Kevin Durant shook the NBA when he requested a trade from the Nets. But that was not the end of it. He followed up by issuing an ultimatum to the team’s owner Joe Tsai, telling him to either fire head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks or trade him.
Neither of those things happened as Tsai expressed support to the coach and GM. With Durant set to play for the Nets this coming season, Nash was asked about his ultimatum.
“Kevin and I go way back,” Nash said. “Families go through things like this, go through adversity, you go through disagreements. This is not new to the NBA. This happened dozens of times. I’m sure every organization faced it.
“It’s a part of the process, it’s a part of working in this business. It’s super competitive. We’re all prideful and we all have expectations and when we get dinged up like we did last year, everyone’s disappointed. We cleared the air, we spoke, we got on the same page.
“Like I said, we go way back and we got a lot to be thankful for and a lot to build on. I’m glad we got it behind us and he’s been outstanding since we had our chat. He’s come in and been amazing in our gym. I think he’s put in a tremendous amount of work this summer as have we. Everyone’s done their part. Now it’s time for us to get on the floor tomorrow and come together.”
