Playoff Rival Endorsed Coveting Celtics’ $196 Million Target: Report

Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum

Getty Kevin Durant #7 of the Brooklyn Nets and Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics square off.

After Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets this summer, many wondered where he would go next if his request was granted. On July 25, Shams Charania reported that the Boston Celtics had offered Jaylen Brown to the Nets for Durant, but that was as far as it went.

Ultimately, nothing materialized before Durant rescinded his trade request on August 23. On September 11, Matt Sullivan of The Rolling Stone confirmed one player who would have wanted Durant on his team: former teammate and two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry.

“Hell, yeah!” Curry told Sullivan when asked about a potential reunion.

Curry played with Durant on the Golden State Warriors from 2016 to 2019 before Durant left the Warriors for the Nets the following offseason. On August 9, Curry told Sullivan that there had been talks of potentially acquiring Durant.

“There was a conversation internally amongst us about ‘If he was available, would you?’ Every team has those conversations, and obviously, in our situation, they’re gonna call me and ask me, ‘How do you feel about it?’”

Curry then talked about why he would endorse playing with Durant again, and not just from a basketball perspective.

“I was never hesitant. The idea of playing with KD and knowing who he is as a person, from our history in those three years, I think KD’s a really good dude. I think he is misunderstood. I think he has had certain things happen in his life that hurt his ability to trust people around him, in a sense of making him feel safe at all times. So all of those things, I understand, having played with him and gotten to know him. I love that dude.”


Curry Praised Jaylen Brown

While Curry signed off on playing with Durant again in Golden State, he expressed his skepticism that a Durant trade would have happened because of what his hypothetical new team would have had to trade for him.

“Curry suggested that Durant had unrealistic expectations that his preferred destinations would retain superstar rosters, despite Brooklyn’s high asking price,” as Sullivan put it.

Curry even used Jaylen Brown as an example of why it would have been hard while praising Brown for how important he is to the Celtics’ success while talking to Sullivan and famous rapper Snoop Dogg.

“Of the Boston Celtics, he said, ‘They have a little bit of everything, but they would have to deal with the organizational transition to get rid of Jaylen (Brown). He’s such a pivotal piece.… If they would have done that—’ Curry broke apart his fingertips in an explosion and agreed with Snoop that Durant was better off staying with the Nets,” Sullivan said.


Nets Never Planned to Trade Durant

After Durant rescinded his trade request, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe reported on September 6 that Boston, nor any other team for that matter, never got any traction on a deal for Durant because the Nets weren’t planning to trade him.

“League sources insisted for weeks that the Nets seemed to have no intention of actually trading Durant, as evidenced by some outrageous asking prices that at least provided some good laughs. Boston, for one, was never remotely close to a deal for Durant. Onward.”

Even if Curry pushed for the Warriors to get Durant back, the Nets may not have been interested, regardless.