Brooklyn Nets meet Kevin Durant, agree to “move forward” together after Star’s business demands

Kevin Durant He resides in Brooklyn, according to a statement from Nets general manager, Sean Marks.

“[Coach] Steve Nash and I are with [governors] “Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday,” Marks said in a statement. We agreed to move forward with our partnership. We focus on basketball, with a collective goal in mind: to build a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn.”

Durant initially requested the trade on June 30 and reiterated that desire in a meeting with Joe Tsai in London earlier this month, sources confirmed to ESPN. During that meeting, Durant wanted Tsai to choose between him and Nash and Marx’s mind team.

Instead, Nash and Marks will keep their jobs, while Durant will remain in Brooklyn, New York, where a four-year, $198 million extension has signed him with his last off-season kicks of the season.

The nets spent the bulk of the post-season dealing with turmoil from superstars Durant and Keri Irving.

Irving, who played 29 games last season after opting not to get a COVID-19 vaccine, created a list of teams he would like the Nets to consider working on a signing and trading deal. However, no viable trade materialized and Irving opted for the final year of his contract. The Nets can still trade it as an expired contract (although Irving won’t have an official vote on a potential landing spot) and he has until June 30 next year to work on an extension before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

With Irving and Durant remaining with the squad, the Nets will look to improve on last year’s playoff exit and hope Ben Simmons It will be part of that.

Simmons traded with Brooklyn in a deal that was sent James Harden to Philadelphia, but he never made his first appearance on the Nets. Simmons underwent a microdiscectomy in May to address the pain in a herniated disc in his lower back, but he is expected to be healthy for training camp.

According to Caesars Sportsbook, the Nets’ odds of winning the NBA Championship went from 18-1 to 9-1 after the Nets announced Durant would stay. Brooklyn’s 9-1 odds push ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers for the fourth-best title odds behind the Celtics (+450), Warriors (+650), Suns (+800), Clippers (+800) and Bucks (+800).

Information from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was used in this report.