Kevin Durant will remain a Brooklyn Net site and will no longer be available for trading, according to the team’s general manager, Sean Marks.
“[Head coach] Steve Nash and I, with Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday,” Marks He said in a statement Released on Tuesday. “We have agreed to move forward with our partnership. We are focused on basketball, with a collective goal in mind: to build a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn.”
The Tsais family owns The Nets, while Kleiman is Durant’s business partner.
The 12-time All-Star team filed a commercial application on June 30, ushering in a summer of uncertainty for the Nets. A potential trade would have changed the league’s outlook – the 33-year-old was a former NBA The best player in the world and widely considered one of the best in the world.
Durant’s decision to stay with the Nets represents a dramatic turnaround. Earlier this month, ESPN and Athletic reported that during a meeting with Joe Tsai, Durant asked the Nets owner to choose between him and Marks and Nash. Now the two sides seem committed to working together.
Durant is under contract with the Nets for another four years, one of the factors that made his trade so difficult, as other teams had to give up huge amounts of capital or player to get it.
Brooklyn is among the favorites to win the NBA championship next season, and Durant’s decision should boost their chances of winning the title. The Nets lost in the first round of the 2021-22 playoffs after seven-time All-Star Kyrie Irving was unable to play in home games for much of the season Because of the vaccination status. That won’t be an issue this season after a New York bylaws change in March allowed Irving to play at the Barclays Center.
The Nets will also have another All-Star, Ben Simmons, on the list following his arrival in the February deal from the Philadelphia 76ers. The Australian did not play last season with the Nets due to a back injury, but is set to return for next season. The 26-year-old has made the NBA All-Defensive first team twice during his career, and was also the Rookie of the Year in 2018. The Nets will also welcome back Joe Harris, their trusted three-point shooter, from injury.
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