kleiman) talked about it and when we brought it to them we knew they'd be excited because it'll definitely help the whole group."

Via Anthony Slater/The Athletic

Millionaires saving money for billionaires--that's fine. It's his money.

But when the team has the bird rights to everyone and the only barrier is money in terms of keeping them--it's literally millionaires helping billionaires.

But he's right--it's his money.

He sacrificed 10 million to guarantee himself a spot on the greatest team off all time as an investment in his billion dollar brand.

He's smart, not a hero.

I really don't like when Durant speaks. He's a top 3 player arguably top 2 player in the world but for some reason he comes off like a jackass when he speaks or sounds misguided. I don't know why. Maybe if i spent my career watching and chasing Lebron I'd be the same way, IDK.

Being a bandwagon jumping coward ain't cheap.

Pay up, cupcake.

He's right in that Tim Duncan had been taking pay cuts for the last 10 years of his career and nobody said anything.

MegaK wrote:I really don't like when Durant speaks. He's a top 3 player arguably top 2 player in the world but for some reason he comes off like a jackass when he speaks or sounds misguided. I don't know why. Maybe if i spent my career watching and chasing Lebron I'd be the same way, IDK.

To be honest, I love this angry spiteful KD. He's just looking out for himself, and embracing becoming a villain. Something Lebron never did during his Miami trip.

oaktownwarriors87 wrote:He sacrificed 10 million to guarantee himself a spot on the greatest team off all time as an investment in his billion dollar brand.

He's smart, not a hero.

this 1000%

why it's not obvious to more people i don't know

Dirk and Duncan were lifers, who took big cuts at the end of their careers to make their teams competitive. Durant took less money in his prime to make the best team in the league more dominant and the league less competitive. He's more comparable to Lebron. However, even Lebron takes the max now a days, because the players union complained that he was being used as a negotiation tool against other players. "Well, Lebron is not taking the max, how can you ask for the max?"

tribulations wrote:

oaktownwarriors87 wrote:He sacrificed 10 million to guarantee himself a spot on the greatest team off all time as an investment in his billion dollar brand.

He's smart, not a hero.

this 1000%

why it's not obvious to more people i don't know

his diehard and Warriors fan, i guess

Don't compare yourself to Dirk. Dirk never ran off to join to another team.

tribulations wrote:

oaktownwarriors87 wrote:He sacrificed 10 million to guarantee himself a spot on the greatest team off all time as an investment in his billion dollar brand.

He's smart, not a hero.

this 1000%

why it's not obvious to more people i don't know

It's not at all obvious to me that KD has a "billion dollar brand". Not remotely close. I'm not saying this won't work out in his favor financially, but it is a risk.

So he just admitted Curry, Klay, and Dray are not enough for him to win the championship lmao. He needs Iggy and Livingston. They would have got the same mone and maybe more elsehwere.

Nah, he just wanted his salary to be proportional to the size of his Beta testacles.

League Circles wrote:

tribulations wrote:

oaktownwarriors87 wrote:He sacrificed 10 million to guarantee himself a spot on the greatest team off all time as an investment in his billion dollar brand.

He's smart, not a hero.

this 1000%

why it's not obvious to more people i don't know

It's not at all obvious to me that KD has a "billion dollar brand". Not remotely close. I'm not saying this won't work out in his favor financially, but it is a risk.

i probably quoted a bit too literally.

more just saying success breeds success and everyone wants to know a winner.

won't be any shortage of cheques off the floor, not to mention a bigger playoff purse when your advancing to the big dance every year.

Sent from my SM-G930F using RealGM mobile app

I like Durant. I think it's cool that he took less $$.

From MoneyNation:
""The $120 million Kevin Durant net worth sum owes $109 million to total salary earnings since 2007. Adding $135 million in endorsement money makes career earnings of $244 million. A lifetime tax bill of nearly $100 million and expenses of $24 million cut the figure down to size, while estimated investment income adds back $11 million.
As of 7/4/16, Durant has signed a two year contract with the Golden State Warriors worth $54.3 million. That gives him $26.5 million in 2016-17 and $27.7 million in 2017-18 and makes him one of the highest paid players in the league.""

"Sacrifice"?

Wow, this is the most telling part:

"Why not see the best players? All of them on a few teams. Why not see that? That's what this league is about"

No, that's not what the league is about. He's trying way to hard to justify his decision.

Just embrace it, bro.

League Circles wrote:

tribulations wrote:

oaktownwarriors87 wrote:He sacrificed 10 million to guarantee himself a spot on the greatest team off all time as an investment in his billion dollar brand.

He's smart, not a hero.

this 1000%

why it's not obvious to more people i don't know

It's not at all obvious to me that KD has a "billion dollar brand". Not remotely close. I'm not saying this won't work out in his favor financially, but it is a risk.

186 million in player contracts by 2019
300 million from Nike
Eligible for a 220-250 million dollar contract in 2019

That's potentially 700+ million from NBA contracts and one Nike contract. He has other sources of revenue and more future prospects, and those will all be increased because he plays for the Warriors. He has a billion dollar brand. Shaving off 10 million so he could play in a bigger market on a better team is not a risk.

What a martyr.

League Circles wrote:

tribulations wrote:

oaktownwarriors87 wrote:He sacrificed 10 million to guarantee himself a spot on the greatest team off all time as an investment in his billion dollar brand.

He's smart, not a hero.

this 1000%

why it's not obvious to more people i don't know

It's not at all obvious to me that KD has a "billion dollar brand". Not remotely close. I'm not saying this won't work out in his favor financially, but it is a risk.

It think it's a joke he's basically giving billionaires owners 10's of millions of dollars in tax breaks when they could be footing the bill for this. I do however think it's less of a joke that than someone like David West to walk away from like 10% of his total career earnings to give it to an owner to be a role player after though. No one cares if you are a role player on a championship team. It doesn't matter for his legacy anyway really.

That said you could look at it as an investment for KD who has a brand. If they do win 3 or 4 more championships it will certainly pay what he gave up off for the value of his endorsements and brand.