By Brandon Simmons
If the Brooklyn Nets want to keep All Star forward Kevin Durant then they will have to prove it but it could cost them. The Athletic’s Shams Charnia broke a report on Twitter that the 7 foot phenom gave Brooklyn a choice: either keep him or get rid of General Manager Sean Marks and Head Coach Steve Nash.
According to Fox Sports, this news comes in the wake of Durant requesting a trade on June 30th, right after Nets guard Kyrie Irving – who is embroiled in his own trade speculation – opted into his player option for the upcoming season. This will be Durant’s first season of a 4 year $194 million contract extension he signed last summer.
Despite the 2nd huge payday he received from Brooklyn, all money apparently isn’t good money. After leaving the Golden State Warriors, he signed with the Nets in 2019 for 4 years, $164 million. He missed the first season of the contract because of an achilles injury he suffered with Golden State during their Finals loss against the Toronto Raptors. Once healed, Durant linked up with Irving to lead the Nets to the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks, alongside James Harden, who the team picked up from the Houston Rockets earlier that season.
However, things never really took off as expected. The Nets lost to the Bucks in a tough 7 game series, which saw injuries to Irving and Harden. The following season, Irving missed several home games due to a citywide vaccine mandate, which did not bode well with his decision to not get vaccinated. It was reported that Harden was frustrated with the handling of this situation by the team and requested a trade of his own. This resulted in a trade that sent him to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for guard Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and Ben Simmons, who had his own frustration with his former team. All of this drama resulted in the Nets taking another early playoff exit, this time getting swept by the Boston Celtics – the 2nd consecutive year the team got beat by eventual Eastern Conference Champions
If these reports hold true, the basketball purists are going to be on Durant’s head – as usual but more deservedly so this time around. Fans were already giving him grief for jumping ship from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Warriors after OKC blew a 3-1 lead to the super-stacked Dubs. But those same fans might be gassed up a little more in this case. It’s hard to argue that Brooklyn has done nothing to build a win-now team. They practically gave away a ton of draft capital to Houston, so they can bring in an elite scorer in Harden, who would have made a solid 3rd option. Brooklyn also brought in veterans Blake Griffin and Lamarcus Aldridge; but it was Griffin and Drummond who had splashes of solid play in the regular season and playoffs. They gave Durant a $100 million contract when he was injured and was not going to be playing in the immediate future. To top it off, they brought in Nash, a coach many people speculated that Durant wanted since they apparently had a relationship from when Nash worked with the Warriors. The key word is “speculate” because calling for someone’s job, that you reportedly wanted, is a little absurd. This isn’t a team that missed out on draft picks or free agents to build a contender; it’s quite the opposite.
Brooklyn did everything short of shining Durant’s shoes and this alleged ultimatum is just a slap in their face. In the wake of the Nets’ playoff loss, many people sounded off on Nash’s future with the team, but this would be an embarrassment to have him lose his job in the wake of this report. However, Brooklyn’s best bet is to cut their ties with Durant and see where all possibilities fall into place after that, including the futures of Nash and Irving.