Kevin Durant: Warriors aren't a 'super team'

After LeBron James said he never played for a "super team" — despite essentially creating the term's definition when he joined the Miami Heat in 2010 alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — now NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant is claiming the Golden State Warriors are not a super team, either.

Really?

The same Warriors team Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder for last offseason as a free agent — eliciting "super team" headlines galore — and the same Warriors team that just handily dismantled James’ Cavaliers in a five-game Finals series. Nope, not a super team in Durant’s eyes.

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To make his point, Durant broke down Golden State’s drafting and trading habits as to how they assembled two-time MVP Steph Curry, and All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, as well as key role players, on the same team as himself.

“First of all, if everybody wanted Steph, he would have been the No. 1 pick (in the 2009 NBA draft)," Durant said at exit interviews in Oakland. "A lot of people passed on him. A lot of people doubted Steph, saying he wasn't going to be this good.

"Klay Thompson, he was just supposed to be this OK shooter in the league, like that's what you thought of Klay Thompson when he came in. Draymond, nobody wanted him. He was a 6-5 power forward. (Skeptics said) he couldn't play in the league, he couldn't start in the NBA.

“Shaun Livingston had a crazy knee injury. Nobody wanted him. Nobody thought that he would get back to being Shaun Livingston. Andre Iguodala, he got traded a couple of times. Nobody wanted him. A lot of people didn't expect these guys to be where they are today. Super team? No, we just work extremely well together. Coach puts us in position to maximize our strengths."

In short, Durant reframed the super team criticism to make the Warriors look like a batch of outcasts and overlooked stars that play extremely well together. To his point, the super team label overshadows Golden State’s selflessness and camaraderie that they showed throughout the 2016-17 title season, to which Durant believes is the key ingredient to their success — as opposed to just star power on paper.

"We make each other better and it's not about who gets the credit," Durant said. "It's like, really just about having fun playing ball and let's see how we can win together and that alone just helps the ego. So, sorry I went on a little rant, but that's how I feel about the team.

"A lot of these guys beat the odds and came out and played a great brand of basketball and put the team first. That should be rewarded, and it did get rewarded with a championship."