Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant believes the media hyped up the thought of him coming to the Knicks last summer.
There was an abundance of highly-touted free agents in the NBA last summer, including Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, and Kemba Walker. It was almost like watching a reality show unfold when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski took to Twitter to announce the new deals on June 30.
But arguably the biggest name in free agency was superstar forward Kevin Durant. Many believed this even after he ruptured his Achilles in the NBA Finals while with the Golden State Warriors.
Leading up to the free agency period, much hype surrounded the idea of KD potentially joining the New York Knicks. Nevertheless, Durant didn’t pay much mind to that thought.
“That’s the media hyping that [crap] up. I never came out and said anything about me wanting to play for the Knicks, ever. Ever,” Durant said while appearing on Showtime’s ‘All the Smoke.’ “Then when we came here last year, they had the billboards up and somebody asked me about it, and I wasn’t too excited about it, because I didn’t like it.
“It wasn’t like I had something against the Knicks. I just didn’t like all that attention when I was playing for another team. I never really was big on that New York thing. It was just everybody else, the media, the fans. The Knick fans, they wanted a superstar to come play for them finally. I never promised anybody I was playing for the Knicks.”
Durant ended up joining the Brooklyn Nets as part of a sign-and-trade deal. He’s likely to miss this entire season due to the Achilles setback and will thus return to the floor for the 2020-21 campaign.
So far this year, the Nets are struggling but are maintaining a playoff spot nonetheless. They’re 23-27 and are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn is currently riding a two-game win streak ahead of their next matchup, which takes place Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET against the Raptors.
