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When the Golden State Warriors were considering a trade for Kevin Durant ahead of the trade deadline, Stephen Curry spoke directly to his former teammate to gauge how he felt about leaving the Phoenix Suns for a reunion. Sources told ESPN that Durant indicated to Curry that a return to the Warriors didn’t “feel right,” that it “wasn’t the time.”

“You need everybody to be all bought in no matter what the history you have,” Curry told ESPN about his talk with Durant. “And I respect KD. It’s all about having peace of mind and happiness.

“Neither one of us controlled that [trade] situation. It’s just you want to make sure somebody wants to be somewhere. Other than that, I’m not trying to convince anybody to be somewhere they don’t want to be.”

Curry said he has “no hard feelings, no resentment” at all.

“I don’t blame Kevin one bit for not wanting to rerun things here,” Steve Kerr told ESPN. “He took so much s— for like, ‘Oh, you’re jumping on the bandwagon’ [when he signed with Golden State as a free agent in 2016]. And then he’s Finals MVP two years in a row. It’s like he still gets criticized.

“So why would he want to face all that B.S. again?”

The Warriors believe they had an agreement in place with the Phoenix Suns to acquire Durant if he would have given the move his blessing. Golden State ultimately pivoted to a trade with the Miami Heat to acquire Jimmy Butler ahead of the trade deadline.