Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were teammates for four years. Now they’re looking forward to competing against each other in the Western Conference.
It wasn’t long after Kyrie Irving completed his first game in a Dallas Mavericks uniform that Kevin Durant also decided to trade in his Brooklyn Nets colors for some new ones.
Durant is heading to the Pheonix Suns, where he will compete directly with Irving for Western Conference and NBA glory.
Irving found out about the trade during his first-ever postgame press conference with the Mavericks, who beat the Clippers on Wednesday night, 110-104.
“I’m just praying for his happiness and praying for his well-being,” Irving said, going on to express how he and Durant wanted to see each other thrive whether playing together or not. “There was never been one moment where I felt like he’s been angry at me for the decisions I’ve made or I’ve been angry at him…I love the competition now that we can be in the same conference and I welcome all that.”
Irving also hinted at the situation in Brooklyn not being particularly positive.
“I’m glad that he got out of there,” he said.
According to the guard, these dominoes have been waiting to drop for years.
“This was in the works like after Year 1,” Irving said. “I was unsure about whether I wanted to be in Brooklyn long-term again because of things that was happening behind the scenes.”
So now Irving and Durant are both playing for teams that aspire to making it out of the Western Conference to play in the NBA Finals. After being unable to get through the East together, Irving will try to accomplish that feat on the other side of the country with Luka Doncic while Kevin Durant will team up with Devin Booker and Chris Paul. We’ll have to see who gets further.