“I love that dude” - Steph Curry was interested in a KD return

Steph Curry is on the cover of Rolling Stone, and while he talked about activism, philanthropy, and mental health, the important questions were about, of course, Kevin Durant

Steph Curry is the subject of a cover story in the new issue of Rolling Stone. has become the second member of the Golden State Warriors to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, following in the footsteps of Kevin Durant in 2016. Steph is also only the fifth NBA player with his own cover in the entire history of the magazine,

There just haven’t been a ton of basketball players on the Rolling Stone cover. Before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared with Cheech and Chong in 1978, there hadn’t been a single NBA player - even though there’d already been two covers devoted to Doonesbury.

Then it was 15 more years before Shaquille O’Neal graced the cover in November of 1993. Dennis Rodman made it in December of 1996, Michael Jordan was part of a montage of over a hundred people on a 2006 cover (barely counts), and other than that, the only famous basketball player on an RS cover in the 2000s was Barack Obama. And did Obama ever host the ESPY’s? We didn’t think so.

Curry gave a wide-ranging interview about his philanthropy and activism, his mental health (Steph sees a therapist because “You can’t think you’re Superman just ‘cause you can go 24/7/365”), and of course, Kevin Durant. Rolling Stone is just like Twitter - they can’t help talking about Steph and KD every day. The baby-faced assassin confirmed that, yes, the Warriors did discuss adding Durant after he asked the Nets for a trade this summer.

I was never hesitant. The idea of playing with KD and knowing who he is as a person, from our history in those three years, I think KD’s a really good dude. I think he is misunderstood. I think he has had certain things happen in his life that hurt his ability to trust people around him, in a sense of making him feel safe at all times. So all of those things, I understand, having played with him and gotten to know him. I love that dude

While he supports the team and insists, “If we run this thing back, I’ve got complete confidence in my team that we can win it again, as constructed,” Curry said his reaction to a Durant return would be an emphatic “Hell yeah!”

If anyone’s saying you wouldn’t entertain that conversation - no disrespect to anyone on our team - but you don’t know how things work.

There’s a few takeaways from Steph’s quotes. First, the Warriors are very confident in their team culture, because they don’t seem worried about players feeling resentful about getting shopped. Maybe it’s not really disrespectful if the rumored move is for Kevin Freaking Durant, but it really seems like the organization assumes everyone will act like a professional. In the same manner, they don’t seem concerned about having three players - Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins, and Jordan Poole - being in a contract year in 2022-23, and all theoretically able to test free agency.

Next is that there are probably 100 rumored trades for every one that actually happens. Trades are hard! You have to have two general managers agree on terms, which really means you have to have two owners sign off, as well as likely a majority of a team’s front office. And they’re risky! No one on ESPN is giving out letter grades for trades that didn’t happen. That’s why trades usually happen when there is some kind of time pressure involved - it’s an hour before the trade deadline, it’s draft night, the lockout just ended and the shooting guard who choked your head coach is coming back, etc. That wasn’t the case with Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets, especially with Durant signed through 2026.

Last, it seems pretty clear that the Nets really didn’t want to trade Kevin Durant. KD requested a trade, he made some comments on social media (what else is new?), and he demanded that the coach and GM get fired. None of that seemed to sway Brooklyn, who reportedly weren’t interested in rebuilding around Wiggins, Poole, and Ben Simmons.

Steph also gave his thoughts on Donald Trump, who famously disinvited the Warriors to the White House after a title, before they could boycott the trip themselves. Curry said Trump’s rhetoric “has a tone of divisiveness that doesn’t have a place in our country.” And as for President Obama, who called Steph after the Warriors took out the Celtics in the Finals, Curry claims he said, “What the F-CK are they gonna say now?!”

Go read the whole thing because the piece contains a lot of Curry’s thoughts, both on gun control and abortion, neither of which involve Kevin Durant. Plus, every click increases the chance that we’ll get something truly interesting - the Draymond Green cover story.