On the morning that news broke of the Boston Celtics’ interest in a potential blockbuster trade for Kevin Durant, Celtics legend Antoine Walker was a guest on Fox Sports’ First Things First – and he strongly condemned the Celtics for even considering breaking up their roster.
Walker argued that the Celtics are creating turmoil inside their own organization by including Jaylen Brown in trade talks, and said that the team is already poised to be a leading championship contender without Durant following a solid offseason.
“I’m so disappointed this morning because I think this is a terrible decision…. And I know people will be like ‘wait a minute, this is Kevin Durant, this is arguably a top-3 player in the league, and of course you make a trade for that.’
But, no, you don’t tear up what you’ve worked so hard to build. We’re talking about a team that is young, their core is young. And I know everybody hates to talk about age, but when you think about Jaylen Brown is 25, Tatum’s 24, Smart’s 28, Robert Williams is 24. Your core is young. You just lost in the sixth game of the Finals. Everything’s in place, you have an identity. And I was just giving them praise for having the best summer, to me, out of any team in the league because you added a point guard in Malcolm Brogdon, Gallinari, a guy who can come off the bench and score. So your team is set.”
Walker also questioned whether Durant is truly concerned about winning.
“Is Kevin Durant committed to winning NBA titles again? We don’t know that. He wants out of Brooklyn. He didn’t say ‘oh I want to go win a title,’ he said ‘I just want to get traded out of Brooklyn.’ This guy had an opportunity to win four or five titles…. If Kevin Durant was so concerned with winning titles, he’d would be still [in Golden State].”
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