Celtics' Crowder: Durant choosing Warriors 'a slap in the face'

Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder aren't the only ones who've been left with a salty taste in their mouths after Kevin Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors.

Jae Crowder and the Boston Celtics were apparently equally stung by the decision. The Celtics, one of four other teams Durant powwowed with before settling on his new NBA home, were apparently a little overeager in their pitch meeting, divulging their entire strategy for beating the team Durant ultimately joined.

"We were the only team in the NBA to beat (Cleveland and Golden State) on their home court - the only team in the NBA, the Boston Celtics," Crowder told reporters Thursday, according to MassLive's Tom Westerholm. "We told him that. We played him clips from both games and told him basically the scouting report of how we guarded Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) - our entire game plan, basically. That's what made me mad. We f---ing told him everything we do to beat these guys, and we beat them, and he went and joined them."

Crowder acknowledged that part of the fault lies with the Celtics for giving too much away, but he never expected it to matter because he never expected Durant to end up in the Bay.

"I felt like afterward, I was talking to Isaiah (Thomas), like maybe after you sit back, you shouldn't have told him everything," Crowder said. "But who the f--- thought he was going to Golden State, realistically? It was like a slap in the face for us, basically."

Crowder, who was speaking as part of the "60 Days of Summer" program at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, also railed against the rise of the NBA superteam, and said Golden State has painted a target on its back.

"That team is for sure the villain of the league," he said. "Every other NBA guy, friends of mine, are really disgusted from how the league is turning on that standpoint. Everybody is joining together, everybody wants to go to Golden State or Cleveland."

Durant and Crowder play the same position - though Durant's a few inches taller and perhaps a more natural power forward - so it says a lot that Crowder was so miffed by the snub, given that Durant would likely have taken some of his minutes and reduced his role. But the 26-year-old swingman made it clear that he's primarily concerned with the Celtics' ability to compete for a championship, which - even with the offseason addition of All-Star center Al Horford - he feels they're a couple roster upgrades away from doing.

"I just text (Celtics president Danny Ainge), trying to see where everything is going," he said. "After (Durant's decision), I just asked like, 'Well, what's the direction now?' And he said, 'We're still trying to make moves.' So that means we're still active. And we still have a lot of assets, we still have a lot of young players. So we gotta figure it out. We can be as aggressive as we want to. But I do feel like we're one or two pieces away still."

Despite his ire, Crowder still showed a healthy deference toward Durant, citing him as the league's toughest player to defend.

"Yeah," Crowder reportedly said when those in attendance booed at the suggestion. "I'm with you guys."