The Brooklyn Nets’s owner Joe Tsai sent out a statement through the team’s Twitter account regarding an end to the Kevin Durant situation:
A few weeks ago, I saw many people on twitter dot com whine and complain about how player empowerment has gone entirely too far.
All this scrutiny because Kevin Durant asked for a trade to a contending team.
My view of this might differ from others because I don’t believe Kevin Durant did anything wrong in this situation, and I’m going to tell you why.
Kevin Durant signed a four-year contract extension in August 2021 to stay with the Brooklyn Nets, with the assumption that the team would be a contender for the foreseeable future.
At the time of signing the extension, the team had James Harden and Kyrie Irving under contract, two elite level guards to complement Durant on the wing. The Nets also surrounded the superstar trio with a bevy of adequate role players to make the most of their championship window.
Then, the Kyrie Irving vaccination saga began.
To jog your memory, Kyrie put himself out there by saying that he wasn’t going to get the vaccine because, as he put it, he was standing up for the smaller people in the world who also refused to get it and were living under the tyranny of a vaccine mandate.
This spiraled into the Nets organization deciding that they would forgo using Irving’s services until he either got vaccinated or New York City dropped its vaccine mandate.
To make a long story short, they wouldn’t have Irving as a regular member of the team until the early spring, close to the playoffs.
Irving’s drama put the burden on Durant and Harden to lead the team together with limited support, support that was supposed to be there. Having Irving in the lineup could have allowed James Harden to rehab more effectively at the start of the season, rather than relying on him to play to keep the team in contention.
Like Irving, Harden experienced an injury in the previous season’s Eastern Conference semifinals, one that hindered the star guard through the series and led to their downfall to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Known for his absurd usage rate through his career in Houston, Harden forced a trade to Brooklyn to ease his amount of minutes on the floor, and with Irving out while Harden tried taking it easy, it put more stress on Harden than he ever expected in Brooklyn.
Tensions rose throughout the season internally, and this bled into the media. Harden was sick of his role with the team and tired of the Kyrie situation. As much as he enjoyed playing with KD, it wasn’t enough to keep him with the Nets.
On the day of the trade deadline, the Nets orchestrated a blockbuster trade to ship Harden to division rival Philadelphia for, among other players and picks, Ben Simmons.
An embattled young player, Simmons fought through injuries and in his time with the Sixers, especially in the latter half of his stint there.
After a botched play in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Hawks in the waning minutes of game 7, Simmons became a recluse, refusing to show up to training camp after much fan backlash and intense media scrutiny.
Simmons showed up briefly to training camp before claiming an injury to his back was keeping him from the court in addition to his mental health, further fanning the flames of Sixers fans.
Simmons made no indications of coming back to the Sixers, so he was an easy trade to make for Philly, shipping him off for a guard who new GM Daryl Morey was particularly fond of.
Though somewhat revitalized by being traded to a new team, Simmons’ debut with the team kept getting pushed further and further back. The Nets signed Goran Dragic to help fill in the minutes at point guard that Simmons and Irving were supposed to share together.
Irving eventually returned like he hadn’t lost a step. He was still the same high-volume scorer with dazzling ball-handling skills that couldn’t defend well and passed occasionally.
Simmons wasn’t quite as lucky. As the regular season drew to a close, it seemed that reading a tweet about Simmons receiving an epidural in his back was more often than seeing the Sun.
Simmons never returned in 2022, and we are all still patiently awaiting his return to the game of basketball. Until then, you can catch him on Twitch, which he seems to enjoy more.
With one of his best friends and teammates gone, Durant is left with an aging and oft-injured Irving and an oft-injured Simmons with a supporting cast that doesn’t inspire confidence in their ability to compete with the titans of the East.
Durant is well his right to be angry at the direction of the Nets organization. He is an elite player whose career clock is ticking. He knows that his time to win championships is starting to fade, and he doesn’t want to waste his time on a team not intent on contending.
Some would argue that this is all Durant’s fault, and I wouldn’t deny that. He made the move to fire Kenny Atkinson in favor of Steve Nash. He chose to sign with Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan. He chose to recruit Harden to the team. These were all his choices.
But, I think Durant recognizes that.
In an attempt to extend the olive branch, Durant told the Nets organization that he would stay if they fired GM Sean Marks and HC Steve Nash. Owner Tsai came out not long after and said that wasn’t happening.
With today’s announcement that Durant won’t be moved for the foreseeable future, I wonder what his next steps will be. Will these same talks bubble up again next summer? Will Durant just eat his food and collect his check? It’s all impossible to tell right now.
Kevin Durant has a right to be angry. He re-signed to an organization who promised to keep him in contention, and the odds of that look bleak for his age 34 season. The clock is ticking, and Durant wants out before the buzzer sounds on his career.
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