Kevin Durant has weathered trade rumors.
Rumors swirled about Durant potentially being traded from the Suns on the first night of the 2024 NBA Draft in late June, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting at the time that the Rockets were interested in a move to Phoenix.
This came after the Rockets acquired future draft picks in a trade with the Nets.
On the same day as Wojnarowski’s report, “First Take” personality Stephen A. Smith said on his morning ESPN show:[The Suns] “I want to get the hell out of Kevin Durant right now.”
Durant is currently in Las Vegas training with USA Basketball in preparation for the Summer Olympics in Paris. He told Yahoo Sports He spoke about trade rumors, slamming those that said he wanted to leave the Suns or that the team wanted to cut him.
“Any time you want attention, you can press the ‘KD wants out’ button,” Durant told Yahoo on Saturday.
“Yes, that’s a button. What else is going to motivate people at this time? The other thing is, ‘Oh, the journeyman is quitting again.’ That story is sure to be a hit.”
This lines up with what Suns general manager James Jones said about the trade rumors when asked about Smith’s comments on the first night of the draft.
“It’s a question, it’s a topic of discussion, it’s a high-click thing that everyone wants to talk about,” Jones told reporters. According to AZ Central“But I think I said that specifically on May 19th when I was asked if I was going to trade Kevin Durant. I said no then and I’m still going to say no now.”
Durant, who is seeking his fourth gold medal with the U.S. team, called the rumors about a Suns trade “fake” and added that it’s hard to ignore what’s being said about him.
“So when someone says, ‘Phoenix wants to get rid of KD. [business]”I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Where is this coming from?'” Durant said. “It bothers me that people would tell lies like that and that viewers would just swallow the headlines. It makes me sad to see people believe lies and just make up bullshit.”
Durant is under contract through the 2025-26 season with an average annual salary of $48,554,830. From Spotrac.
But after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last season, before stepping onto an NBA court again next season, Durant will be looking to lead the United States to glory, just as he did in the 2012, 2016 and 2020 games.
He is averaging 20.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in international games.
Durant, who won two NBA Finals titles with the Warriors, added that winning another title remains important to him.
“Obviously, I want to win a championship. Absolutely,” Durant told Yahoo. “I want to play well every game. I don’t even need to say that.”
