Kevin Durant immediately turned the Golden State Warriors into perhaps the most talented team in NBA history when he signed with them in free agency. However, his decision apparently came without a promise to re-sign with Golden State after his one-year deal (with a player option for a second year) expires.
Team president Rick Welts told CBS Sports Radio's Tiki and Tierney that they don't have a long-term commitment from him:
"Well, I think we had hope [of signing Durant]," Welts said. "We, like every other team, probably didn't think it was going to happen, and I can assure you we had no indication it was going to happen until the phone rang at 7:30 in the morning in Bob Myers' cabin on Lake Tahoe and Kevin called to give us his decision. I think there was a lot of screaming and yelling going on in the Myers' cabin at that point in time.
"There's no commitment from Kevin. He signed a one-year contract with a player option. So I think the hope and expectation is there's a business reason for doing that more than there is a basketball reason for doing that. We've got to be a place that is as good as he thought it was when he selected the Warriors over the other options that he had. I think we're going through a really interesting time in our league. We're all trying to figure out what the new world is going to look like."
Durant signed the shorter contract to take advantage of the rising salary cap next offseason to maximize his earnings, but it could create some unwanted worries for the Warriors.
That being said, Durant wouldn't have made the jump from Oklahoma City to Golden State if he didn't plan on staying there for a long-term contract. However, the contract does technically give him the ability to leave after one year if something goes wrong.
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