The Kevin Durant bombshell that dropped on the NBA offseason could upend the hierarchy of the entire league if it pushes through. The news has sent the rest of the league scrambling to figure out their best trade offer for the Brooklyn Nets superstar.
After seeing the gargantuan trade package it took to trade for Rudy Gobert, the market value for a top five player like Kevin Durant should be exponentially higher. Getting that sort of package may prove to be difficult for the Nets given that a team would literally have to gut most of its assets for KD, which leaves the possibility that a deal may not come to fruition anytime soon.
But according to the latest report from The Athletic's Joe Vardon, there's likely little to no room for reconciliation between the Nets owner Joe Tsai and KD:
If both have played their last game with Brooklyn, it’s a safe bet the Nets are heavily involved in trades that suit all parties, if only because doing so will probably produce the largest returns.
What Joe Tsai will not do is demand Durant to honor his contract in Brooklyn.
Because he’s had enough.
There were several factors that added up to the Nets owner's frustration, chief among them was Durant's insistence to let Kyrie Irving play despite his refusal to get vaccinated.
Durant urged the organization to go back on its original stance and allow Irving to play and practice where eligible on the road, according to sources. Brooklyn was in second in the East on the day of Irving’s first game.
The third summer of Kevin Durant is only just heating up. But the result appears likely to end in divorce one way or another.