Veteran player Kevin Durant has defended his and Kyrie Irving’s trade. Durant and Irving moved to Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks respectively from Brooklyn Nets recently. Durant feels it’s great for the NBA as it brings more attention and interest among the fans.
Durant feels player trade requests are not bad for the league as it is bringing more interest and excitement.
“I don’t think it’s bad for the league,” Durant said Saturday during his All-Star news conference. “It’s bringing more eyes to the league, more people are more excited. The tweets that I get; the news hits that we got from me being traded, Kyrie being traded; it just brings more attention to the league and that’s really what makes the money in, when you get more attention. So, I think it’s great for the league, to be honest.”
Continuing on his thoughts, “Teams have been trading players and making acquisitions for a long time,” Durant said. “Now when a player can kind of dictate where he wants to go and leave in free agency and demand a trade, it’s just part of the game now. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s bringing more and more excitement to the game.”
In fact, Durant and Irving, both received backlash from some of the NBA experts for taking the trade move into their own hands.
“It’s a bad situation,” Irving said Saturday. “Why doesn’t anyone have the ability to ask for trades? That’s my question. When did it become terrible to make great business decisions for yourself and your happiness and peace of mind? Not every employer you’re going to get along with, so if you have the chance to go somewhere else and you’re doing it legally, I don’t think there’s a problem with it.”
On the other hand, NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended the idea of player trade requests. Silver feels it helps the teams break bad relationships and find the right balance in the league.
“You want teams to be in a position with smart management where they can rebuild or make smart moves or, frankly, with both teams and players, work themselves out of bad relationships,” Silver said. “You want to find the right balance. You want, obviously, players to honor their contracts, and at the same time a certain amount of player movement is good.”
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