Kevin Durant opens up on Suns split, trade to Rockets

Rockets newcomer Kevin Durant admitted he was caught off guard when the Suns started shopping him ahead of last season’s trade deadline.

“Initially, I was a little upset because I felt like we built a solid relationship, me and the Phoenix Suns,” Durant said at the Game Plan Sports Business Summit, via Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. “And to hear that from a different party was kind of upsetting, but that’s just the name of the game. So I got over that quickly and was trying to figure out what the next steps were.”

One of those next steps was making sure he didn’t end up back with the Warriors. Durant confirmed that he and his team worked to block a Golden State reunion in February.

“I heard Golden State was in the mix around the trade deadline, but that’s when (business partner and manager) Rich (Kleiman) came into play,” Durant said. “We were able to tell them to kind of hold off on that.”

The Suns didn’t move Durant at the deadline, but once he was on the market, he knew the talks would resurface in the summer.

“Since me being on the market in February when there’s also a trade deadline, people were just kind of seeing how their seasons played out and what they needed for their teams,” he said. “We knew we would revisit that right around the summertime, and Houston kind of jumped on, and it happened pretty fast from there.”

Durant averaged 26.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists with Phoenix last season.