Getty Sean Marks at a press conference.
Ethan Strauss, a Substack writer best-known for his work covering the Golden State Warriors for The Athletic, brought ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski into question on the “Basketball Illuminati” podcast for what Strauss claimed was Wojnarowski protecting Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks in the wake of the NBA’s biggest offseason story.
Appearing on the August 10 episode of the podcast hosted by Meadowlark Media personalities Amin Elhassan and Tom Haberstroh, both of whom are former NBA writers for ESPN, Strauss criticized ESPN and Wojnarowski for not covering Shams Charania’s August 8 report in The Athletic about Nets star Kevin Durant’s face-to-face meeting with team owner Joe Tsai in London. During that meeting, Charania reported, Durant gave Tsai an ultimatum to trade him or get rid of Marks and head coach Steve Nash.
“They don’t want people to know about this thing,” Strauss said, referring to the ESPN story that eventually appeared nearly six hours after Charania’s story was published. That story, which ran without a byline, played down Charania’s story, instead focusing on Tsai’s backing his front office and coaching staff. “They made the story boring intentionally.”
Strauss: ‘I Don’t Think That’s Something That You Want Out There’
Elhassan asked Strauss to speculate on the logic behind ESPN’s initial coverage of the Durant-Tsai meeting, which went unmentioned on that day’s episode of ESPN’s flagship NBA show, “NBA Today,” and did not receive attention from Wojnarowski, one of ESPN’s top NBA insiders.
“At least part of the truth — when you get to the nitty-gritty of it — is that Sean Marks is a well-known source for Woj,” Strauss said. “I’m not saying completely that this is why that happened, but it is good information to have, we shall say. It’s context.”
He suggested that those in charge of ESPN’s NBA coverage “knew this was a no-go zone.”
“Now, in this circumstance, I don’t think Sean Marks wants it out there that Kevin Durant wants him fired,” Strauss told Elhassan and Haberstroh. “If you’re the GM of a team, maybe you don’t want everybody talking about how the superstar of the team wants you fired and that the only [way] for you to retain the superstar is if you fire the GM. I don’t think that’s something that you want out there.”
KD Staying Put?
Despite mounds of speculation and budding drama this offseason, both Durant and All-Star teammate Kyrie Irving remain members of the Nets roster. And by the sound of it, the organization would like to keep things that way heading into the 2022-23 NBA season.
“Right now, I think the Nets want to run this team back and they’re hoping Kevin Durant agrees,” said NBA insider Brian Windhorst during an airing of ESPN’s “Get Up” on August 18. “The way they’re conducting trade talks and the prices they are asking has teams out there thinking they don’t really want to trade Kevin Durant anyway. They want to bring this team back. We’ll see if Kevin Durant goes along with that in training camp.”
Yet, while Tsai, Marks and the rest of the Nets brass may be holding out hope that they can reconcile their working relationship with Durant, Windhorst questions whether the former league MVP will be willing to nudge on his demands.
“I think the team thinks the results on the court will make everybody feel a little bit better. But I just can’t get a good feel on where Kevin Durant is. He has been asked to be traded and told no, so far at least. He has asked for the coach to be fired. He has asked for the general manager to be fired. He keeps getting told no.”