Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets have agreed to “move forward in their partnership” after the All-Star forward asked to be traded earlier this summer.
The Nets said Tuesday the team’s leadership met a day earlier with Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles and agreed to move forward with our partnership, according to general manager Sean Marks.
A statement was released by Marks, stating: “Steve Nash, and I, together with Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday.
“We have agreed to move forward with our partnership.
“We are focusing on basketball, with one collective goal in mind: build a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn.”
That is certainly more likely by keeping Durant, who remains one of the best scorers in the NBA. He is set to begin a four-year extension he signed last summer.
A two-time NBA Finals MVP and a four-time scoring champion, Durant joined Brooklyn as a free agent in 2019 alongside Kyrie Irving.
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Durant averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 55 games this past season with the Nets, who traded fellow All-Star James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers during the season in a blockbuster deal involving Ben Simmons.
Irving, a seven-time All-Star, picked up his $36.5m option.
Durant, the 2013-14 league MVP, has career averages of 27.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 939 games with the Seattle SuperSonics/ Oklahoma City Thunder (2007-16), Warriors (2016-19) and Nets.
The Nets were swept by the Celtics in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.