Just hours before the free agency period opened on June 30, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant requested a trade from the franchise. The Nets agreed to work to find a deal for Durant, but the trade negotiations were extensive, lasting nearly two months. The closer the Nets got to the start of training camp, the more they hoped their franchise player would have a change of heart.
Eventually, the Nets got their wish. During a meeting between Durant, Nets owner Joe Tsai, and general manager Sean Marks, the Nets star agreed to return to the franchise. Marks detailed the meeting, in a new interview with Alex Chapman of NewsHub.
“We were with our owner, Joe Tsai, who was amazing throughout this whole summer,” Marks explained. “It was just about us being honest with each other – all of us sitting in a room, looking at each other in the face. Not a lot of words needed to be said.”
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Sean Marks Sounds Off on Kevin Durant’s Trade Request
The Nets agreed to honor Durant’s trade request when he made it in June. But they vowed that for rival teams to acquire their franchise player, they would have to send a substantial trade package to Brooklyn.
Marks believes that, in the end, teams just did not have the necessary capital to acquire a player of Durant’s caliber. Even the Celtics trade offer centered around their star forward Jaylen Brown, wasn’t enough to get it done.
“I think, at the end of the day, other teams realized they don’t have the assets to give up acquiring arguably the top one-two-three player in the world, who’s on a contract for four years,” Marks added.
“If they’d had to give away their treasure chest, their goals may be reduced.”
Marks Reveals Grim Reality About Nets’ Title Chances
The Nets have been trying to put out a great basketball product forever it seems. But every season, a new obstacle gets in the way of their goal.
During Durant’s first season in Brooklyn, he was rehabbing the Achilles tear he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals. The second year, they blew up most of their core to land Harden, but he and Kyrie Irving got injured in the playoffs.
Last year, Irving was sidelined for half the season because he chose to remain unvaccinated. Then Harden demanded a trade midseason, and when they traded him to the Sixers for Ben Simmons, Simmons couldn’t play because he got injured during rehab.
2022 is the first year the Nets will start the season whole. And although there is a feeling of excitement in Brooklyn, there is also a feeling of appropriate pressure as well, because Marks knows their championship window won’t be open forever.
“I’d be probably crazy to think it doesn’t, but I try not to focus on it’s now or never. We have to do it because then you can be caught up in making some rash decisions, but we know where our window is, and it is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, so for us, it is now,” Marks added.
“We owe it to each other and the players, the organization, the borough of Brooklyn. We’re up for the challenge, I’m not worried about that,” adding that no one wants it more than his new “Big Three” of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Ben Simmons.”
With Kyrie on an expiring deal and Kevin Durant nearing his mid-thirties, the time is ticking for the Nets to deliver the franchise its first championship.
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Nets GM Sean Marks Sounds off on Kevin Durant, Gives Grim Update on Team’s Future