Kevin Durant OAKLAND, CA – OCTOBER 04: Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors claps his hands during their preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers at ORACLE Arena on October 4, 2016 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Would Kevin Durant be a Golden State Warrior had the Warriors won the NBA title last season, completing a back-to-back championship reign? Not likely, Durant claims.

It is not uncommon for pro athletes to sign deals with teams that give them a chance to win a ring. Durant did just that this past offseason by leaving Oklahoma City behind to join the Warriors. Already one of the NBA’s best teams on the court, Durant was seen as a missing ingredient that could put Golden State back on top after blowing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers last summer. Durant saw the Warriors falling shy of finishing the job as a sign, or perhaps a calling.

In a feature story in Rolling Stone, Durant could not help but wonder “what if?”

Some part of Durant knew he’d already punched his ticket. “It felt like that whole thing was set up for me to leave,” he says, “especially after they blew a lead in the finals, because I damn sure wasn’t going there if they’d won. But after Game Seven, I called up my agent and said, ‘Damn, dude, Golden State – what if?’ “

It is interesting that Durant would say so definitively he would not have gone to Golden State had the Warriors won a fourth game against the Cavs. Maybe it’s an element of pride, where going to a team that just a second straight NBA title comes off even more as Durant looking like a ring-chaser. Now, at least to some, he can be part of a winning formula that was not already in place.

The divorce with the Thunder has left some bitter feelings, which also happens any time a star leaves a franchise behind for a better opportunity to win. If you thought Durant and Russell Westbrook were best buds that would be inseparable, that was clearly disproven this summer with Durant heading to the west coast.

Durant also suggested he and Westbrook were not quite as tight as you may have been led to believe in the past.

As close as people presumed he and Westbrook had been, they were never much more than work friends, he says. “We had our own cliques that we hung with on the road. Russell had his guys, I had mine. It was never a bad thing. Just how it was.” For the guy who’d grown up friendless through grade school and preps, the pull of those stars and their shared affection must have felt like a welcome banner. All his life, he’d been walking alone, a party of one in the desert. Now, at last, his tribe called out to him. Who among us could have said no?

This is just the beginning, in all likelihood. As the season gets underway and games between Durant and his old team come up, this storyline will be profiled as often as needed. It presents great theater and drama, and that is good for the NBA.

[SB Nation, Rolling Stone]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.