OAKLAND, Calif. (Diya TV) — On Wednesday night, NBA star Kevin Durant joined Bill Simmons on HBO’s Any Given Wednesday to discuss life after his controversial decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the heavyweight Golden State Warriors.

Durant admits that the fallout affected him more than he let on:

“It did (hurt). I can’t go in the studio and express myself through words and it be a normal day. So if I were to come out and tweet something or Instagram or, whatever, a video of me disagreeing with a writer — it’s career suicide. Once I made the decision, I knew I had to take it on the chin. I had to keep rolling with the punches. It upsets me. It upset me coming from, you know, people I spent time with. Obviously they were upset…”

“When they called me weak, I think I’m the total opposite. There’s plenty of times I could’ve quit in this lifestyle. There’s plenty of times when I lost I could’ve just said ‘That’s it for me’ and moved on. There’s plenty of times where my neighborhood could’ve kept me down. But I just kept going. So how am I weak when I’m at the top, elite level of my profession and just chose to play for a different team? A lot of people try to tear you down when you make them uncomfortable or make a decision that makes them uncomfortable. Or makes them upset…”

“No one cares about what I want as a person. It was all about what I do on the basketball court. No one cares if I like going fishing on Tuesdays or like taking pictures in the street. No one cares as long as I can shoot the ball into the hoop. Why should I care what they think if they don’t care about me as a whole?”

Including what Durant thinks his relationship with Russell Westbrook is and will be:

“I don’t care about you that much to try to want to hate you … I hear all the time that ‘Michael (Jordan) hated such and such, Isiah (Thomas) hated such and such.’ I’m not thinking about you at home when I’m on my couch for me to hate you that much. That’s just not who I am.”

I’m not going out and meeting Russell by his car. He’s not going to want to fight me. I don’t care about all that.”