Kevin Durant reveals what led to Nets trade request

What you got? So we have sportsman is Lamont back with another podcast episode. Got to talk about Kevin Durant today. Kevin Durant, man. His name really held up. All trades all signings for at least a good month and a half to two months players were upset at players like Patrick Beverly talked about it. But when Kevin Durant requested a trade out of the Brooklyn Nets, I mean it shook up to some because the talking and the reason why everyone talked about it because we all know wherever Kevin Durant goes a championship contending team will be created. If you went to Miami, we're talking about Miami. He goes to the Phoenix Suns. We're talking about the Phoenix Suns. If he goes back to Golden State, that's what we're talking about. If the Lakers were able to finesse some weird fan fantastic trade and bring them in that would have been the talk of the summer wherever Kevin Durant go at this stage in his career. He is that talented that team will turn into a championship contender. And so when Kevin Durant requested to trade for many it started to leave many to start speculating what's going on with the Nets. This is not new to me here at FYL sports. I think I might been I might have been one of the few creators consistently saying from December on something's not right internally with this team. Something wasn't right internally with this team. It showed it showed with body language on the court to show what body language off the court. If you paid attention to how guys communicated with Steve Nash, how guys didn't communicate with Steve Nash when you saw James Harden. Asked to get up out of there and just completely give up on that team. There were just so many signs so many signs so many indicators and everyone missed it. Everyone missed what was going on. KD didn't miss it. And when the season ended KD said I won't out especially when Kyrie Irving resigned. That's something that a lot of people need to pay attention to. He asked for a trade out as soon as Kyrie Irving resigned. And I think he saw the dysfunction begun with Kyrie Irving and then only trickled down to the others around them. Maybe the Nets have fixed all of these things. Maybe he's had a deep conversation with the organization with players like Kyrie, but let's go ahead and go to the video. Let's hear just kind of briefly about what Kevin Durant had to say about his trade demands and what created the doubts about the stability of the Brooklyn Nets. There was a lot of uncertainty around our team last year. I committed to this organization for four years last summer with the idea that we was going to play with that group that we kind of went on that little run with the second round with you know, I felt like another year that us being healthy, you know, we were looking we're building something towards the future, you know, so then as the season went on I have, you know, you seen what happened with our season guys in and out the lineup injuries, just a lot of uncertainty which built some doubt in my mind about the next four years of my career. I mean, I'm getting older and I want to be in a place that's stable and trying to build a championship culture. So I had some doubts about that and I voiced in the jail and we move forward from there. But in my mind, I did like what we did, you know, with Sean put together this summer with the team. I knew that with all the adversity that we hit and a lot of failures that we hit as a team last year, you know, guys are going to be working to get better and be better and I had to make that try to not make that a trend. So, you know, in the back of my mind, I was still there and I had conversations with Steve and Joe Claire and Sean and you know, we came to a mutual agreement that we should keep moving forward. There you have it right there. Kevin Durant just kind of speaks briefly. If you guys want to watch the full press conference, the full 14 minutes of his press conference interview. The link to that video is going to be in the description at where you can get a full or you can encompass everything that he was trying to say, but he made some really good points. He talked about him getting older. He wants to be a place that's stable and then wanting to build a championship culture. And I think a lot of people forget that to get to a championship team, you have to first start with some type of championship culture and that is something that they had. They never had in any given season with Brooklyn. There was always some type of adversity or instability, you know, whether it's Kyrie Irving saying that they need more help, whether it's certain guys pushing to bring in James Harden while other guys are resistant to the concept, then they bring in James Harden. Then you obviously have injuries which bring adversity. But the thing that makes those injuries is worse is guys missing in action. We know Kyrie Irving missing in action multiple times for multiple reasons. And then you think about last year Brooklyn Nets the favorites by Vegas to win the NBA championship, but then they start the season with Kyrie Irving out of the lineup because he's refusing to get vaccinated lack of stability right there guys aren't on the same page. Obviously, we don't want to sway him. Obviously, you don't want to force the vaccine on anyone. That's Kyrie Irving's choice. But that choice did come with a price and that price was sacrificing the Brooklyn Nets ability to win a championship. There was no chemistry. There was no consistency. We saw how Patty Mills thrived early in a particular role. But as soon as Kyrie Irving came back in that one game in one game out style of play a lot of the role guys. Their consistency Wayne because they no longer had a true role their roles and identities were changing every game. So there was nothing consistent. So when you talk about stable, I think that a lot of people I don't know why but people are like to put this bubble wrap on Kyrie Irving and protect him from any negativity. But I think everything that Kevin Durant was talking about in his press conference was directly aimed at Kyrie Irving. I think that's where the instability started James James Harden wanted out when he saw the instability. He just didn't waste any time. This is something that Blake Griffin has spoken publicly about. We've seen it in the body language of Patty Mills. We've seen Bruce Brown come out publicly and speak about how that offense was a your turn my turn style of offense and players were going away from the offensive concepts brought in by Steve Nash, which predict which were predicated on moving the ball. We saw how Kyrie Irving was being divisive in that championship culture. You can't build a championship culture. If your players are wanting to run a secondary practice to follow up what the coach is doing and the only intention of that secondary practice is to come up with something different because you don't agree with what the coach is actually trying to implement and run. That's not a championship culture. And so when you talk with you listen to Kevin Durant talk, I think people need to start seeing through the lines. I believe that everything that Kevin Durant said was directly aimed at Kyrie Irving and then the timing of his trade request. I don't think it was a coincidence. He requested a trade. The same time Kyrie Irving resigned. And you don't could up leading up into that point. There was a ton of trade talk. There was a ton of noise. What happens with Kyrie? Is he a Laker? Do they bring Russ in? I don't think that I don't think that Kevin Durant was fine with trading James Harden for Ben Simmons. And then you bring in a Ben Simmons who was dealing with current mental issues. He has a back problem. He doesn't end up playing a game. So you lose your third best player for absolutely nothing. And now you're asking Kevin Durant to carry even more of the load. So Brooklyn had a complete an entire summer of turmoil that has now passed. You have Kyrie Irving Durant and Ben Simmons. They're all ready and healthy. That's the main thing ready and healthy. And so who knows, you know with Ben Simmons, we've seen what been Ben Simmons can do when healthy with Kyrie Irving. I'm now committed and there's no issues with the vaccination preventing him from play home games right now with Kevin Durant locked back in. They brought in a new cast of role players. They added some vets there. Obviously, they lost Blake Griffin. But when you bring in a players like Royce O'Neal and TJ Warren, I think they've done a good job of adding to this roster and continuing to build towards the championship. So we'll see. We'll be able to see clearly from the preseason on to the start of the regular season. If they are working to build that championship culture that Kevin Durant is looking for. Hopefully they don't run into any forks in the road because we know Kyrie is just is a ticking time bomb. He might be there for four three four months. He may disappear in January. We don't know. So we'll have to see how it plays out for an entire season. Hopefully they are able to stay together built that chemistry because if they can I believe this is a team that is a championship contender as constructed. I think they have the weapons in place. I think they have the skill level at the point guard position something that they haven't had in past years. Ben Simmons opens up a lot for Kyrie and KD with his size his ability to defend and things of that nature Royce O'Neal another three and D vet TJ Warren a guy if he can bring any semblance of the player that we saw in the bubble teams will be in trouble. They have a healthy Joe Harris back. So they have a lot of working pieces that are very viable. So I do expect them to be in the mix if they can stay healthy, but I think staying healthy and being available those have been the two biggest questions for the Brooklyn Nets over the last three years. Can they make this fourth year? Can they make everything come together and start to look like the championship team that we all thought they could be but you guys let me know in the comments your thoughts on this thoughts on KD thoughts on if his comments were aimed directly at Kyrie Irving and the instability directly with Kyrie Irving or was he talking about someone else? But let me know in the comments your thoughts on this particular topic man. It was FYI of sports man. Make sure we give a big salute and shout out to our sponsors over at fit a man. These people at Fit Ape man. They sent us a beautiful a beautiful refrigerator man. They stocked it full of Fit Ape man and the drink is awesome and you talking about 200 milligrams of caffeine, but you talking about clean caffeine. They don't have the taurine and all that crazy stuff that all of these other energy drinks have. You're talking about one of the cleanest drinks on the market man. 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But again salute to the people over at Fit Ape for blessing us again with the opportunity to have a refrigerator full of their drink clean energy for days and I will be utilizing it in my workout this evening. I will be hitting my workout tonight. Hey, but it's FYF sports man has been another great podcast episode. We will be back with more sports and news but until then it's FYF sports. We out.