Kevin Durant said it was a “pointless exercise” to wonder what might have been if his time with the Brooklyn Nets had worked out, after guiding the Phoenix Suns to victory against his former team.
Durant spent more than three years with the Nets before requesting a trade to the Suns last season, with Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and four first-round draft picks going the other way when he moved to Phoenix last January.
Ahead of Wednesday’s game, Brooklyn’s fans cheered during a tribute video to Durant but then booed the 14-time All-Star once the contest got under way.
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However, Durant had the last laugh over his former employers as his game-high 33 points helped the Suns improve to 28-20 with a 136-120 victory, silencing the Barclays Center crowd.
Big things were expected when the Nets partnered Durant with Kyrie Irving and James Harden, but speaking after Wednesday’s game, Durant was reluctant to speculate on what they could have achieved.
“I mean, that’s just a pointless exercise, in my opinion, to think about what could have been,” he said.
“What happened? That’s what I thought about, what actually happened, the reality of it. We didn’t have enough time together. That’s just it.
Numbers in New York
Durant: 33 PTS, 8 AST, 5 REB, 2 BLK
Nurkić: 28 PTS, 11 REB, 6 AST, 2 BLK
Booker: 22 PTS, 8 AST, 3 REB, 2 STL
Gordon: 17 PTS, 4 AST, 5 3PM
Beal: 12 PTS, 5 AST, 3 REB
Okogie: 11 PTS, 7 REB, 1 STL
Eubanks: 6 PTS, 6 REB, 1 BLK pic.twitter.com/kpAnoQoFE3— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) February 1, 2024
“Guys wanted to go their separate ways. We tried our hardest to salvage everything together. We had three or four different teams from when I signed here until I left.
“But at the end of the day, I enjoyed coming to work, being a part of this community and playing, representing Brooklyn; regardless of what went on, what was said or how I felt, I still came to work.”
Durant, Irving and Harden only played 16 games together in Brooklyn before Harden became the first of the trio to request a move, with Irving and Durant subsequently following him through the exit door.
Durant is still reluctant to look back on his stint with the Nets as a failure, saying the experience made him a better player.
“I like to look at success as what you do as an individual and how you can bring that to a team, as an individual,” Durant added.
KD’s 18th 30-point game of the season
Tonight’s @FanDuel Stat Line of the Game! pic.twitter.com/DrcrqDLKhH
— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) February 1, 2024
“I was an All-Star every year. I was the leading vote-getter every year in All-Star games. But team success is a different thing.
“How the team does, you’d like to put that on one of the best players and call it a failure. But if you want to talk about me individually, you can just look at the work that I put in here.
“I think I’ve grown as a player. I’m on my way to mastering the game. I think coming here helped me, pushed me far closer to that. So that’s what I try to take from my time here.”
