Kevin Durant didn’t create any drama this summer.

Despite the fact that he was an unrestricted free agent, he was going to return to the Golden State Warriors, no matter what, and he made that clear.

After enjoying a dominant ride to his first NBA title, the Finals MVP made a financial sacrifice, inking a two-year, $51.25 million deal with Golden State, well short of the max deal that he would received on any other team.

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As a result, the team was able to re-sign Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry to appropriate deals, which kept the entire core of last year’s squad together for a potential repeat in 2017-2018. As a result of his deal, the team was also able to sign sharpshooter Nick Young, adding yet another long-range threat to their unstoppable offense. 

When asked by Anthony Slater of The Athletic how he came to the conclusion of exactly what to sign for, Durant responded with the following:

“Well, I'm a smart guy and I want to keep this thing going and looking at Andre and Shaun (Livingston) and Steph (Curry) — they all should make the most money that they can make and get what they deserve. Because they were all underpaid and I knew at some point they'd want to get what they deserve. So I just took a step back and let the chips fall where they may. Then I took it in my hands. I wanted to keep the team together and I thought it was going to help the ownership bring all the guys back. And on top of that, it's my money. It's my decision. I can do what the hell I want with it.”

Durant received some criticism for taking less than his market value, but explained that two recent stars did exactly the same thing, which he respected.

“They only (criticized) it because it's the Warriors and it's me and they love to hate anything we do right now. A lot of players have (taken pay-cuts). It wasn't that I wanted the praise. I've learned from Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki and how it has helped them over the years and I thought, if they did it, why can't I? Why shouldn't I sacrifice? People wanted the money to break us up and I didn't want that to happen,” he said.

When Durant signed with the Warriors last summer, it changed the entire NBA. Now, teams are scrambling to create their own “superteams”, pairing All-Star talent together while leaving other teams in the dust. KD thinks that the race to build teams that way is beneficial to the league in both the short run and long run.

“It's a great league and you want to see the best players on the biggest stage. Why not see the best players? All of them on a few teams. Why not see that? That's what this league is about,” Durant noted. “It’s star-driven and it's good to see that the stars dictate how the league is supposed to go. Then the next group of stars will do the same and the same after that. I think that's what we're starting.”

Durant and his Warriors will host the Houston Rockets at the Oracle Arena on October 17th to kick off the upcoming regular season. Largely due to his financial sacrifice, there’s no reason not to label the Warriors as the favorites to defend their title, even with all of the talent that arrived in the Western Conference this summer.