Kevin Durant will stay with the Brooklyn Nets after the organisation held an all-hands meeting to discuss the superstar's situation, with all involved deciding to stay together for the upcoming year.
Durant requested a trade in late June, telling the Nets he wanted to leave after growing unhappy at the franchise he signed for in 2019. Unfortunately for the 33-year-old himself, however, he was locked into a four-year deal and had completed just one of them, so the team had no obligation to deal him.
The franchise was believed to have asked for an unprecedented return of draft picks and players in order to even entertain the possibility of trading him, and no team came close to their expectations.
Durant's situation got more toxic later in the summer as reports suggested the two-time NBA Finals MVP had held talks with team owner Joe Tsai to tell him he wanted the team coach and general manager fired.
Hours after those reports emerged, Tsai tweeted to say Steve Nash (head coach) and Sean Marks (general manager) had his full support, further throwing Durant's situation into doubt.
Numerous teams had shown an interest in Durant, but few had actually made any solid proposals to the Nets, and it now seems he'll be going nowhere.
Durant, Nash, Marks, Tsai - along with Durant's business manager Rich Kleiman and Nets co-owner Clara Wu Tsai - met in Los Angeles on Monday to hash out their differences and come to a resolution.
That resolution, the team announced, was that all parties involved would put aside their differences for the upcoming year and would aim to challenge for the NBA title.
A statement from the team read: "Steve Nash and I, together with Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday. 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."
