The Golden State Warriors were reportedly entertaining the idea of a reunion with Kevin Durant ahead of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline. The Phoenix Suns star was most certainly not.
In the wake of the Warriors’ dashed effort to recruit Durant, recent reports have revealed just how little Durant wanted to come back to Golden State, where he won two consecutive NBA titles and chased a third before getting injured.
“The Golden State Warriors ownership group and front office collectively ‘underestimated’ Durant’s coldness toward a return,” Anthony Slater of The Athletic wrote Thursday.
The Warriors went out and made a big splash for Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler on Wednesday night instead while Durant hasn’t given any indication he wants out of Phoenix. In the aftermath of the Durant-Warriors buzz, former Warriors general manager Bob Myers seemed to put the final nail in the reunion coffin.
Myers revealed on ESPN that he had a brief conversation with the Suns star weeks before the trade deadline in which he asked Durant whether he was happy in Phoenix.
“I saw Kevin at a football game a few weeks ago and I asked him before all this, I said, ‘Hey, are you good? Are you happy?’” Myers said. “And he said to my face, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to be traded.’ And I believe it, I believe he has felt that way all along.
“But then when you hear your name being mentioned, for him at least I think it was a shock. He was kind of like, ‘I didn’t push for this, I didn’t ask for this.’”
Bob Myers on talking to Kevin Durant recently regarding trade rumors: https://t.co/DdWqibYCap pic.twitter.com/FhpOQnpXP2
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) February 6, 2025
Myers went on to defend Durant from ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins’s claims that Durant lacked leadership and failed yet another organization in Phoenix.
“I think he’s holding up his end of the bargain,” Myers said of Durant’s current stint on the Suns.
In any case, it seems evident that the Warriors and Durant will continue going their separate ways for the foreseeable future.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former Warriors GM Reveals What Kevin Durant Told Him Before NBA Trade Deadline.
