Appearing on ESPN’s NBA Countdown ahead of the Suns‘ Christmas Day game against Dallas, Adrian Wojnarowski said that star forward Kevin Durant had been frustrated by the situation in Phoenix, citing Bradley Beal‘s repeated injury absences and an “underwhelming” supporting cast as factors.
Speaking this week to Melissa Rohlin of Fox Sports, Durant dismissed that reporting and expressed a distaste for the speculation it generated.
“I don’t want to get traded,” Durant said. “I’m not frustrated because Brad was injured. I wasn’t frustrated because of the role players on the team. That s–t really was ignorant to me, you know what I’m saying?
“It’s like, yeah, we lose a game – you think I’m supposed to be happy after we lose a game? You know what I’m saying? I’m not frustrated with the whole situation. I may be frustrated at the moment, at a bad play or a tough stretch. But nah, I enjoy the grind.”
It’s worth noting that Wojnarowski didn’t suggest that Durant’s frustration with the Suns’ slow start would lead to a trade request or that the former MVP was doubting Phoenix’s championship upside. Based on Woj’s comments, it sounded as if Durant was frustrated by the circumstances that resulted in Phoenix’s big three rarely playing together early in the season and by the team underperforming relative to its expectations.
However, that NBA Countdown segment led to speculation about Durant’s future in Phoenix, with pundits and other members of the media weighing in with their own thoughts on the subject. For instance, Rohlin notes that a tweet by former NBA guard Brandon Jennings calling for KD to leave the Suns gained plenty of traction on social media.
“The people that respond to that as if I said something, that’s really delusional to me,” Durant said. “Brandon Jennings can have his ideas and opinions, but to act like it came from me is the wildest part. I don’t talk to this guy. He’s got his own opinions on the league, which is fine. But the response to that was like I was saying it. Like, why are (people) even spending this much time worrying about … ‘Does KD deserve better? Or he doesn’t deserve better?’ Like, why are you even talking about this?”
The Suns have continued to play up-and-down ball since Christmas, with Durant missing a handful of games due to his own health issues last week. The team is currently 19-18, but Durant says he’s not discouraged by a first half showing that has Phoenix in play-in territory.
“I love that we’re struggling almost because we can learn from it and get better and move forward from it,” Durant said. “Obviously, I don’t love struggling. But I like finding good things out of winning basketball games. The more film we watch, the more pride we take. The tougher it is, the better we’ll become from it. That’s my mentality the whole time.”
After Durant and fellow stars Kyrie Irving and James Harden pushed to be traded out of Brooklyn, it’s perhaps no surprise that Durant’s feelings about his new situation are being closely monitored and being placed under a microscope. The 35-year-old tells Rohlin that he’s aware of that scrutiny and feels as though he can’t express run-of-the-mill frustration about losses since it will be blown out of proportion.
“Me talking about any frustration is going to turn into people thinking that I’m checked out or I’m trying to ask for a trade,” Durant said. “So, me saying that I’m frustrated, I don’t even want to talk like that. Like, I’m happy about everything.”
Why not quit on another team. It seems to be the norm in the WNBA & the W stands for Whiners
Every league is full of whiners, players and fans.
Just leave the dude in peace.
Whatever decision he made or comes to make is his business.
Let’s enjoy his game, one of best.
NotKevinDurant5370 on X liked this comment
Meanwhile LeBron is doing this everyday
When has Lebron ever demanded to be traded ?
None of the already gazillionaires ($$$$) considered veteran superstars (Bron, KD, Lillard, Giannis, Kawhi, etc) in the NBA think about reducing their max contracts to make their teams more competitive.
So they really don’t care about wining as much as the fans and media think. It’s a business.
By the way, all the vets I mentioned have major sneaker deals in place, which would perfectly supplement a reduced salary in the back end of their careers.
That’s not something the NBPA wants to see. When guys get big money, it raises the payday for everyone else as well.
Wasn’t Ray Allen the last player to take a discount to ring chase?
Why would the players reduce their salary? The players are making millions while the owners are making billions. Why aren’t the owners willing to spend more and increase the cap to make their teams more competitive? They can also just spend mad money like Joe Lacoub has for years to make his his team competitive. Yeah there’s a cap but there’s ways to work with it.
Only warriors and clippers would spend to win. Ujiri would do what’s necessary too. The rest of these GM’s lack guts and are cheap.
#WojCringe
Give it time
All KD has proven. Is he is not DurantGM.
He’s been chasing Bron since he got in NBA. Suns have work to do. He should just do the work in Phoenix. Injuries affect every team.
He also should of made calls. Him and Booker should of been recruiting role players they wanted
They wanted Eric Gordon.
KD should run back to OKC. Imagine him and SGA??? Nobody would wanna deal with that duo.
Man who requested a trade from a struggling team is shocked over suggestions he might soon request a trade from a struggling team.
Can’t win without Steph, But happiness matters