NBA Draft and Moves..:Durant a Warrior!

O.J. Mayo kicked out of NBA for use of hard drugs

O.J. Mayo has been kicked out of the NBA and cannot return for two years, barring appeal, after failing a drug test, the NBA announced Friday.

The free agent guard, who spent the last three seasons with the Bucks, must have tested positive for a “drug of abuse,” according to the NBA’s Anti-Drug Policy. Those drugs are listed as “amphetamine and its analogs (including, but not limited to, methamphetamine and MDMA), cocaine, LSD, opiates (heroin, codeine and morphine), and PCP.”



No other form of drug use warrants a player being kicked out of the league as a first penalty:

(1) Drugs of Abuse: If a player tests positive for a Drug of Abuse during Random Testing or Reasonable Cause Testing, he will be dismissed and disqualified from the NBA. A player will also be dismissed and disqualified from the NBA if he is convicted of, or pleads guilty, no contest or nolo contendre to, a crime involving the use or possession of a Drug of Abuse.

Chris "Birdman" Andersen was the last player to face the NBA's toughest drug-related penalty, 10 years ago.

Mayo, 28, has seen his performance decline on a steady basis over his eight NBA seasons. He was drafted third overall in 2008 by the Timberwolves, then promptly traded to the Grizzlies in a deal that focused on Mayo and No. 5 overall pick Kevin Love.

Mayo has seen his scoring average drop from 18.5 points a game as a rookie in 2008-09 to 15.3 in a career revival season in 2012-13 with the Mavericks to 7.8 last year with the Bucks. He was not expected to be brought back by the team after shooting 37.1 percent from the field.


Mayo's season — and, for now, his NBA career — ended on a broken ankle in March. The Bucks' release said, "Mayo accidentally tripped descending his stairs at home."

Durant announces he will join Warriors

Kevin Durant decided his best chance for ''growth'' means leaving his beloved Oklahoma City behind for a big move out West to join the Golden State Warriors to play alongside Splash Brothers Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

In the most anticipated move of the NBA offseason, Durant announced his decision Monday on The Players' Tribune. His deal can become official Thursday, when free agents can sign their new contracts.

Independence Day, indeed.

''The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player - as that has always steered me in the right direction,'' Durant said in the article. ''But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors.''

And the 2015 champion Warriors, who squandered a 3-1 NBA Finals lead to lose to LeBron James and the Cavaliers last month, know how tough Durant is in any lineup: They rallied from down 3-1 to beat Durant and the Thunder in a seven-game Western Conference Finals.

Golden State applied a full-court press to land Durant. On Friday in the Hamptons, the Warriors sent owner Joe Lacob, general manager Bob Myers, coach of the year Steve Kerr, Curry and Thompson to meet with the 6-foot-9 superstar.

The 2014 MVP and four-time scoring champion led the Thunder to the NBA Finals in 2012, and to the Western Conference finals in four of the past six years - and he's only 27. He recovered from a broken bone in his right foot that cost him much of last season to post one of the best years of his career.

Durant met with the Thunder, Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat once teams could begin negotiating with free agents.

''I'm from Washington, D.C. originally, but Oklahoma City truly raised me. It taught me so much about family as well as what it means to be a man,'' Durant said. ''There are no words to express what the organization and the community mean to me, and what they will represent in my life and in my heart forever. The memories and friendships are something that go far beyond the game. Those invaluable relationships are what made this deliberation so challenging.

''It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career.''

He should be a good fit in Golden State's varying lineups and gives All-Star Draymond Green another physical body and rebounding presence.

The Warriors topped the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' mark and set the NBA regular-season wins record with 73 victories and led the league in scoring.

The Warriors have been one of the league's deepest teams, and look to be that way again.

Durant has been a difficult opponent for the Warriors -- he averaged 30 points per game against them in this year's Western Conference finals and dropped a career-high 54 points on them in 2014.

Adding Durant will give the Warriors another chance to chase a title after the bitter feeling that was this season - a record-setting year that ended without the team's biggest goal being reached. Durant has had to carry much of the scoring load for the Thunder over the years, but having Curry, Green and Thompson on the floor with him should open up space he hasn't had during his tenure in Oklahoma City.

But the Warriors will have to move players to make room for Durant.

They will have to make a decision on the future of restricted free agent Harrison Barnes. Center Andrew Bogut, meanwhile, removed all references to the Warriors from his Twitter page and is expected to be traded to clear room for Durant. His Twitter page now features a photo of the 7-footer in an Australia jersey.

Losing Durant to a top rival will sting for the Thunder.

''Kevin's contributions to our organization during his nine years were profound, on and off the court,'' Thunder Chairman Clayton I. Bennett said in a statement. ''He helped the Thunder grow and succeed in immeasurable ways and impacted the community just the same.

''We thank him for his leadership, his play, and how he represented Oklahoma City and the entire state of Oklahoma.''

Free agency has been fast and furious

The math is staggering, as everyone knew it would be. In the first 96 hours of free agency, NBA teams committed about $3 billion toward contracts that can start becoming finalized later this week.

That's almost $9,000 a second. Every second. For four days.

And for all the dominoes that fell between July 1 and July 4 - Kevin Durant leaving Oklahoma City for Golden State, Al Horford leaving Atlanta for Boston, Mike Conley staying in Memphis with what would be the richest contract in NBA history - there are still plenty of fireworks remaining, most notably what will LeBron James do with his next deal and if Dwyane Wade will stay in Miami or wear another team's uniform for the first time in his pro career.

As expected, the unexpected has reigned so far.

''The NBA and other businesses, they're not created equally,'' Thunder general manager Sam Presti said Monday, a few hours after Durant announced that he was taking a two-year deal with Golden State that would be worth $54 million if he plays it out. There is a player option for the second season, the AP was told by a person familiar with the terms.

Presti could have said those words last summer and they still would have been accurate, though not as accurate as right now.

The league's about-to-kick-in $24 billion television contract sparked a jump in the salary cap from $70 million last season to just over $94.1 million for the coming year, and that enormous increase created a market that was unpredictable to say the least.

Conley's deal will be worth $153 million over five years. Joakim Noah is a two-time All-Star, a former All-NBA first-team player and a former defensive player of the year; he got four years and $72 million from the New York Knicks. That's basically the same deal that Kent Bazemore - a career 6.4-point-per-game scorer - got to stay with the Atlanta Hawks.

If looking for rhyme and reason to these deals, good luck.

''Given the spike in the cap and given the amount of money that's in the system, free agency is going to move faster this year,'' Presti said.

It sure has.

Hassan Whiteside made about $980,000 last year in Miami; he'll sign a contract this week that will call for him to make $98 million over the next four seasons. And that might not even be the league's biggest right-place, right-time success story right now - with that distinction likely going to Whiteside's probably-soon-to-be-former teammate in Miami, guard Tyler Johnson.

A year ago at this time, Johnson went home from the Orlando summer league with a broken jaw and a partially guaranteed contract that left him with a most uncertain future. On Thursday, he'll sign an offer sheet with the Brooklyn Nets that will assure him of making $50 million over the next four years and finally allow his mother to retire.

Master Sgt. Jennifer Johnson of the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing has shed a few tears in the last couple days. So has her son, undrafted two years ago out of Fresno State and who went from the D-League to the Heat to $50 million (and Miami is almost certainly going to be unable to match the deal). When he got the numbers, Tyler Johnson was actually overcome by nausea.

''It's so surreal to me,'' Jennifer Johnson said in a telephone interview Monday night. ''It hasn't registered. It definitely hasn't registered. ... I definitely thought he had the potential to increase his salary, but I never thought he would have multiple teams looking at him like they did. We love the Heat, we love the coaches, we love Pat Riley, we love everyone. It's tough but it's very exciting.''

Durant's departure for Golden State has been the major development so far, and it's tough to see anything topping that one - no matter what James or Wade decide to do. For all the billions spent elsewhere, the $26 million or so that Durant will make next year figures to make a Warriors team that won a record 73 games this past regular season even more daunting.

Going forward, Wade will probably be the biggest name whose destination for next season remains unclear.

He has a $40 million, two-year offer from Miami, though he hasn't accepted it - which indicates that he won't. There's dozens of other deals leaguewide to be made, and there's plenty of eyes on San Antonio to see if five-time champion Tim Duncan will retire. Many expect he will.

''This has been by far the most challenging few weeks in my professional life,'' Durant wrote on Players' Tribune, in announcing his move to Golden State. ''I understood cognitively that I was facing a crossroads in my evolution as a player and as a man, and that it came with exceptionally difficult choices.''

At $9,000 a second, teams have been making some difficult choices as well.