Kevin Durant has always had a bit of a distaste for the NBA media. Durant has had a number of public spats with the media. Whether it was on Twitter or in uncomfortable press conferences with the media himself, Durant is no stranger of sharing his opinion of the media. While the longstanding beef with Durant and the media has been well known, it may have advanced a level this week when Durant refused to appear to media on New York radio stations.
Kevin Durant Refuses Invitation to New York Radio
On September 8, Brandon Tierney, a radio host on the iconic WFAN radio station in New York City, replied to one of Kevin Durant’s tweets by suggesting when he grows tired of tweeting, he should come on New York radio, while also adding that true fans need answers after his turbulent offseason with the Brooklyn Nets.
“Whenever you grow tired of tweeting, hop on New York radio. I think true fans deserve some answers being that, you know, the last few months have been…interesting?” Tierney tweeted.
Durant gave a Durant-like response with a simple one-word reply via a quote tweet.
“No” Durant tweeted.
The simpleness of Durant’s tweet is comical. The forward doesn’t believe that he needs to provide answers for his trade request offseason. Durant requested to be traded just ahead of the June 30 opening of NBA free agency, and the request brought a mudslide of rumors to the Brooklyn Nets for a majority of the offseason. His request escalated when he asked Nets governor Joe Tsai to trade him or fire team general manager Sean Marks and team head coach Steve Nash. However, ultimately Durant met with Marks, Nash, and the Tsai’s and all sides were able to come to an agreement to get the 12-Time All-Star forward to rescind his request to be traded, which was shared in a statement from Marks.
“[Coach] Steve Nash and I, together with [governors] Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday,” Marks said in a statement. “We have agreed to move forward with our partnership. We are focusing on basketball, with one collective goal in mind: build a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn,” Marks wrote on August 23.
Why Durant Wanted a Trade
Durant’s trade request came after he reportedly lost trust in the organization and specifically Sean Marks after the way they handled the contract extension with Kyrie Irving.
Logan Murdock, who spent time with Durant for a March profile, reported about Durant’s uneasiness with the Brooklyn franchise before he even made the trade request on an episode of The Ringer NBA Show.
“I made some calls. Kevin Durant has not talked to the team in weeks. I don’t think Kevin is confident in the front office right now. I don’t know if he’s at the stage of leaving, but there’s a big uneasiness from not only from the Kyrie side but the KD side as well…
“His biggest beef is that he feels that the front office didn’t grow to understand Kyrie, whatever that means. I would push back on that when a guy leaves for two weeks at a time … Kyrie earns the lion’s share of the blame. But I think KD believes that ‘hey, you guys didn’t understand this guy. You didn’t try to figure out where he was coming from.’
“The Nets got rid of Adam Harrington. Who’s very close to Kevin. He’s one of Kevin’s guys. And that had a big ripple effect on how Kevin feels about this right now. He’s still in this figure-it-out mode, but there is some fire to that smoke that he’s kind of reevaluating where he stands with this.”
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Kevin Durant Sounds Off on New York Media Following Offseason Trade Drama