Durant, who has three more years on his contract with Brooklyn, communicated his decision this Thursday to the owner of the team, the billionaire Joe Tsaias explained on Twitter by the renowned ESPN journalist Adrian Wojnarowski.
The 33-year-old forward also communicated a list of his preferred destinations, including the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat, but the Nets are ready to listen to offers and “will seek a historic return in players and Draft elections,” he added. Wojnarowski.
Shortly after, the journalist reported that about half of the teams in the NBA They have already contacted the Nets to bid for one of the best scorers in history.
The forward, who averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game last seasoncould become the highest caliber player to be traded in recent decades.
The departure of the forward, 12-time All-Star and MVP (Most Valuable Player) of the 2014 season, would in turn culminate the failure of one of the most ambitious projects in the history of American sports leagues.
After winning two rings with the Golden State Warriors (2017 and 2018), Durant joined star and controversial point guard Kyrie Irving in 2019 to form a new superteam in Brooklyn, a modest franchise that gave them full powers.
After waiting a year for Durant to recover from a serious injury, the Nets launched the assault on the title by also taking over shooting guard James Harden, for whom they paid a huge price in Draft elections.
Decimated by injuries Irving y Harden. the all-star trio failed on their first try as they fell in the 2021 second round to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The collapse of the project came last season with Irving’s refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, which disqualified him from playing for much of the campaign, and the transfer demand for Harden, who went to the Philadelphia 76ers dissatisfied with the convulsive situation in Brooklyn.
The ‘Big 3’ only played 16 games together, winning 13 of them, and left forever the doubt of how far one of the greatest concentrations of talent that the league has seen could have gone. NBA.
In recent playoffs, with little help from Irving and the injured Ben Simmons, the biggest piece Harden came up with, Durant couldn’t prevent the Nets from being swept 4-0 in the first round by the Boston Celtics.
In recent years, Durant has been seen as backing his close friend Kyrie Irving in the numerous controversies in which the point guard has been involved, even accepting the cost to the Nets of his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
In 2021, Durant seemed to tie his future to the Nets by renewing for four years and 198 million dollars.
Irving, on the other hand, was not offered a contract of that size so on Monday he exercised his option to renew for an additional season, securing a salary of $36.9 million.
The Nets still have the option to trade Irving. According to Wojnarowski, it is unlikely that the point guard will remain in the franchise if Durant leaves and teams like the Los Angeles Lakers would now have an easier time recruiting him.
According to the ESPN journalist, the Nets have put all their players up for sale while they define what course to take. The beginning of a reconstruction process is unlikely since their next Draft rounds went to the Houston Rockets in the transfer for Harden.
Durant’s release demand came just three hours before free agency officially opens, in which teams can sign players without contracts.
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