Kevin Durant reiterated his trade request in a meeting with the Brooklyn Nets but also issued an ultimatum to the team about his future.
All’s been quiet on the Kevin Durant trade front with the latest intel stating, in essence, that the Rudy Gobert trade threw off the valuation of star players in the NBA trade market and, thus, no one was willing to play the astronomical asking price that the Brooklyn Nets had for their superstar forward.
But just because it’s quiet doesn’t mean it’s going away.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Durant met with Nets owner Joe Tsai and reiterated his desire to be traded. More interestingly, though, he also issued an ultimatum to the team owner that could influence his future and, wildly enough, could even result in him staying in Brooklyn.
Kevin Durant trade rumors: KD tells Nets it’s him or Steve Nash/Sean Marks combo
Per Shams’ report, the meeting over the weekend resulted in Durant telling Tsai that he had to choose between the 34-year-old superstar or the duo of head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks.
Not that anyone capable of reading between the lines needed this given the nature of that ultimatum, the report also stated that Durant is not confident or happy with the direction of the Nets under the current leadership, hence why he wants to be traded if Nash and Marks remain in the fold.
While Durant is oft-criticized for “taking the easy road” in terms of his team movement, this ultimatum is indeed harsh but also somewhat understandable. Brooklyn’s current regime has clearly prioritized bringing in star power as they teamed up Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, but the results were extremely disappointing.
Now there is dysfunction, Ben Simmons has been swapped for Harden, and the questions about whether this could work remains in neon lights above the Barclays Center.
Thus, it’s hard to wholly shade Durant for wanting out of a situation he simply doesn’t believe in — though, maybe that should’ve been considered when he signed a four-year extension with the Nets. Regardless, this situation in Brooklyn just gets messier and messier by the day and will surely have an unceremonious ending, whether that’s Durant or the Nash/Marks combo being gone from the organization.