Getty Images Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets talks with Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
For those who may be tardy to the party, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant requested a trade from the franchise before the start of free agency. Durant and the Nets worked tirelessly to find a trade that would benefit each party. But the Nets asking price for the All-Star forward was high, and rightly so, as he is their franchise player.
Matt Sullivan of Rolling Stone details a conversation Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry had with famed rapper Snoop Dogg about the trade market for Durant. Curry believes that in any trade scenario for the Nets star, the team that traded for him would have to gut its core which would change the entire makeup of the roster.
“In the course of shadowing Curry last month, I observed him discussing the trade market for Durant with Snoop Dogg. Curry suggested that Durant had unrealistic expectations that his preferred destinations would retain superstar rosters, despite Brooklyn’s high asking price,” Sullivan writes.
“Man, he thinks that they’re gonna go to teams — like if he went to Phoenix — that they’re gonna be the same team if he’s there,” Curry told Snoop. 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.”
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Draymond Green Sounds off on Durant’s Departure
Durant left the basketball world shellshocked when he joined the Nets in 2019. Mainly because Curry had taken a backseat to the former MVP. He did it willingly, despite having won a championship with the franchise before KD arrived in 2016. Warriors star Draymond Green says the competitive spirit of the Warriors drives their desire to show Durant he was wrong for leaving, but all in all, there are no hard feelings.
“No hard feelings, no ill will, want you to do great no matter what. It’s a brotherhood,” Green said to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
“But … you’re a competitor, and the competitor in you is going to want to prove you wrong, want to show you that you made a mistake.”
Curry and Durant Have Had Two Different Trajectories
Durant and Curry spent three seasons together in Oakland. They were one of the most dominant duos of all time, going to three straight NBA Finals and winning two championships. .
Since Durant left Curry to join Kyrie Irving on the Nets in 2019, the careers of the two former teammates have taken very different trajectories. This past season Curry won his fourth NBA title and first Finals Most Valuable Player award of his career. Durant, on the other hand, was swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics, the same team that Curry beat in the Finals.
That first-round exit factored into Durant making a trade demand to the Nets this summer, which he ultimately rescinded in August. The Nets star can silence his critics with an MVP-like performance this season.