Wanda Durant On If Kevin Durant Stayed With The Warriors: "We Would've Had 20 Rings By Now"

Wanda Durant, Kevin Durant's mom, was the latest guest on the Raising Fame show, co-hosted by Sonya Curry, Stephen Curry's mom, and Lucille O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal's mom. During the episode, Wanda spoke on Kevin's departure from the Golden State Warriors to Sonya and admitted they'd have had 20 rings if he never left.

"I didn't really want him to go... We would've had 20 rings by now," Wanda said. "And it was about 10 years ago. That's how cold they were."

While I am not sure about 20 rings, they certainly would have had a lot more than they have now if Durant never left. He joined the Warriors in 2016 and success came instantaneously.

The Warriors finished with a 67-15 record in the regular season in 2016-17 and then set a new NBA postseason record by going 16-1 in the playoffs to win the title. Another championship followed in 2018 and a three-peat looked very much on the cards, but the injury bug then struck.

Durant tore his Achilles in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors while Klay Thompson tore his ACL in Game 6. If the two stars were healthy, the Warriors would have become the first team to three-peat since the Los Angeles Lakers (2000 to 2002).

Durant then left for the Brooklyn Nets in the offseason to bring an end to one of the most dominant eras in NBA history, albeit a short one. Had he not left, I think they could have easily won another two or three titles.

Durant missed the entire 2019-20 season due to injury and Curry missed much of the campaign too, so the Warriors wouldn't have won that one. You could make a case that they would have won the next four, though, as Curry and Durant remain two of the best players in the NBA to this day.

I sure am glad that things didn't turn out this way. We haven't had a team repeat as champions since the Warriors did it in 2017 and 2018, and I quite like the fact that it isn't a foregone conclusion anymore on who's going to win the title.

Related: Kevin Durant Denies Regretting Joining Kyrie Irving And The Nets After Leaving The Warriors: "I Don't Regret Anything I Do."

J.R. Smith Said Everyone Was Playing For Second Place After Kevin Durant Joined The Warriors

Durant and the Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2017 and 2018 Finals and J.R. Smith was part of those teams. Smith admitted everyone in the league was playing for second place after Durant joined the Warriors.

"I think the whole league did. People thought it was going to be bad when CP (Chris Paul) went to the Lakers with Kobe (Bryant) and Pau (Gasol). When that happened, everybody was pretty much playing for second [place]. Don’t get me wrong, in the heat of the battle, we’re thinking, we have a chance, and we can win, but at the same time, it’s like, 'What the hell are we supposed to do?' You’ve got three Hall of Famers, legit. What are you going to do?"

I would have had the same question if I was playing in the league. What are you supposed to do against this juggernaut?

To the Houston Rockets' credit, they were the team that came closest to toppling the Warriors during that run (when healthy), as they took them to seven games in the 2018 Western Conference Finals. If Chris Paul hadn't injured his hamstring in Game 5, the Rockets might well have won and that would have been an incredible accomplishment.

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