Kevin Durant discusses the trade rumors about him and his desire to play 'till the wheels fall off'

Kevin Durant discusses the trade rumors about him and his desire to play 'till the wheels fall off'

Kevin Durant discusses the trade rumors about him and his desire to play 'till the wheels fall off', Kevin Durant’s state of mind, happiness and wanderlust always seem to be up for discussion, and even though athletes like him are trained to ignore the noise, it gets to him.

Because in large part, he knows it gets to fans and how they view him. Durant is on the verge of his fourth Olympics and to let people tell it, his fifth NBA franchise isn’t far behind.

“You could just press the 'KD want to leave' button anytime you want some attention,” Durant told Yahoo Sports in an exclusive interview Saturday afternoon following Team USA’s first practice.

“Yes, it’s a button. What else is gonna get people going around this time? Besides, 'Oh, the journeyman is leaving again.' That story is always gonna hit.”

The genesis of this conversation stemmed from draft night, when rumors began to bubble about Durant — who’s barely spent over a full season with the Phoenix Suns — and teams calling for him. The Suns have three maximum salary players, and with the new luxury tax aprons that penalize the big spenders, some began to posit the Suns could be ready to move off Durant for future draft capital.

The Houston Rockets were mentioned as a team who would be a suitor. And Durant, who’s frequently online, saw the rumblings.

“It's hard not to hear what they got to say about you,” Durant said. “Because especially when you could just make up lies and everybody gonna believe you.”

Durant repeatedly called the claims “lies” and said he’s been in regular contact with the Suns' front office, coaching staff and players.

“So for somebody to say, ‘Phoenix wants to get out of the KD (business),’ I’m sitting here like, where is this coming from?” Durant said. “It bothers me that people lie like that and that the audience eats up the headline. I get sad when people buy into lies and just make up s***.

“It’s bigger than ball at that point for me. I can’t control that. I feel for people. It’s a bad practice to have when you just believe anything, for one. Just believe what you see on TV. And then it’s another bad habit when you’re just lying.”

Durant finished another uber-efficient season, playing 75 games — his most since 2018-19, when he tore his Achilles during Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He was a hair away from a 50-40-90 season, because he shot just 86 percent from the line, and put up 27 points, nearly seven rebounds and five assists.

He’s the all-time leading United States Olympic basketball scorer, surpassing Carmelo Anthony in 2021, and he holds the domestic record for points per game in a career, at 19.8.

Durant will reunite with Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry, and he thinks it’ll be an easy transition as this could be the most talented Olympic team since the 1992 Dream Team, or at the very least the 2008 Redeem Team — the latter of which played following Durant’s rookie year in Seattle.

But the conversation rarely centers around his longevity, or consistency. Part of it, he has courted. He left Oklahoma City as a free agent to join the Golden State Warriors in one of the most covered and dissected moves in the history of the game, then left the Bay Area to play in Brooklyn, in a move that underwhelmed to say the least.