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Kevin Durant, who was tied to both the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat ahead of the Thursday trade deadline, had no desire to leave the Phoenix Suns, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
“He was committed to this team,” Charania said on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “There was no trade requests ever made by Kevin Durant.”
Durant ultimately stayed put amid the multi-team trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors and Andrew Wiggins to the Heat, as reported by Charania and Brian Windhorst.
Charania went on to detail his thoughts on Durant and the trade on SportsCenter:
“This really started in the early part, mid-part of December, when it was known that the Heat were open to listening to trade offers for Jimmy Butler and Butler himself was ready to move on to a win-now destination. And so, the Heat talked to several teams over the last couple of months, but they’ve really been specifically tied to the Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors. And in a lot of these conversations, it was about the asking price. They were able to get Andrew Wiggins in this deal, picks. There were parts of this deal that made it very appealing, but how did we get here yesterday? A lot of that was because over the last week or so, the Suns had discussions with the Warriors about Kevin Durant. and that’s who the Warriors wanted. They had conversations about it once it was made known that Kevin Durant had no parts, wanted no parts of being back with the Warriors, that’s when they moved on and got a deal with Jimmy Butler done quickly.”
“The Suns, because of where they’re placing is in the standings right now, they’ve been getting aggressive calls on Kevin Durant. And one of those teams that has been pursuing Kevin Durant, or had been pursuing Kevin Durant over the last week or so aggressively, was his old team, the Golden State Warriors. Sources told me that Kevin Durant made clear in league circles he had no desire to go back to the Warriors. And so, the Warriors had to move on, but now the Suns are left with this question. And really the interesting part of now going into today, the final day before trades are done with for the season, second half of the season, how do you have these conversations, revive the situation between the Suns and Kevin Durant? It’s always interesting when a player’s name is out there because going into this week, from my understanding, Kevin Durant did not want his name in any type of trade conversation. He was committed to this team. There was no trade requests ever made by Kevin Durant.”
Charania and Windhorst originally reported that the Warriors, Heat and Suns “had been nearing agreement” on a three-team trade that would have sent Durant to the Warriors, but that the deal fell apart when Durant “informed the team he did not want to return to Golden State.”
According to Windhorst, the Heat were also interested in acquiring Durant, but were unable to match the Suns’ asking price without the Warriors involved to bolster the deal.
“I think the Suns were willing to negotiate,” Windhorst said Thursday on his Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast. “I don’t think they were anxious to trade Durant. What you’re going to hear going forward is that the Suns never wanted to trade Durant… but there was a window there for there to be a trade.”
Durant, who turned 36 in September, is currently signed for one more season before he is set to hit unrestricted free agency in 2026. When asked about retiring with the Suns last February, Durant told ESPN’s Malika Andrews he couldn’t confirm he would finish out his career with the franchise but loved playing in Phoenix and “one day would like to receive the franchise’s Ring of Honor.”
The Suns now find themselves in a difficult position after reportedly shopping both Durant and Bradley Beal amid their reported bid to acquire Butler. If Beal and Durant stick around past the 3 p.m. ET deadline, the Suns may need to mend fences with both players as the team continues its bid to find a way into the Western Conference playoff picture.
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