LOS ANGELES — The Nets’ period of superstars seems to be over.
The Nets have agreed to commerce Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns for a bundle of gamers and first-round picks, in accordance to an individual accustomed to the deal who was not licensed to focus on it publicly. The settlement was reached solely days after the Nets traded their star guard Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.
The trades will successfully draw the curtain on a quick, hopeful however finally unsatisfying period in Brooklyn wherein the Nets gathered elite gamers like Durant, Irving and James Harden and cultivated hopes of a number of N.B.A. championships. Instead, the franchise endured a sequence of bitter standoffs, ugly headlines and playoff disappointments with its stars, and one after the other allow them to go.
On Wednesday evening, three and a half years after he and Durant signed as free brokers, and virtually a 12 months to the day since they offloaded Harden to Philadelphia, Irving fired a ultimate shot over his shoulder at his former staff upon studying that Durant, like him, was now an ex-Net.
“I just am glad he got out of there,” Irving mentioned.
In change for Durant, the Nets will obtain the forwards Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson and Jae Crowder, together with 4 first-round draft picks and the suitable to swap one other future first-round decide. The Suns additionally will obtain ahead T.J. Warren from the Nets.
The new broke as Irving was getting ready to meet with reporters after his first sport with the Mavericks, a 110-104 victory in opposition to the Clippers in Los Angeles.
“We had a lot of conversations throughout the year of what our futures were going to look like,” Irving mentioned of Durant. “There was still a level of uncertainty, but we just cared about seeing each other be places where we can thrive. And whether that be together or that be apart, there’s never been one moment where I felt like he’s been angry at me for decisions I made or I’ve been angry at him.”
The Nets launched Durant and Irving because the marquee members of a franchise-altering free company class in the summertime of 2019. The staff later acquired Harden from the Houston Rockets in January 2021, creating the type of superteam most agree is required to win titles within the trendy N.B.A. While their expertise was by no means questioned, their groups by no means lived up to these large expectations.
“We played very limited time together,” Irving mentioned. “There were a lot of injuries and things that took place. I would have liked to see that work for the long term.”
Irving’s personal choices performed a task in these separations; he appeared in solely 29 video games through the 2021-22 season, largely as a result of he declined to get vaccinated in opposition to the coronavirus, which was required in a New York City mandate for a lot of personal sector staff on the time.
The Nets suspended him once more, for eight video games this season, after he posted a hyperlink to an antisemitic movie on his social media accounts after which refused to disavow antisemitism or apologize for posting the hyperlink. While he was out and in of the staff, Durant additionally missed many video games due to accidents.
Instead of successful championships collectively, all three stars ultimately requested trades. Harden’s request got here first, and he left for Philadelphia final 12 months.
Durant requested to be traded over the summer time — he and the Nets ultimately made an uneasy, and finally short-term, peace — and Irving requested to be moved throughout the previous few weeks.
On Tuesday, in his first feedback because the commerce, Irving mentioned that he had felt disrespected by the Nets’ entrance workplace, which in his view had not been sincere with him.
“I know I want to be in a place where I’m celebrated and not just tolerated or just kind of dealt with in a way that doesn’t make me feel respected,” Irving mentioned on Tuesday.
The Nets by no means superior previous the Eastern Conference semifinals throughout Irving and Durant’s three full seasons on the staff. The Boston Celtics swept them within the first spherical of the playoffs final season.
Phoenix reached the deal to purchase Durant a day after the N.B.A. board of governors permitted the sale of the Suns and the W.N.B.A.’s Mercury to Mat Ishbia, a billionaire mortgage lender who bought a majority stake within the staff from Robert Sarver. Sarver offered the staff after an N.B.A. investigation discovered that he had engaged in office misconduct, together with utilizing racial slurs, demeaning ladies, and treating Black folks and girls unfairly throughout his tenure as staff proprietor.
Ishbia, throughout his introductory information convention on Wednesday morning, mentioned he needed to “think big” concerning the Phoenix groups.
“How do we make these the elite franchises in the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A.?” he requested. “I want to make it so that everyone looks at the Mercury and the Suns as the best.”
On the Suns, Durant will play alongside a proficient younger scorer in Devin Booker and an skilled level guard in Chris Paul. He and Irving ought to collide often now that each are within the Western Conference.
“This business changes so quickly,” Irving mentioned. “He’s getting a little bit older, I’m getting a little bit older. I just love the competition now.”
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