The Nets have spoken, Kyrie has spoken – and now, Kevin Durant has spoken about the situation surrounding Kyrie Irving being benched by the Nets…and he’s not upset about it on any side.
“What is being mad going to do? We are not going to change his mind, so we’ll let him figure out what he needs to do and the team figure out what they need to do,” Durant said on Thursday night. “And us as players, when we are in that locker room, on that floor, we are going to work with each other. I can’t be too mad at somebody making a decision for themselves.”
It's been posited that Durant may have the ear of owner Joseph Tsai and/or GM Sean Marks on many issues, or that he may be upset about losing one-third of “Scary Hours,” but in reality, it’s all about what’s best for the team at any given time.
"Who am I to get upset at that? Just focus on what we got in this locker room,” Durant said. “When Ky is ready, I am sure he will talk to Joe and Sean, and they’ll figure it out and they’ll tell us. Until then we are going to keep grinding. This is not the ideal situation coming into the season, but some of this is out of our control. All we can do is come in and focus on our jobs every single day.”
Head coach Steve Nash said prior to Thursday’s Nets-Timberwolves preseason game that he didn’t listen to Kyrie’s speech, and only wanted to focus on “solutions to the challenge ahead of us."
Durant has yet to speak to Kyrie, but he understands Nash’s notion and why the team chose to sit out Kyrie entirely instead of have him practice and play in most road games until something changes in either his vaccination status or city mandates requiring vaccination.
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“I definitely want Kyrie to be around. I wish none of this stuff would happen, but this is the situation that we’re in. Kyrie made his decision on what he wanted to do, he chose to do what he wanted to do and the team did the same,” Durant said. “It’s on me to just focus on me and just do my job and let those two parties handle that situation. I want our whole team together. I want us to be at full strength, but sometimes it don’t work out that way.”
That said, Durant is “positive that things will work out in the best for both parties,” and that for now, the focus is on winning a championship and enjoying the ride.
“We still get to do what we love to do every day, so life is amazing.”
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