During the Golden State Warriors‘ championship run, only one player has been consistently criticized: Kevin Durant. The All-Star forward joined a 73-win Warriors team in 2016. Fans and experts viewed it as a “weak” move. However, Durant didn’t mind the outside noise since it helped him win two NBA championships, as well as two Finals MVP awards.
Stephen Curry, the star guard who was part of the process from the beginning, didn’t get his Finals MVP trophy until 2022. By that time, Durant was already with the Brooklyn Nets. There has been talk that it took a while to win the prestigious award. It was one-time All-Star Andre Iguodala who won the award in 2015, for the defensive work he did against LeBron James.
However, Curry doesn’t seem to care about winning the Finals MVP, as he values championships more. Although he revealed that he had given some thought to winning the award in 2018.
Curry is currently touring in China and got to address the narrative about him not winning the Finals MVP while Durant was on the team. The two-time regular-season MVP also defended his former teammate and said that he deserved the two Finals trophies.
“[In] 2018, I guess I was close, I had a bad Game 3, KD played unbelievable the entire time. It goes into that conversation in the sense of like in that moment if you’re playing for a Finals MVP, you’re probably not going to get it done because you’ll get distracted, and might sabotage yourself a little bit,” Curry said.
Steph Curry says he only cares about winning rings and that Kevin Durant deserved those two Finals MVPs
(h/t @baby_face_goat )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 26, 2025
“I never really thought about it that much, ’18 I got close to thinking about it, but I’d rather have rings, obviously, and the opportunity to go get rings, but KD, two beyond well-deserved Finals MVPs.”
Durant wanted Curry to win the Finals MVP in the Golden State Warriors’ 2018 run
Former Golden State Warriors guard Quinn Cook revealed that Durant wanted Curry to win the Finals MVP in 2018. The star guard was having a great series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the former Texas star outperformed his teammate.
“And to be honest, Kevin wanted Steph to get that Finals MVP the next year so bad,” Cook said.
Against the Cavaliers, Curry averaged 27.5 points, six rebounds and 6.8 assists on 41.5% from deep. Durant, meanwhile, averaged 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2.3 blocks through four games.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
