Kevin Durant is over the trade rumors.
On the first night of the 2024 NBA Draft at the end of June, rumors were flying that Durant could be dealt away from the Suns, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting then that the Rockets were interested in making a move with Phoenix.
That came after the Rockets acquired future draft picks in a deal with the Nets.
On the same day as Wojnarowski’s report, “First Take” personality Stephen A. Smith said on the morning ESPN show that “[The Suns] want out of Kevin Durant right now.”
Well, Durant, now working out with USA Basketball in Las Vegas for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, spoke to Yahoo Sports about the trade buzz, and he railed stories that said he wants to leave the Suns or that his team wants to get rid of him.
“You could just press the ‘KD want to leave’ button anytime you want some attention,” Durant said to Yahoo on Saturday.
“Yes, it’s a button. What else is gonna get people going around this time? Besides, ‘Oh, the journeyman is leaving again.’ That story is always gonna hit.”
This echoes what Suns general manager James Jones said about the trade rumors when asked about Smith’s comments after the first night of the draft.
“It’s the question, it’s the topic of discussion, it’s the stuff that gets clicks that everyone wants to talk about,” Jones told reporters then, according to AZ Central. “But I think I said it specifically back on May 19th when I was asked are we trading Kevin Durant. I said ‘no’ then, I’ll say ‘no’ now.”
Durant, who is hoping to win his fourth gold medal with Team USA, added that the claims about the Suns trade rumors were “lies,” and that he said it was hard to ignore what was said about him.
“So for somebody to say, ‘Phoenix wants to get out of the KD [business],’ I’m sitting here like, where is this coming from?” Durant said. “It bothers me that people lie like that and that the audience eats up the headline. I get sad when people buy into lies and just make up s–t.”
Durant is under contract through the 2025-26 season with an average-annual salary of $48,554,830, per Spotrac.
But before he takes the floor in the NBA again next season — after getting swept in the first round of the playoffs this past season — Durant will look to lead the U.S. to glory after doing so at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 games.
In international competition, he’s averaged 20.6 points and 5.6 rebounds.
A two-time NBA Finals winner with the Warriors, Durant added that winning another title is still important to him.
“Of course, I want to win the championship. Of course,” Durant told Yahoo. “I want to play well every game, like I don’t even have to talk about that type of stuff.”
