Brooklyn Nets' Kevin Durant glad Nets pushed through 'noise' after James Harden trade

MIAMI — Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant says he doesn't feel that former teammate James Harden owes him an explanation for wanting to leave the organization.

Harden was the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday that sent Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two future first-round picks to the Nets.

«James doesn't have to explain anything to anybody,» Durant said before Saturday's game against the Miami Heat. «He's his own man. He makes his decisions on his career by himself. He doesn't owe anybody an explanation, and I wasn't looking for one.

»I'm just glad that we got this thing done and now we're able to move forward and get some of this noise away, and I'm sure he would feel the same way. But from around our team and around our group, there's noise about what may happen. So I'm glad we can push through that."

Harden said as recently as a week and a half ago that he still felt the Nets could win a title this season if their roster was at full strength, but his tune clearly changed in recent days as he pushed for a deal to be reunited with Daryl Morey, his former general manager with the Houston Rockets, and now president of basketball operations with the Sixers.

For his part, Durant wouldn't commit to the theory that he tried to get Harden to stay, adding that nothing he could have said would have swayed Harden's decision anyway.

«I think once a person gets to that decision of 'I'm unhappy,' I think he's gone through a lot of steps to get there,» Durant said. «So no matter what I say or try to convince someone — I'm not saying I did this, but this is just my theory on this — no matter what I say or do to try to convince someone to change their mood from being unhappy to happy,