Kevin Durant didn't meet with Knicks because he didn't want to lead them on

The Warriors forward said the reason for not sitting down with them was simple

The Golden State Warriors are hosting the New York Knicks on Thursday, which means that Kevin Durant was asked why he chose not to meet with the Knicks in The Hamptons when he was a free agent in July. Durant told reporters that his reasoning wasn't particularly complicated, via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:

Even with this proximity and pleas from Carmelo Anthony, Durant said he decided against sitting down with New York's brass for a "simple" reason.

"Uh, because I didn't want to."

...

"I didn't want to lead anybody on," Durant said. "I got a lot of friends in the league. I got calls throughout the summer. But I made the best decision I wanted to make, the best decision for me, I'm happy I'm here. All that stuff is in the past. Melo and I remain great friends. That's what's most important. We didn't let that get in between the friendship."

Kevin Durant had no interest in going to New York. USATSI

It's kind of funny that Durant even has to answer questions like this. When the Toronto Raptors visited Oracle Arena, nobody asked him why he didn't go meet with the team he rooted for as a child. There was never a point in the process where New York made much sense for Durant, and there were never any reports that he was considering going there. The Knicks won 32 games last season, and Durant was only talking to teams that gave him a chance to win a championship.

If you had the opportunity to play with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala -- or Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, for that matter -- why would you instead decide to team up with Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose? I can't think of any reason, aside from simply wanting to be in the biggest market possible.

"We had multiple conversations just about New York, the Knicks, him," Anthony said, via Marc Berman of the New York Post. "As far as where his mindset was at, I don't think nobody knew. There were multiple conversations and dialogues between us, whether it was coming to New York and the city of New York and basketball."

It's fun to imagine what those "multiple conversations" were like. How many times was the word "triangle" uttered? How much of Anthony's pitch was just him yelling about how good Kristaps Porzingis is going to be? Now these are questions we need answered.