Mavs' Barnes: It would've been 'a little awkward' if Durant didn't join Warriors

Harrison Barnes knew he was on the way out of town when Kevin Durant announced he was joining the Golden State Warriors.

After the Dubs blew a 3-1 lead in the Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, they informed Barnes of their intention to pursue Durant in free agency. If they didn't get him, they'd bring back the 24-year-old.

Barnes understood the reasoning - KD is one of the best players in the game - but he couldn't help but feel slighted as an "insurance policy" for Golden State. So, he considered the exit interview to be the end of his time in the Bay Area.

Looking back, the swingman thinks it would've made for an uncomfortable situation had the events unfolded differently.

"It would have been a little awkward," Barnes told Tim MacMahon of ESPN. "At a press conference if they would have been like, 'Yeah, we really wanted him to come (back),' no one would really believe that. You know what I'm saying?

"How things went down, like I said, it's a business. It's not something you get emotionally hurt about or anything like that, but when you lose and they say, 'Thank you, we're going to go in a different direction,' you take that and keep it moving."

So he sent farewell texts to the friends he made on the squad over the past four years, and moved on by inking a max deal with the Dallas Mavericks.

He received a standing ovation Wednesday night at Oracle Arena in his first visit as a Mav, and finished with a team-high 25 points to go along with eight boards in his club's 116-95 defeat.

The Olympic gold medalist insists he doesn't feel any bitterness toward his former team, and seems to be thriving in a more prominent role in Dallas. He leads the 2-6 Mavericks in scoring with 22.6 points per game.