Kevin Durant and James Harden are reunited in Brooklyn nine years after the Beard left the Oklahoma City Thunder and joined the Houston Rockets in his first trade. Now Harden is apart of the Nets in a blockbuster 4-team trade that solved Harden and the Houston Rockets’ big problem this season.
He’s ready to create a Big 3 with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn but that wasn’t always that clear. The Beard was linked with the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat and even Golden State Warriors after he requested a trade. The Warriors sounded like a very good option for the player and they reportedly inquired about Harden at some point. At that moment, Kevin Durant warned Harden about his former head coach Steve Kerr.
According to Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo of The Ringer, Durant told Harden that he wouldn’t enjoy playing under Kerr.
Via KNBR:
Simmons: “The sleeping giant of this whole Harden sweepstakes was Golden State. And I don’t think they were in it. But if they had decided to get into it …”
Russillo: “I heard he, um … he was not … he and [Kevin] Durant are close, and Durant wanted him to leave (Houston). So I think there was some communication …”
Simmons: “There was some Steve Kerr stuff.”
Russillo: “Yeah, that you might not want to play for him. Which sounds insane that Durant could complain about anything with Golden State, but it sounds like he did.”
Jackie MacMullan: “Well, but the only complaint that Kevin Durant had about Golden State was he wasn’t Steph Curry, and he never was gonna be Steph Curry in that market. And no matter what he did and how many championships they won, Steph Curry was still the guy.”
Simmons: “The KD-Kerr thing definitely fell apart the last year.”
Durant’s issues with Kerr reportedly stemmed from disagreements about how the offense should be run. It’s unclear exactly what Durant wanted from Kerr’s offense, or if he even knew what he wanted. As reported by Ethan Strauss in his book “The Victory Machine,” Durant and Kerr were often at odds with each other during the tail-end of his final season. This included one instance during the first-round series vs. the Clippers, where Kerr was yelling at Durant from the bench to be more aggressive, and Durant yelled back “that he knew how to play and not to tell him anything.”
Kevin Durant’s last season with the Warriors wasn’t as smooth as they wanted and KD had some issues with teammate Draymond Green and Steve Kerr, too, which many believe prompted him to sign with the Nets in the summer of 2019. He didn’t want his close friend to go through that, too, and that’s why he gave that advice to Harden.
Now they’re ready to compete in the East with Kyrie Irving, but they’ll also have to make sacrifices, just like Harden would have done in the Warriors. This team looks great on paper but we’re yet to see how they perform on the court.
