Kevin Durant seemingly put the Brooklyn Nets and the NBA in chaos, until he didn’t. His shocking trade request was supposed to shake the league to its core, yet nothing happened. He’s back in Brooklyn, end of story.
Durant hoped every single team in the league would get in line with mouthwatering offers for the four years remaining on his contract. The Nets wouldn’t take a penny on the dollar— and rightfully so.
Unsurprisingly, no team was even close to meeting Brooklyn’s historically high asking price for the two-time NBA champion. And according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, they didn’t really try, either.
NBA Rumors: Nets Never Got A God Offer For Kevin Durant
“It was really just a realization that and the eye-opening experience that a deal wasn’t gonna happen,” Charania said.“The best offer I’m told that the Nets had on the table was from the Celtics: Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and a first-round pick.”
“The price tag that the Nets had put forth on Kevin Durant and you can say that they might have been asking for something they know was never gonna be attainable anyway,” Charania added.“But at the end of the day when you have a guy that’s a 12x All-Star, 2x Finals MVP, you have a high asking price. That price was never gonna be met and I think both sides understood that this is the best opportunity to win a championship.”
Teams Weren’t Willing To Blow It Up For KD
Notably, the Minnesota Timberwolves may have prevented any potentially league-changing trade from going down. They gave away so much to land Rudy Gobert, that trading Durant for anything less would’ve been a massive PR hit for the Nets, according to HoopsHype:
“Numerous NBA executives who spoke with HoopsHype believe the Gobert trade made it harder for Durant to be moved,” read the report. “The draft pick compensation Utah received from Minnesota was considered such a lopsided haul for Utah around the league that if the Nets got anything less than that for Durant, Brooklyn’s front office would’ve looked foolish, according to numerous rival executives.”
So, yeah. Kevin Durant is one of the greatest players ever, a generational scorer, and a Hall of Fame lock. But no team will jeopardize its entire future for an injury-prone, ego-driven 33-year-old who’s infamously bailed on two teams (almost three) and tried to take over an entire organization.
