Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving left the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, respectively, to join the Brooklyn Nets in free agency. Even though their previous employers wanted them to stay, they decided to leave amid some reports suggesting they fell out with ex-teammates.
Durant joined the Warriors in a somewhat controversial fashion from the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016. He helped the team make three consecutive NBA Finals appearances, winning two titles in the process, and also winning two NBA Finals MVP awards. The franchise decided to retire his No. 35 jersey, and it seems that Durant has a good relationship with his former team, the front office, and teammates.
However, it wasn’t all perfect for Durant in his final season with Golden State. Namely, he had a feud with Draymond Green, and Green even questioned Durant’s commitment to the team. Green earned a one-game suspension for his remarks, but even though there were speculations that there is still bad blood between them, Green dismissed them.
“Absolutely. I actually talked to K yesterday. You know, Kevin is my brother. He came to Golden State for three seasons. We won two championships … if someone would’ve told me, man, Kevin Durant’s gonna come to the Warriors and you guys are gonna win two championships and then have a shot at winning a third, would you take that? In a heartbeat. And so that was a major success. That’s my brother, and I’m happy for him,” Green told ESPN in a recent interview.
Draymond Green on speaking with Kevin Durant this summer and on how he found out KD was gone. pic.twitter.com/wI0Hq2BrM9
— TheWarriorsTalk (@TheWarriorsTalk) August 14, 2019
On the other hand, Irving spent two years with the Boston Celtics, and many expected him to lead the young team to the NBA Finals. However, the Celtics only managed to finish in 5th place in the Eastern Conference and were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Terry Rozier, who served as Irving’s backup in Boston, openly criticized Irving and said that if the Celtics re-signed Irving, he wooud be looking for another team to join. Following Irving’s departure and Rozier’s arrival to Charlotte, Terry changed his story and said that he never had a problem with Kyrie.
“I’m going to sit right here and have the best seat in the house, and I’m going to watch him do his thing,” Rozier said. “And I was a fan like that. But, of course, I still wanted the Celtics to win. But that’s just me loving the game. And it was just like, Oh let me see what I could take from his game and see the type of person, see how wired he is.”
Terry Rozier says his fallout in Boston had nothing to do with Kyrie Irving: “A lot of people think that me and Kyrie not cool, but we text.”https://t.co/XPLfIOv5OF pic.twitter.com/lP3duoa8F7
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 14, 2019
“A lot of people don’t know how great of a person he is. A lot of people think I hate Kyrie. And a lot of people think that me and Kyrie not cool, but we text, and I text him right before free agency. I sent him the eyes, and he sent the eyes right back, basically like you know what it’s going to be.”
