NBA Legend Says Rockets' Kevin Durant Saved Warriors Franchise

Kevin Durant's free agency arrival to the Golden State Warriors in 2016 made it essentially impossible for the Houston Rockets to defeat the Warriors. 

And every other team.

Granted, Houston had been eliminated by Golden State in each of their two postseason appearances but Durant joining the Hall of Fame trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green effectively gave the Warriors a superteam.

The Rockets tried to counter the move the following summer by trading for Chris Paul but the result was the same. The Durant-led Warriors won consecutive championships in his first two seasons with the franchise -- a feat that hasn't been done since they pulled it off in 2018.

The season leading up to Durant's signing, however, had a far different outcome. The Warriors reached the NBA Finals and held a 3-1 lead over the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers and it all came tumbling down shortly thereafter.

James and Kyrie Irving went supernova, leading to the Cavs' first title in franchise history. Debates have ensued regarding whether that would've happened were it not for Green's suspension in Game 5, caused by a cheap shot to LeBron James. 

But Green has a history of playing below the belt.

That was completely self-inflicted. 

This was one of the biggest choke jobs in the history of the sport. NBA legend and Hall of Fame floor general Isiah Thomas joined The Draymond Green Show to share how Durant joining Golden State saved their legacy and morphed them from being viewed as the biggest chokers in the sport to being back-to-back champions.

"Before Kevin Durant arrived in Golden State, y’all were on the verge of being remembered as the team that went 73-9 and lost to a Cleveland Cavaliers team in the Finals up 3-1 and probably one of the biggest collapses in NBA Finals history – from a 73-9 historical team.

Kevin Durant comes that summer and really saves y’all basketball legacies, and you win two championships after that. And now the Golden State Warriors dynasty that you’re going to go in the Hall of Fame on and everything else is cemented because if Durant don’t come that summer and you guys are remembered as the 73-9 team that lost 3-1 in the NBA Finals, all of your legacies are different."

Durant won back-to-back Finals MVPs as well.

But the Warriors had already won a title before Durant’s arrival, and they've won another since his departure. So it's hard to agree with Thomas's logic. 

Durant did, however, make them unstoppable. There's no debating that.