Kevin Durant wants out of the Brooklyn Nets, and the situation seems to be escalating once again. Durant openly asked Nets Governor Joe Tsai to get rid of Nets GM Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash if he wants him to retract his trade request. Tsai has said he won’t do so and issued a public backing of Marks and Nash on Twitter.
KD made his demands to Tsai in a meeting the pair had recently to try and work out what can happen with Durant’s acrimonious trade request after signing a 4-year contract extension that kicks in this season. KD could have been a free agent or an expiring contract if he held off on signing his extension but is stuck with the Nets while former teammate James Harden is already in Philadelphia and Kyrie Irving is approaching free agency.
NBA Insider Frank Isola described how he thinks Joe Tsai should have dealt with the meeting and the ultimatum issued by KD about Nash and Marks.
"Don't ever come into my office again and make ultimatums about who I should keep and who I should fire"
According to @TheFrankIsola, this is how Kevin Durant's meeting with Joe Tsai should've went pic.twitter.com/fRKL0fPXRC
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) August 9, 2022
“I am gonna say, ‘we will do everything in our power to trade you but only if the deal is right for us. We’re running a business here. We did what you wanted with James Harden, all our draft picks now belong to the Houston Rockets. We cannot just break the whole thing down and start over. We are not even going to benefit from being a bad team. That’s why we went out and got TJ Warren and Royce O’Neal, we are going to get Joe Harris back, we think Ben Simmons will be back and we have Seth Curry, who everyone in the league wants for crying out loud. Your boy Kyrie Irving is still on the team but if you wanna be traded, we will do everything we can. Be prepared to show up to training camp if a deal can’t be found. Is that understood?’ Kevin Durant nods and says, ‘alright, I appreciate everything you’re doing in getting a deal done.’ ‘Also, one last thing, don’t ever come into my office and make ultimatums about who I should keep or who I should fire.”
KD demanding his way out of the Nets by issuing an ultimatum is quite incredible, but Frank Isola is being too hard on KD. No owner would ever talk down to a star player like this, especially a player of Durant’s stature. Regardless, KD’s ultimatum has not been popular around the league.
It seems the meeting between KD and Tsai wasn’t hostile, even though both parties are on complete opposite sides of the fence in terms of commitment to the Brooklyn Nets. It’s in everybody’s best interests to find a deal as it’ll be very awkward for Nash and Marks to deal with a player that openly asked for them to be sacked.
