Kevin Durant had his introductory press conference with the Phoenix Suns on Thursday, one week after he was traded by the Brooklyn Nets.
Durant said he ultimately pushed for a trade to Phoenix largely because Kyrie Irving put in his own trade request to get out of Brooklyn. Durant acknowledged that Irving’s trade request “took away our identity” as a team.
“I was upset that we couldn’t finish,” Durant said. “I thought we had some good momentum. We were finally building a culture that we always wanted. I felt like every game we were building our chemistry, but I didn’t know what was going on with Kyrie and his situation with the organization, so I didn’t really focus on that. I only focused on what we were doing on the court, and it was a blow to our team. It just took away our identity. He was a huge, huge part to what we do. His game, he’s a Hall of Fame player, a great, great player, that can do everything on the floor and we relied on that.
“So without him we didn’t have a clear identity. So that was tough for me to stomach. I love playing with those guys throughout the year. I felt like we had dudes that were stepping up and doing stuff that they didn’t do on their previous teams. So I enjoyed everything about it — it was tough not finishing the season, but I just tried to move forward as quickly as I can and try to figure something out for myself, but also still focus on trying to rehab and get back. So it all happened so fast, but I’m glad it worked out this way.”