In his first public comments since last Thursday’s trade deadline, Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns repeatedly said on Monday that being involved in trade talks is simply part of the business.
“Everybody is bought and sold in this league, you know, so anybody can be up for auction,” the 15-time All-Star told reporters, via the Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin. “So I understand that. It’s just about getting back on the court, trying to go out there and play the game that I love. That’s a part of the business, though, man. We all gotta understand that.”
Leading up to the deadline, the Suns were widely known to be pursuing Jimmy Butler. When it became clear that they were not going to be able to pull off a Butler trade involving Bradley Beal, they reportedly discussed moving Durant. According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst, they discussed scenarios that would have sent Durant to the Miami Heat or the Golden State Warriors. Before talks broke down — reportedly because Durant told Stephen Curry that going back to the Bay Area didn’t “feel right” — there was a framework in which Phoenix would have received Butler, the Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga, the Washington Wizards‘ Jonas Valanciunas, two first-round picks and two second-round picks in exchange for Durant.
ESPN reported that Durant was “blindsided” by his inclusion in talks and quoted a Suns source saying, “We should have gone through [Rich Kleiman, Durant’s agent and business partner].” On Monday, Durant did not deny being blindsided, but downplayed it.
“I didn’t see it coming, but, like, the organization’s gotta do what they gotta do for the betterment of their organization,” Durant told reporters, via the Arizona Republic’s Dana Scott. “Even if I’m blindsided or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a part of the business, you know what I’m saying? And as a player, you gotta be prepared for anything. I’ve been traded before. I moved teams before. I got up and switched my whole situation up midseason. So you gotta be prepared for anything in this league. So being blindsided doesn’t even matter.”
Kevin Durant trade? What summer landscape looks like for Suns after near deals at deadline
Sam Quinn
Durant said that he has “been around noise before” and “always understood” that, regardless of “how much status I got” and what he has accomplished in the NBA, “you’re still not above the business.” He did clarify, though, that what he experienced at the trade deadline was a first for him.
“Let’s get this straight: I haven’t been through this before,” he told reporters, “but I understand what’s going on, you know?”
Durant: ‘Unfair’ to label Suns locker room as toxic
ESPN described Durant and the Suns as “uncomfortably together, at least until the summer.”
Shelburne, in an appearance on “NBA Today,” said she’d heard that Phoenix’s shootaround in Oklahoma City a day before the deadline was “very awkward” and “very weird” because “everybody was on pins and needles,” and described the environment as “toxic.”
“Yeah, I heard Ramona Shelburne come out and say our locker room is toxic,” Durant told reporters. “I try to tell people who are not around this game as much that it’s easy to say our locker room is not connected when you come in there 45 minutes before and guys are in their game mode and not talking to each other. Four or five guys might be in the training room, a few guys might be in the weight room. it’s just — it’s not a welcoming environment right before the game. And that’s just a part of getting ready to play.
“So I think it’s unfair and lazy to categorize our team as ‘toxic’ when you come in there for five minutes throughout four months. That’s the only time you’ve been in our locker room, and then you can make a narrative? I don’t think that’s fair to us, but, like I said, that’s a part of the game. That’s a part of the business we signed up for. Shit’s not fair in this game, but we got to deal with it and accept it.”
Durant knows his Suns future ‘will be a topic’
Durant was eligible to sign a one-year, $60 million extension with Phoenix last summer. In November, Suns owner Mat Isbhia told ESPN’s Shams Charania that he expected Durant to sign a two-year extension worth a projected $120 million when he’s eligible to do so in the summer of 2025. “We hope he finishes his career here in Phoenix,” Ishbia said then.
On Monday, Durant sidestepped a question about that extension, citing the fact that his contract doesn’t expire until the end of next season.
“I always had a goal of just playing my contract out and seeing what happens,” Durant told reporters. “I can’t focus on a year and a half down the line. I try to focus on the day ahead of me.”
Durant added that he knows that that his future with the Suns “will be a topic.” The “most frustrating part about being in trade talks,” he said, is that he’ll be under a microscope.
“My body language, how I speak to you guys after the games, how I’m looking on the bench, that stuff will be magnified. Which sucks, but, like I said, that’s a part of the business I gotta just deal with and accept,” Durant said. “But if I keep the main thing the main thing, then that could be the main focus. We turn around and play well, people will focus on that.”
Asked directly if his relationship with the front office is the same after the deadline as it was beforehand, Durant said: “I always keep my relationships under wraps. I don’t think I should be speaking on our personal relationships out to the public. I don’t think that’s fair to the people involved in that. So I’m out here to do my job and to do it the best that I can and support everybody in the building as much as I can and that’s always been my goal every time I step in here.”
Asked if it was tough to find out he was in trade talks and then come back to work, Durant said: “Nah, ’cause my teammates, my coaches, they not the ones that’s having these conversations. It’s usually the front office and the people that I don’t really see as much as my teammates and coaches, so, yeah, I can lock in on the task at hand and focus on the team and my coaching staff as much as I can ’cause that’s the most important thing. And, like I said, let the business take care of itself.”
Durant added: “I wanted to stay here and figure this thing out and see this thing through, so if I can get in the way of something like a trade, then why not?”
It is not necessarily a bad thing, Durant said, “that people around the league want me to play for ’em. It’s not a bad thing that my organization here is fighting off people to keep me on the team — or even dangling me in a trade. That’s just part of being in high demand, so I can understand that part of it.”
Durant said he’s looking forward to returning from his sprained left ankle when Phoenix hosts the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. Durant missed the Suns’ last three games because of the injury. On the season, the team is 26-26 and 10th in the Western Conference.
