Getty Jaylen Brown and Kevin Durant are currently rumored in trade talks
NBA Superstar Kevin Durant created quite a stir when he publicly asked for a trade from the Brooklyn Nets this summer. On August 8, Durant went as far as giving the Nets an ultimatum: either trade him or fire Head Coach Steve Nash and President of Basketball of Operations Sean Marks.
Ultimately, Durant would later rescind his trade request on August 23. In an official statement made by the Nets, they said they all “agreed to move forward with (their) partnership.”
On August 31, Former Boston Celtics center Scot Pollard, who won the NBA Championship with the team in 2008, went on “The Celtics Collective Podcast,” where he had some harsh words for Durant after everything that happened.
“I heard that he said he wanted to fire the GM and the coach, and it’s like you just got a hundred and ninety million or whatever,” Pollard said. “Just sorry, shut up and dribble, man. I’d be happy when I got my six years. You know. I was like, I will shut up and dribble for all for all six years. You just tell me where to be, (and) I will be there. You tell me where we’re going, I will be there early. I will do everything you asked me to do because you’re making me a wealthy person. Well, rich, not wealthy.”
Pollard Believes Nash Will Get Fired
Having played in the NBA for 10 years, Pollard knows how situations play out whenever a player wants the situation to drastically. That’s why he believes it won’t be long before the Nets fire Nash as their head coach.
“I don’t think Steve Nash makes it much longer,” Pollard said. “Honestly, it’s always the coach. They’re not going to fire the $150 million dollar player. They’re gonna fire whatever Steve’s getting paid. Ten million a year, five million a year. That’s peanuts compared to what KD’s making, and they’re not going to see Steve Nash coach. That’s how those things work. When a team bails on the coach, if your star player has bailed on the coach, then it’s easy for the rest of the team to go, ‘Well, I’m not playing as much as I want to either. That’s probably the coach. It’s not me.”
Nash was a player-development consultant for the Golden State Warriors from 2015 until 2020, when the Nets hired him to replace Kenny Atkinson.
Pollard Says Paul Pierce is the Reason Boston Won in 2008
When reflecting on the 2007-08 team, Pollard singled out Pierce, who he also played with at Kansas University from 1995 to 1997, as the main reason why they won the title that year.
“There was nobody else that was more responsible for us winning that championship with Paul Pierce,” Pollard said. Pollard then acknowledged that Pierce didn’t do it alone, but said Pierce’s performance was how they came away with the championship. “He didn’t drag us there. He had help, but in the finals he absolutely was the man. And you know, Ray played his role, Kevin played his role, everybody else played their role, but without Paul being a ‘man’ man and just going nuts, uh, and just saying, you know what, I’m gonna win this. We are going to win this and I’m gonna win this. He was just incredible, and my memory of it is just that he was. He was great.”
Pierce went on to win the NBA Finals MVP after the Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.