Kevin Durant speaks on Brooklyn Nets trade and tenure

Kevin Durant in the Phoenix Suns won't visit the Barclays Center until January 31, but they were back in New York City this weekend, as the Suns played the Knicks at Madison Square Garden yesterday. The New York area may have had Durant feeling nostalgic as he spoke to reporters about his Brooklyn Nets tenure and his trade request.

Durant averaged 29 points and 7.1 rebounds per game as a Brooklyn Net. The 29 points per game were the most points Durant averaged with any of his four teams, and the 7.1 rebounds are tied for the most rebounds. Plain and simple, Durant was one of the best players in Nets franchise history

Durant spoke on his Nets tenure and trade request out of Brooklyn

Durant requested a trade out of Brooklyn before the 2022-2023 season, but after no team met the Nets' high-return demands, Durant returned to Brooklyn. After a tumultuous start to the season, Durant was shipped off prior to the 2023 trade deadline.

Durant took a subtle shot at Kyrie Irving

Durant also had this to say to reports this past weekend.

“Yeah, it just wasn’t no consistency, no continuity on who we were as a team,” the future Hall of Famer said. “And when you want to win a championship, you’ve got to build an identity from Day 1, and it was just a lot of circumstances that were out of the players’ control that got in the way of us building our continuity.

There was no consistency or continuity because Kyrie Irving was a constant problem for the Brooklyn Nets. His suspension for posting a link to an antisemitic film on his social media accounts and the subsequent initial refusal to apologize caused a ridiculous amount of distractions for Brooklyn, who had to deal with Pro and Anti-Kyrie protests outside the Barclays Center.

It's interesting to hear, but Durant could very well be saying Irving, his good friend, ultimately drove him out of Brooklyn.