Kevin Durant gets emotional when discussing Nets tenure

“It was a lot of ups and downs, but I love the grind. Everybody in Brooklyn loved the grind too, so I built a family over there. They’re always going to be a part of my journey, so we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish by winning a championship, but I enjoyed the grind. We tried are hardest every day, regardless of what was going on in the media, going on with our teammates.

“I love those guys, I get emotional talking about it because that was a special four years of my career. Coming off an Achilles [tear]. They helped me through a lot. It was terrible how some stuff went down, but at the end of the day, I loved the grind. I wish them the best going forward.”

There was so much hope for the Big Three of Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden forged in Brooklyn. However, the group seemed almost doomed from the start. Irving took a hard stance on not acquiescing to COVID vaccine mandates and chose not to play with his superstar teammates for much of the period they were together.

Furthermore, various injuries to the trio also hampered their progress before they were broken up at the NBA trade deadline last season. When asked Thursday why the three-headed scoring monster didn’t work, Durant felt the lack of actual time together was the trio and Brooklyn’s undoing.

“We just didn’t get on the court enough. I think when you saw James, Kyrie, and myself, it was amazing basketball, but for 17 games though. In order for you to win a championship and be a great team, you need more time on the floor. It’s another story about why we didn’t get on the floor together but we just didn’t get enough time. Those are Hall-of-Fame players I learned a lot from every day. It just didn’t work out.”

Durant is expected to make his Phoenix Suns debut after the NBA All-Star break.