When Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving joined the Nets in June 2019, the duo envisioned winning multiple NBA championships together.
Add in Brooklyn’s acquisition of James Harden during the 2020-21 season, and Brooklyn’s NBA title hopes seemed legitimate, if not likely. Instead, between injuries and off-court issues, the trio only played 17 games together. Durant and Irving played in only 74 games together with the Nets.
Now, as Irving gets acclimated to the Mavericks organization, and Durant awaits his debut with the Suns, the two-time NBA champion says he’s not mad about Irving’s decision to ask the Nets to trade him.
Durant revealed on The ETCs with Kevin Durant podcast that he and Irving are “separate entities” who have to do what is best for each of them in their careers. However, the 34-year-old Durant wished they would have finished the current NBA season together.
“We all move and do the things that we wanna do for our careers,” Durant said. “I can’t fault somebody for doing that even though it might have been at our expense as a team. … I don’t wanna act like I wasn’t upset that we didn’t finish the season, because I love playing with [Irving]. I wanted to see where we can go with that because we were both playing at a high level.
“What [Irving] was doing behind the scenes, what his contract negotiations was, I don’t want to even think about none of that stuff. Whatever he is doing, that’s him. … We haven’t had a conversation, but eventually we will.”
Durant is expected to make his Suns debut Wednesday at Charlotte, the team announced. The 13-time All-Star has not played in a game since Jan. 8, when he suffered an MCL sprain against the Heat.
Durant is averaging 29.7 points per game over 39 contests this season.
