Kevin Durant will remain a Brooklyn Net and will no longer be available for trade, according to the team’s general manager, Sean Marks. “[Head coach] Steve Nash and I, together with Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday,” Marks said in a statement released on Tuesday. “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.” The Tsais own the Nets, while Kleiman is Durant’s business partner.
The 12-time All-Star made a trade request on 30 June, kicking off a summer of uncertainty for the Nets. A potential trade would have changed the outlook of the league – the 33-year-old is a former NBA MVP and widely regarded as one of the best players in the world.
Durant’s decision to stay with the Nets represents a dramatic turnaround. Earlier this month, ESPN and the Athletic reported that during a meeting with Joe Tsai, Durant asked the Nets owner to choose between him and Marks and Nash.