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Kevin Durant insisted again that as his last season in Golden State wore on, he wanted no part of the Knicks’ spotlight. Too bad former Knicks president Steve Mills didn’t anticipate that as he traded Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas in late January of the 2018-19 season to clear cap room for KD and a star …
Kevin Durant insisted again that as his last season in Golden State wore on, he wanted no part of the Knicks’ spotlight.
Too bad former Knicks president Steve Mills didn’t anticipate that as he traded Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas in late January of the 2018-19 season to clear cap room for KD and a star partner.
“Around February [2019] I was thinking I didn’t want to be the savior of the Knicks or New York,’’ Durant said on JJ Redick’s “Old Man and the Three” podcast. “That never really moved me. I didn’t care about being on Broadway. I just want to play ball and go to the crib and chill.”
Durant wound up with Kyrie Irving and the Nets and Knicks owner James Dolan got egg on his face.
“So I felt like that’s what Brooklyn embodied,’’ Durant said. “And I wanted to live in New York. And I felt like Brooklyn is everything I’m about — chill, on the low, all-black everything, we’re quiet. Just focus on basketball. There’s no show when you come to our games. No Madison Square, no mecca. All of that s–t. We’re just going to hoop and build something new in Brooklyn.”
According to sources, Rich Kleiman, Durant’s manager/agent, was enthusiastic about Durant considering being a Knick and all the possibilities. But ultimately he didn’t convince Durant as media speculation swirled it was “a done deal.’’
“I never planned on going to the Knicks,’’ Durant said. “That was just the media putting that out there, especially when I didn’t sign a three-year deal [as a free agent in 2018],” Durant said. “Once I signed a [one-year deal], just the noise got louder about me going to the Knicks for some reason. Knicks being the savior, you know how that goes. Every time a big free agent is up the Knicks are going to get him. So it just took off.”
Durant will see how much Brooklyn pressure he faces next season — whenever it begins — as he makes his comeback from a season off to rehab a torn Achilles.
