Kevin Durant gave a lengthy interview to ESPN, touching on several interesting topics.
Inevitable to start from the request for trade he made in the summer to the Brooklyn Nets, turning the entire NBA upside down. A request that later failed to materialize and seemed to have left an aftermath, something Durant himself categorically denied.
It was a summer thing, we were not playing in those days and therefore it had no impact on our work, there were no ongoing questions on the subject. The fundamental difference with the trades requested by other super stars in the past is precisely that mine did not come during the course of the season. Before training camp we made everything clear and our performance was not affected at all. During the pre-season Irving and I bonded even more, then with the first few wins everything fell into place.
Durant also talked about the criticism for the many games of regular season resulting in. not very intense, rejecting this view.
I don’t see this as a problem. The fans are becoming more and more competent, it’s true, but they should only think about enjoying the show. People only see the matches and evaluate us based on our salaries, then they start talking about poor motivation. Fans always demand a high standard of performance, but they don’t take into account the number of matches, travel, training. We players every night play with as much intensity as we can muster in that challenge that maybe comes at the end of a road trip. In recent years the enjoyment of the sport has changed, in the NBA landscape there are so many ancillary elements that capture interest such as the draft and free-agency, everything is seen in a consumer logic.
KD then seemed critical of the midseason tournament hypothesis.
I don’t hate it but I don’t love it. I don’t think it would affect the season, we would approach it like a regular season match. Those matches would have a little more value but it wouldn’t change much.
