The Nets’ latest foray into the world of superteams might be over.
Kevin Durant, a 12-time N.B.A. All-Star, has requested a trade, and the Nets have given him permission to find a trade partner, Rich Kleiman, Durant’s business manager, told ESPN. Durant’s request came three days after Kyrie Irving decided to opt into the final year of his four-year contract.
Durant and Irving signed with the Nets in 2019 on four-year deals, but last year Durant signed an extension that goes through 2026.
Durant, 33, is widely thought of as one of the best scoring forwards in N.B.A. history. He won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2014, which was one of the four seasons in which Durant has led the league in scoring.
During this past season with the Nets, Durant played in 55 games and averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game.
Durant and Irving came to Brooklyn hoping to win a championship together after Durant recovered from tearing an Achilles’ tendon during the 2019 finals, when he was with Golden State. They had been close friends before joining the Nets.
“We want to end our careers together,” Irving told reporters at their introductory news conference. “We want to do this as a team, and what better place to do it than Brooklyn?”
Even when Irving has been criticized by the media and fans, Durant has publicly supported him. Irving missed much of the season while he was ineligible to play in home games because he refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“I can’t end the friendship based on something like that,” Durant told Yahoo in April, after the Boston Celtics swept the Nets in the first round of the playoffs. “Our friendship is based off who we are as human beings.”
As rumors swirled recently that Irving wanted out of Brooklyn, Durant said on his podcast that he wasn’t involved with Irving’s possible free agency.
“Basketball is obviously the most important thing, but I try not to let that get in the way of somebody else’s personal decision. Like I said, whatever happens, the friendship will still be there,” Durant said.