A brief history of C.J. McCollum’s disgust for the Warriors and their superstar signings

McCollum has had enough of Golden State poaching the league’s best talent: “I’m not built like those guys. I was raised differently.”

C.J. McCollum is not a fan of the Golden State Warriors. He’s not a fan of the fact that they signed Kevin Durant after losing in the 2016 NBA Finals, and he’s certainly not a fan of their move to sign DeMarcus Cousins this summer after winning back-to-back NBA championships. He’s probably not a fan of the fact that they’ve eliminated his Trail Blazers from the playoffs multiple times in recent history, either.

Portland’s star is so against Golden State’s recent monopoly over All-Star talent that he’s been on what seems to be a summer-long smear campaign, bashing Durant, Cousins and the Dubs every chance he’s had.

He’s basically saying what many non-Warriors fans have been feeling all this time, and here’s how it all started

“Don’t worry about what goes on at the top of things.”

The CJ-KD beef started when Kevin Durant started roasting McCollum and the Trail Blazers on C.J.’s own podcast. Durant giggled all throughout the show, while shooting down any notion that Portland either had a chance at landing DeMarcus Cousins in free agency or belong in the conversation with the top teams in the Western Conference.

The podcast is a hilarious listen, but if that isn’t possible, it’s transcribed below, with the major punching points in bold:

CJ McCollum: You know how I felt, bro, I was hot. I don’t know if I was more mad [when you signed or when DeMarcus Cousins signed].

Kevin Durant: Why are you mad about this stuff?

CJ: What do you mean why am I mad? I’m in the Western Conference. I gotta play you MF-ers all the time as it is, over and over again. We done got eliminated by y’all a couple times in the first round.

KD: I mean, you know you’re not... You know you guys aren’t gonna win a championship.
CJ: Bruh, we have the team. We have the capabilities. Anything is possible.

KD: I mean, let’s be honest. Y’all need more. I mean, I like y’all two [McCollum and Damian Lillard]. Y’all are hard to stop. But, I mean, come on. You can’t be upset about this!

CJ: I can be upset because [Cousins] was a free agent, which means he could have — this is why I was also upset — he could have come to Portland. His agent and [Blazers starting center Jusuf Nurkic] have the same agent. So I’m thinking, ‘OK, you ain’t gonna come to us. Whatever.’ Why you gotta go there, Cuz? And I texted him. I was mad, I got on Twitter. And I really texted him.

KD: Yo get out your feelings.

CJ: I texted him, like, ‘Cuz, what’s up? Why did this happen?’

KD: You’re the first person I’ve seen who said that. I was crying on Twitter when I seen that.

CJ: Nah he thought I was playing. I for real texted Cuz. We hashed it out. I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to know why [he went to the Warriors].

KD: You wanted him to come to Portland?

CJ: Bruh I think that anything is possible. I’m just saying, man, you tryna get me in trouble. I’m happy with Nurk. Nurk’s a great big man for us. Nurk’s playing well.

KD: I mean you did just say on the airwaves that Cousins should have came to Portland. So you ain’t want Nurk?

CJ: Of course I wanted Nurk. We coulda had both of em.

KD: Y’all not getting both.

CJ: Y’all only paid him $5 million. We had $12-15 million.

KD: No way that’s happening. It’s gotta be a nice yin and yang, bro. It’s gonna be too much of one thing with y’all. We’d stop that.

CJ: So what do you suggest?

KD: I suggest you just keep playing, man, and don’t worry about what goes on at the top of things.

CJ: We right there at the top of things. We were the 3rd seed!

KD: Relax.

CJ: We were right there, just slightly below No. 1 an No. 2.

KD: How’d you play?

CJ: Some unfortunate situations happened in the first round?

KD: How’d you play?

CJ: Some unfortunate circumstances happened.

KD: Like a 8th seed.

My God.

“He know that decision was soft.”

Later on the same day as the podcast episode went viral, McCollum responded to a tweet that asked for permission to begin calling Durant “the B word again.” McCollum declined to use that word and said he respected KD’s decision to join the Warriors after they eliminated his Thunder from the 2016 Western Conference Finals despite a 3-1 series deficit, but he also said “he know the decision was soft.”

He also likened it to “getting jumped with your brothers by a gang you should have beat, then joining the gang that jumped u and ur brothers 2 months later & forgetting about your bros.”

Durant disagreed with McCollum’s analogy, then called him a snake with a laughing emoji at the end of his tweet.

McCollum later said there is no beef between he and Durant.

“I’m not built like those guys. I was raised differently.”

The next month, while on tour in China, McCollum made an appearance on CCTV, and when asked star players like Durant and Cousins joining the championship Warriors, he kept the same energy he had while KD was a guest on his own podcast.

McCollum even took it a step further, calling the trend “disgusting.”

“I would never do anything of that nature,” he said of star players joining the Warriors. “That’s disgusting. I’m not built like those guys. I was raised differently.”

Asked if this trend is the future of the NBA, McCollum said:

“No. I think some players will take that route, but most guys have too much pride, want to win on their own or in their certain organizations that aren’t just gonna jump the bandwagon.”

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You can agree or disagree with McCollum’s stance on the Warriors and talent, but he and Durant make for one fun rivalry. The Trail Blazers and Warriors have to play each other four times this season, the first being a Nov. 23 matchup in Oakland.

Both teams are probably looking forward to that matchup.