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A few hours after declaring his intention to join the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent in 2019, Kevin Durant shared a photo of himself riding a bike beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. His choice put an end to a three-year career with the Warriors that featured two NBA titles and, finally, a recurring desire for a new adventure.
Roman Payne, an author from Seattle, was quoted as saying "I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide," in the now-deleted Instagram post's accompanying caption. And the cosmos was on my side everywhere I went.
The poem captures a recurring idea throughout Durant's life.
He says, "I've been a nomad since I was a youngster. "As a teenager, I lived in five different cribs. I attended three elementary schools in total. I attended two middle schools in total. I attended three different high schools in total. I moved after spending a year in Texas. I spent a year in Seattle before moving on to the following city. Simply said, I believe it is my duty as a human being to explore the entire planet.
With colleagues like Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Kyrie Irving, and Chris Paul, basketball has taken Durant from Oklahoma to California to New York and beyond. Due to his unmatched combination of length, adaptability, and shooting, Durant can play in a variety of basketball scenarios. Despite all that Durant has accomplished, unlike Curry, whose career is linked to the Warriors, Durant's is not. And unlike other superstars who have frequently switched teams, like LeBron James, Durant has yet to have the greatest success with a squad that was formed around him. Although Durant has cemented himself as one of the best players of his generation, his off-court career has been marked by a sort of searching.
The most recent installment of Durant's trip takes him to Phoenix, where we are traveling down a hallway inside of Footprint Center after Durant put on a 27-point, 11-assist performance in the Suns' first-round series loss to the Clippers Game 1. He's been in Arizona for a little over two months now. His turbulent four-year Nets career, which included an extended Achilles tendon recovery period, a tumultuous relationship with Irving, and the collapse of the vision he had upon arrival, was concluded by a trade from Brooklyn.
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Durant joins Paul, Devin Booker, and Deandre Ayton on a ready-made title contender in Arizona, another hand-selected location, albeit his transition process got off to a sluggish start. Durant was recovering from a knee injury that kept him out of his first six Suns games when he was dealt in February. Then, after playing in three games, he sprained his ankle just before the team's home opener, forcing him to miss another 10 games and destroying any hope of the desert team coming together for his maiden postseason participation. And with Durant entering his 16th season at age 34, his chances of dominating the NBA are dwindling.
Durant, however, is appreciating the trip that led him to Phoenix and is more aware than ever of what the game means to him as he goes for his third championship.
He declares, "Man, I want to play until I can no longer." "A title is fantastic, but what does it mean to me personally? For a city, for my teammates, and for the organization, I want to win a championship. Will it help me gain greater notoriety, attention, or a ring? Really, it's not about me. That's how I view victories in competition. I wish to complete this task with you. It will be fun traveling with these guys, I can't wait.
Durant was in the process of rekindling all he had lost in Golden State when I last saw him 13 months ago in Brooklyn. After being estranged from his mother Wanda for his final year in the Bay, he made peace with her. He had collaborated with Irving, with whom he had grown close in the years preceding his return to the east. In the 2021 postseason, he had some of his best basketball games and had been within a shoe size of the Eastern Conference finals. Additionally, he had regained the self-confidence he had lost while recovering from an Achilles tear and missing time from the game.
"The knowledge and information that the Brooklyn Nets gave to me on just my body in general helped me learn more about myself," he claims now. "Therefore, the four years were fantastic. Naturally, there were ups and downs with our roster on the court, but once the ball was tipped and we started practice, I really liked working with everyone there.
Three years after easily integrating into the already-dominant Warriors, Durant saw the potential to create something of his own by teaming up with Irving in Brooklyn. After having chemistry troubles with past teams, Durant and Irving's union brought together two of the best offensive players in basketball. They were eager to play together and create a team in their image.
Irving informed me last spring that "He was a hero to me." "It still is. But at the time, when I was 19, 18, and a few other players in the league, I looked up to him. And for me, it wasn't just about how he put the ball in the hoop; it was also about how modest he was in general, which I just soaked in and utilized as a model for myself.
Durant said of his time with the Nets, "That was a crucial part of my life. "Four incredible years. Brooklyn and the entire state of New York have grown on me. good friends and family there. I played some of my best basketball there.
Organizational harmony, however, proved challenging to find in Brooklyn. Irving missed the first 35 games of the 2021–22 season after declining to receive the COVID–19 vaccine. Durant, who had frequently supported his friend in public, was irritated by Irving's repeated absences. Additionally, James Harden, who Durant and Irving successfully persuaded Brooklyn to acquire in a trade in January 2021, asked for a move in February 2022, dissolving the All-NBA trio for the Brooklyn Nets.
By the end of the 2021–22 season, Harden had been traded, which made Durant even more angry, and the Nets had been swept by the Celtics in the opening round. A few months after the team's elimination from the playoffs, Durant wanted a trade, claiming his displeasure with coach Steve Nash whose loose approach to practice conflicted with Durant's desire for more focused performance. After a contentious summer, Durant withdrew his request for a trade during a meeting with Nash, general manager Sean Marks of the Brooklyn Nets, and team owner Joe Tsai, during which they "agreed to move forward with [their] partnership."
However, Irving asked for a trade after Durant hurt his knee three months into the 2022–23 campaign due to a contract dispute with the Nets. A day later, Durant did the same, and by the deadline, Durant had already been traded to Phoenix, and Irving had been dealt to Dallas.
When questioned about what went wrong in Brooklyn, Durant responds, "You got to ask them, to be honest." My duty is to play, and I believe I accomplished that. Rehab, a lot of things that I couldn't control were... To be quite honest, I'm speechless, but I just felt like we didn't play enough minutes together. That's it.
Durant appears to still be working on his own resolution when discussing the current state of his friendship with Irving.
"I'm going to keep that internal, I promise. I don't want to make our relationship public," adds Durant. Although I believe it to be more profound than basketball, I wouldn't say it was an issue. It didn't seem to be a problem to me.
Durant found himself in a situation he was familiar with when the Nets folded: wondering what would happen next. He had hoped to start something new in Brooklyn with his friend. But after four years of trying, he was once again on the road, this time to Phoenix, where he was expected to run into someone from his past.
