The film is directed by John Beckham, a native of PG County, who told The Washington Post how the project began. “I knew that we had to not just ask [Durant] but show him some work, so I did some interviews with some local NBA guys, made a sizzle reel and sent that to his manager, Rich [Kleiman],” Beckham told the Post. “They dug it, and they’ve been in since then. … I don’t really know if this happens if Kevin isn’t involved in it. He’s really putting on for the county with the movie but also all the people involved in it. It’s pretty awesome, I think.”
Tag: Rich Kleiman
Rich Kleiman previously said the …
Rich Kleiman previously said the possibility of a Durant return this season is unlikely, and in the interview with hosts Frank Isola and Wes Wilcox, he stuck to that view when asked if the delay to the season caused by the coronavirus might give Durant time to be ready to play in July.
“From my standpoint, no,” Kleiman said. …
“From my standpoint, no,” Kleiman said. “I think it’s unrealistic. That’s just my view on it. We haven’t gotten deep into the conversation about it because of how unrealistic it all seems to me. I figure that, if something changed, he would tell me. And it’s also hard to even discuss in a real serious manner without any information on the season. It still feels there’s such uncertainty day to day. Outside of just the NBA, the whole thing just feels too unrealistic from my standpoint.”
“I think he’s always been in the …
“I think he’s always been in the smallest group – one, two, three, at most – of the top players in the league in people’s minds,” Kleiman said. “Obviously, I’m biased. But I think he’ll be better, to be honest. His game has never been completely reliant on athletic ability, though he’s got incredible athletic ability. His skill set is off the charts in terms of just scouting, and his intelligence for the game is at an all-time high…Having a year off and watching so much film and you saw how close he was to the team, I mean, he’s a hoop junkie. I think maybe you’ll see just a new version.”
Sirius XM NBA: “It’s also hard to even …
Sirius XM NBA: “It’s also hard to even discuss in a real serious manner without any information on the season” Kevin Durant’s business partner @richkleiman tells @Frank Isola & Wes Wilcox he still doesn’t think we’ll see @Kevin Durant on the court if the season resumes this summer. #WeGoHard pic.twitter.com/rh0DmtxbLw
Sean Marks not ruling out return of Kevin Durant if NBA resumes 2019-20
The Brooklyn Nets won’t push Kevin Durant to come back before he’s ready. But the NBA’s hiatus could help him return sooner than expected.
The NBA’s No. 1 question from the 2019-20 season — aside from the concern over whether or not the season will continue — is back on the table again. Will Kevin Durant suit up for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019-20?
When the league’s hiatus began in March, it seemed the pause might provide the forward the opportunity to finish his rehab and come back for the postseason. Now almost two months into the hiatus, the season is very much in question, but the break in the action has given Durant more time.
A month into the hiatus, Durant’s business manager Rich Kleiman said he thought it was “unrealistic” for the season to continue. Also, according to Kleiman, he and Durant had yet to discuss this possibility of a return should action resume.
When asked about the matter, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks recently told Grant Chapman of NewsHub: “That’s a $110 million question. In all seriousness, We’ve tried not to talk about [Durant’s] timeline a lot,” adding:
He knows his body better than anybody. Our performance team and training staff have done a tremendous job getting him to this point, but I just don’t know how coming out of this pandemic will affect anybody, let alone Kevin. When you’ve got enough invested in a player like Kevin, we’re never going to push him to come back. When the timing is right, he’ll be 100% when he gets on the court.
Most importantly, Marks concluded by stating:
I can tell you this though: before the pandemic, he looked like Kevin Durant and that’s a good thing.
Durant’s Nets teammates have expressed a similar sentiment, especially those who participated in his three-on-three workouts before the hiatus.
Kevin Durant’s business manager sees permanent changes coming to sports
Rich Kleiman thinks the COVID-19 outbreak will lead to changes in sports for the long haul, not just the short-term.
As the NBA and other professional sports leagues work toward plans for when they’re allowed to resume play, one thing that seems clear is there won’t be fans at games to start.
But the absence of a crowd at games could just be one of many changes the sporting world experiences.
While no fans at games seems like a short-term change, Rich Kleiman, business manager of Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant, said “Yeah,” when asked by CNBC if could see permanent change coming to sports, adding:
In the short term, I think societal changes will affect what our interest level is in terms of attending games. I think there’s been AR and VR technologies that have been in development that were slowly rolling out, that you may see sped up. Especially because we’re looking at fanless arenas and stadiums for the foreseeable future. So I think trying to engage the fan at home with more and more offerings. I think you’ll start to see that.
Still, Kleiman isn’t looking for too much deviation from the way things were in the sports world pre-COVID-19.
I’m hoping that, in time and when there’s more confidence throughout all of society and different therapeutics and eventually a vaccine is introduced to the world, that being in a stadium, being in an arena will never be replicated by being at home. So I hope all of that comes back. But in the short-term, there will definitely be some real changes.
Nets Daily: Rich Kleiman said that the …
Rich Kleiman — KD’s friend, agent and …
Rich Kleiman — KD’s friend, agent and business partner — made a couple things explicitly clear during a recent conversation with Warriors general manager Bob Myers. “When I hear the media broke up the Warriors — that’s so ignorant,” he said. “It’s giving them way too much power. Or that Draymond (Green) and Kevin getting into it in a game — it’s ignorant. “Anybody who wrote that clearly hasn’t played competitive sports at any level.”
Kevin Durant hasn’t discussed returning after NBA hiatus with his manager
If the NBA finds a way to continue with the 2019-20 season, the Brooklyn Nets may still be without Kevin Durant.
At the start of April, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks stated that the team’s four players who tested positive for COVID-19 were now symptom-free. When those four players were first diagnosed, only one had displayed any symptoms.
Kevin Durant was among the four, but he was not the one who was displaying symptoms. In fact, according to his business manager, Rich Kleiman, Durant never showed any symptoms of COVID-19.
Additionally, Kleiman recently provided an update on the forward’s rehab of his surgically repaired right Achilles while the league has been on hiatus during an appearance on Sports Illustrated’s “The Crossover” podcast:
He’s doing good. He’s exactly where he’s supposed to be. It’s been almost a year since the injury. But, you know, he’s been able to maintain his rehabilitation during this period, not to the same extent. But, you know, he’s continuing to get stronger and keep building and playing. And, you know, things have slowed down tremendously for everyone, just like if he wasn’t rehabbing back. But this hasn’t thrown him off the path to coming back to play.
What does that all mean if the NBA tries to finish off 2019-20? At this point, nothing. Kleiman still hasn’t talked with Durant about him coming back for this season if the league resumes play:
I promise you, Kevin and I have not talked about that. And I know it sounds crazy, but my assumption has been that wasn’t very realistic. I know when the time will be right to have that conversation but it just hasn’t been that time and it just doesn’t feel like it’s needed.
And Kleiman hasn’t felt the need to bring up the possibility because “it just seems so unrealistic.”
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