UPDATE: Kevin Durant tweeted that he doesn’t plan on retiring “any time soon” and called the report comical.
We’ve reached the quietest days on the NBA calendar, which means fans have little choice but to speculate: Should we expect a Kevin Durant trade any time soon?
The realistic answer to that question is: Who knows?! But what we do know is that the relationship between Durant and the Brooklyn Nets is not pretty at the moment.
While it is hard to know just how bad it is between the two parties, what we do know is that this problem is not likely one with a simple fix. To give some context to that situation, league insider Marc Stein recently had this to share (via Substack):
“During summer league in Las Vegas, one of the most well-connected team executives I speak to regularly insisted to me that, based on what he was hearing, Kevin Durant was more apt to retire than play again for the Brooklyn Nets. This was in early July.
I told the tipster that I simply couldn’t believe that. I was a loyal subscriber to the theory that Durant The Hooper loves playing basketball way too much to adopt such a stance.”
Wait a second. So a rival NBA executive told Stein that Durant was more likely “to retire” than ever play again for the Nets? I know that is a lot to process.
Stein, rightfully, pushed back on the sentiment from the rival exec. But he continued that if Durant is not traded in the next six weeks, we can expect more chaos:
“Now? More than a month later? Attaching the R-word to Durant still comes across as serious hyperbole, but it is certainly getting easier to envision him refusing to report to training camp when the Nets get back together in six weeks for Media Day (Sept. 26) and their first practices of the new season (Sept. 27).
If Durant hasn’t been traded by then, there is a growing expectation in league circles that he will continue trying to cause as much of a ruckus behind the scenes to try to prod the Nets into lowering their asking price at last to facilitate a deal. If it wasn’t apparent by now, he really wants that trade to Phoenix or Miami or maybe even Boston or Philadelphia, no matter what it does to his reputation when he hasn’t played a single game yet under the four-year, $194 million contract extension signed in August 2021.”
To paraphrase the Wu-Tang Clan, don’t be surprised if the superstar starts bringing “the roughness, yes, the rudeness, ruckus” if he doesn’t soon get what he wants.
However, I would not count on him retiring any time soon. The two-time NBA Finals MVP is simply too good to walk away from the sport that he loves so much.
