Kevin Durant is ready to start a new chapter in his career with the Brooklyn Nets after a bittersweet stint with the Golden State Warriors, where he played from 2016 through 2019, winning two championships in three NBA Finals. After a lot of speculation regarding his future, Durant announced he was leaving the Bay to go to the East Coast and join the Nets and team up with Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.
This season Durant didn’t play due to a ruptured Achilles tendon but that didn’t stop plenty of teams to show interest in the forward. Ahead of the 2019 NBA free agency, KD was linked with several teams, including the New York Knicks. However, the player made it clear he didn’t want to go to the Garden and be the savior of the team or the city.
Talking with JJ Redick on The Old Man and the Three podcast, Durant explained the Knicks didn’t have a chance to land him since February of 2019.
“I didn’t want to be the savior of the Knicks or New York,” he said. “I didn’t care about being the king of New York. That never really moved me. I didn’t care about being on Broadway. I just wanted to play ball and go to the crib and chill. And that’s what Brooklyn embodied.”
“There’s no show when you come to our games,” Durant added. “No Madison Square mecca, all of that s–t. We just gonna hoop and build something new in Brooklyn.”
If the Knicks fans thought they had a chance to sign KD, now they know they didn’t. They had big plans for the offseason with some fans dreaming about Durant, Kyrie Irving and Zion Williamson playing together. Instead, KD and Kyrie went to Brooklyn and Zion was drafted by the New Orleans Pelicans.
KD didn’t want to be the King of New York and nobody can blame him. Who would want to be part of that hot mess that the Knicks are right now?
