The Nets seemingly can’t get it together.
As Kyrie Irving’s time with the Nets continues to deteriorate, with the star Brooklyn guard giving his list of preferred destinations last week should the two sides not work out a contract, Durant is also reportedly distancing himself from the franchise at the moment.
Last Friday, Logan Murdock of The Ringer said on The Mismatch podcast that Durant hasn’t talked to the Nets in weeks.
“I don’t think Kevin is confident in the front office right now,” Murdock said. “I don’t know if he’s at the stage of leaving but there’s a big uneasiness from not only from the Kyrie side, but the KD side as well.
“His biggest beef is that he feels that the front office didn’t grow to understand Kyrie, whatever that means. I would push back on that when a guy leaves for two weeks at a time … Kyrie earns the lion’s share of the blame. But I think KD believes that ‘hey, you guys didn’t understand this guy. You didn’t try to figure out where he was coming from.’ ’’
Irving, who only played 33 games this season because he did not get the COVID-19 vaccine, is a close friend of Durant and a part of the reason why the former league MVP came to Brooklyn.
Now with tensions between Irving and the front office rising, Durant, according to Murdock, hasn’t been recruiting free agents to Brooklyn. Durant hasn’t requested a trade yet, only asking Brooklyn brass how the team would contend for a championship if Irving leaves.
Murdock added the Nets also let go of Adam Harrington, a team assistant and former personal trainer to Durant, who wasn’t pleased.
“[Harrington’s departure] had a big ripple effect on how Kevin feels about this right now,” Murdock said. “He’s still in this figure-it-out mode but there is some fire to that smoke that he’s kind of reevaluating where he stands with this.”
Durant said on his “The ETC” podcast on Friday that he has ‘no involvement at all” in the Nets dealing with Irving and plans on staying out of it.
“This is this man’s livelihood,” Durant said. “This is much bigger than me. Being a free agent, it’s one of the most important times in your career. That can’t be swayed by anybody else. I just do me and wait for the time.”