In today’s player empowerment era, NBA superstars have no problem resorting to drastic measures to force a trade. James Harden did it with the Rockets, Kyrie Irving did it with the Cavs, and now Kevin Durant is doing the same thing in Brooklyn.
But just how far is he willing to go to ensure he doesn’t play for the Nets again? Apparently, pretty far, according to league insider Marc Stein.
Durant ramped up his push to exit Brooklyn via trade in a face-to-face meeting Saturday with Nets owner Joe Tsai in London by insisting that he wants to be sent elsewhere unless GM Sean Marks and Coach Steve Nash are fired. Tsai said Monday via Twitter that Marks and Nash “have my support.”
There is a growing belief among rival teams that Durant knew when he issued that me-or-them ultimatum that Tsai had no intention of yielding to the request and firing Marks and Nash. One resultant theory that the Durant/Tsai meeting spawned is the idea KD has begun trying to manufacture as much behind-the-scenes discord as he can in hopes that it will lead the Nets to lower their asking price and trade him out of exasperation.
Durant knows that team owner Joe Tsai is not going to meet his demands. The only thing left to do at this point is to stir up as much trouble as possible with hopes that Tsai will break and lower the ask for Durant.
But pulling that off might not be so easy. At the moment, Tsai looks to be siding with Sean Marks and Steve Nash over KD and Kyrie — and he’s not going to let them bully his team without a fight.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out and if KD’s theatrics work to his advantage.
