Will Kevin Durant Leave Warriors? NBA Finals MVP Says Spat with Draymond Green Won't Impact His Free Agency Decision

Kevin Durant has claimed his well-publicized altercation with Draymond Green won't have any impact on any decisions regarding his future.

The defending NBA Finals MVP signed a new two-year deal with the Warriors in the summer but has a player option for the 2019-20 season, which he is expected to decline in favor of testing free agency.

However, he insisted the spat with Green will "not factor" in his decision.

"At the end of the day, I'm just a ballplayer that's just trying to be in a great environment to play basketball and groom my skills every day," Durant was quoted as saying by Yahoo! Sports.

"And I want to compete on a level that once the game starts, I'm just totally comfortable with my surroundings, with just going out there and being me."

Last week, Durant and Green were involved in a heated exchange on the bench during a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers before the argument spilled into the locker room.

Green was suspended without pay for one game as a result of the incident in which he reportedly told Durant he was free to leave the franchise this summer as Golden State had already won a title before he joined in 2016.

While the Warriors aren't the first team to be rocked by an internal spat, their situation is potentially made a lot more complicated by the fact Durant's free agency is looming large.

The Warriors are obviously desperate to keep Durant in California as they seek a third NBA title in a row and hope to move into their new arena in San Francisco next season with their superteam intact.

At the same time, Durant has made clear he wants to get paid after sacrificing financially since joining the Warriors in 2016.

Initially he signed a two-year deal worth $54.3 million with Golden State, before penning another new two-year deal worth $53 million in 2017. Durant could have signed a more lucrative deal but left $10 million on the table to help the Warriors keep Andre Iguodala, and this summer signed a one-and-done deal worth $30 million.

The two-time NBA champion, however, suggested he was ready to move on and put the incident behind him.

"I know that I've got to make a choice with myself, like how long are you going to be upset about this to the point where you're going to let it affect what you do on the floor or how you approach the game?," he added.

"Once it gets there now, I got to make a grown-man decision and tell myself, 'Look, man, no matter what, you still got to come to work every single day. It's going to work out. It's going to figure itself out.' And I think everyone's been handling it the best way they could, and we're just trying to move forward with it."

The Warriors have won just one of their four games since the altercation between Green and Durant and have lost the last three straight games on their road trip to Texas. The defending NBA champions sit third in the Western Conference with a 12-6 record behind the Portland Trail Blazers and the Memphis Grizzlies.