Brooklyn Nets superstar forward Kevin Durant discussed his trade request over the offseason and his frustrations with the coaching staff, claiming that nobody was “one the same vibe” as him.
Durant requested a trade in June, following the Nets’ first-round exit in the playoffs. The Nets were reportedly unhappy with offers the organization received for Durant, who later asked Joe Tsai to fire Steve Nash and Sean Marks during a meeting in London. Tsai did not comply with any of Durant’s demands, though Nash did eventually lose his job just a few games into the 2022-23 season.
In an interview with Bleacher Report, Kevin Durant explained that his trade request was about basketball, and went on to detail how he felt the staff around him was letting him down by not holding him accountable.
“It wasn’t difficult at all to request a trade because it was about ball,” Durant said. “I went to them and was like, ‘Yo, I don’t like how we are preparing. I don’t like shootarounds. I like practices. I need more. I want to work on more [expletive]. Hold me accountable. Get on my [expletive] in film if that’s going to help you get on everybody else’s head. I want to do more closeouts. I want to work on more shell drills at practice.’
“This was the type of [expletive] I was coming at them with. It wasn’t like, ‘Yo, y’all need to make sure everybody around me can make my life easier.’ Hell nah, I want to make everybody else’s life easier. Ask Steve Nash, you can go call him right now. I would say, ‘Yo, I need more closeout drills. We need to practice more.’ That’s what I was on.
“I wasn’t feeling that, and nobody was on that same vibe with me. Jacque Vaughn is. I had some complaints in the summer, and my complaints were not about just me; it was about how we are moving as a unit. I want us to be respected out here in the basketball world. I don’t want players to look at us and say, ‘Oh man, these [expletive] are full of [expletive]. That’s not the type of team I want to be on.’ So when we’re all playing like [expletive], you know the one person they’re going to look at. That’s why I requested a trade.”
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