Kevin Durant had wanted a trade from Brooklyn over the summer, though he explained that he and the Nets “hashed” everything out before training camp and “it didn’t get in the way of hoops.”
In a series of questions with ESPN, Durant spoke about how he and the team were able to move past the trade request and find success this season. Durant also touched on the perceived issues with the NBA’s regular season.
I don’t think there’s an issue at all. I think the game is in a good place. I think people have learned how to consume things a little different. They might not appreciate a basketball game as much as they used to back in the days. The more something’s around, the more people take it for granted.
We’re a huge, huge corporation. We move a lot of things on this earth, as NBA players, as a league, so at this point people are just nit-pickin’ cause the numbers show the popularity, all of these ratings, analytics how popular the NBA is because people are intrigued and watching all aspects of the NBA — regular season, summer league, free agency, trade deadlines, draft. They’re all, it seems like from the chatter and popularity of the league, that everybody loves us, so I don’t see where a problem is.
Durant added that fans don’t truly understand what they’re seeing in the regular season and how much NBA players go through just to suit up. He’d like to see fans learn to become more appreciative.
Fans have become more entitled than anything. So they’re starting to question our motives for the game, or how we approach the game. The ones that do question — like who are you? Just shut up and watch the game tonight. We go as hard as we want to go. We go as hard as our bodies allow us to go at this point.
They only see us when the games come on, but the travel, the practices, the shootarounds — we’re constantly moving around. So every game’s not going to be a high-intensity playoff game.
Durant, who is an MVP candidate in the midst of his 14th season in the league, believes that if fans would have more reasonable expectations that the dialogue around the game would be better.
It’s narrative-driven. It’s agenda-based. Biased. I just think a lot of stuff — because we consume everything at all times, we’re starting to take a lot of stuff for granted. The NBA is one of them.
