Weeks after making his trade request to Nets owner Joe Tsai, NBA superstar Kevin Durant doubled down on his stance by issuing an ultimatum: keep Sean Marks and Steve Nash, or keep me.
It wasn’t long after that ultimatum when Durant finally saw the writing on the wall.
And now, with training camp just a few weeks away, KD has decided to squash his beef and is set to return to the team this season.
“Steve Nash and I, together with Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday,” wrote GM Sean Marks in a statement on Twitter. “We have agreed to move forward with our partnership. We are focused on basketball, with one collective goal in mind: build a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn.”
While this Nets core is unlikely to stay together past next summer, the combined powers of Durant, Irving, and Ben Simmons might just be enough to bring a title to Brooklyn.
For Durant, though, it’s an embarrassing turn of events. To cause such a scene and be denied everything you wanted really speaks volumes to how little control KD really has over the team.
Now that his loss is official, the NBA community made sure to blaze him on Twitter for the whole situation.
KD didn’t get traded and didn’t get Nash fired. I ain’t never seen a superstar with less juice than him. Even Marc Gasol could get a coach fired
— D.O.C (@DOC323123) August 23, 2022
Just to be clear, this isn't just a situation of the #Nets convincing Kevin Durant to give them a year, run it back for one season in a championship-or-bust swing, and then moving him next summer. They plan on this being a long-term marriage.
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) August 23, 2022
On behalf of everyone at @ringer, I’d like to thank the Nets and Kevin Durant for 2 months of lively, provocative and ultimately meaningless content for podcasts and written pieces.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) August 23, 2022
Joe Tsai and Kevin Durant for the next four years pic.twitter.com/DvNqDtQUXT
— Oluwajomiloju (@JomiAdeniran) August 23, 2022
jokes aside, i’m a huge Kevin Durant fan. he can easily make people forget and overlook this unfavorable light he’s been in by what he does on the court because that man, right there, is STILL one of the greatest to ever touch a basketball
— Ashley Nicole Moss (@AshNicoleMoss) August 23, 2022
Kevin Durant returning to the Nets pic.twitter.com/OvTMCHJzd8
— DJ Bean (@DJ_Bean) August 23, 2022
Kevin Durant flying back to New York today pic.twitter.com/CiihT4Sqvy
— David Gardner (@byDavidGardner) August 23, 2022
https://twitter.com/RealCodyMallory/status/1562103347997458432
Durant made a trade request and couldn’t get Kyrie an extension, Nash or Marks fired, or leverage his way into anything. Worst use of superstar wherewithal ever. https://t.co/R6VQ7bDR1l
— Ben Rosales (@brosales12) August 23, 2022
My guess is Kevin Durant is locked into a 3% mortgage rate and simply doesn't want to buy a new house w/a higher rate so no trade
— Ben Carlson (@awealthofcs) August 23, 2022
While we know that the Nets are running it back with their star-studded core, it doesn’t mean that this whole saga is over.
No matter how nice things may be between KD, Kyrie, and the Nets, there will always be a sense that things could break at any moment. And for Durant specifically, it might be hard to find the motivation to play for a team you really don’t want to play for.
But unless he wants to risk sitting out training camp and games into the actual season, Durant had little choice but to accept defeat. In the end, he just didn’t have enough leverage to force a trade, and the Nets were just too smart to deal him out of panic.
