Whenever Kevin Durant speaks on his team decisions there is scrutiny that follows. So on Brooklyn Nets Media Day when KD took the podium, he kept it very simple when asked about departing the Golden State Warriors.
“I felt like it was time for a change. I wanted to play for a new team and simply put, I just did it,” Durant said. “I didn’t really think about what I was leaving behind. What we accomplished – I had put that up on the shelf already. And when it was time to make a decision about my future, I just thought solely about me.”
Durant and his new teammate Kyrie Irving both took the podium, which Irving stated there was no pressure in returning to the team from injury. He would also acknowledge there were questionable decisions in having KD play in the NBA Finals.
“We all know K was not ready to play in that environment,” Irving said. “We all know that, whether people want to admit it or not. He was out 31 days and we put him on a national stage on finals, to end up selling a product that came before the person, Kevin. And now, I’m here to protect that.”
Irving added, “anyone to infiltrate that circle of ‘Hey K, do you. Get right—we’ll be fine.’ We have expectations for our team, we obviously know he’s an integral part, but we’ll wait for that. I’m very patient—I’ll be over-patient with Kevin because I don’t want anything like that to happen to anyone again, especially on that type of stage where it happened and then him having to answer questions about whether or not he’s coming back or not.”
Kyrie Irving says “a lot of people” are responsible for Kevin Durant tearing his Achilles:
“We all know K was not ready to play in that environment…we put him on a national stage to end up selling a product to came before the person” pic.twitter.com/usyACYCufW
— SNY (@SNYtv) September 27, 2019