The previous Nets star changed his tune in another meeting after broadly telling New York’s HOT 97 radio broadcast in 2019 that more youthful players didn’t believe the Knicks’ image to as of late be basically as cool as those of different groups that had won more.
“The brand was cool, however at that point, you know I’m not taking a gander at the cool brand beyond the game,” Durant told his representative, Rich Kleiman, during a Boardroom.tv discussion distributed Tuesday.
“When I looked at the team, I thought it wasn’t fun to play for. The group was not cool to watch. It was anything but a decent group to watch. I could have decorated a tad or lied a tad about, similar to, the brand. I could have tossed the brand in there, as well.”
In October 2019, Durant made his initial remarks on HOT 97’s “Ebro in the Morning,” roughly three months after deciding to sign with the Nets rather than the Knicks. At that point, the Knicks had not made the end of the season games in six seasons and were new off a shocking 2018-19 mission in which they completed a NBA-most terrible 17-65.
“I think a ton of fans view at the Knicks as a brand and anticipate these more youthful players who, in the course of their life, don’t recall the Knicks being great,” Durant told HOT 97 in that 2019 meeting.
“The Knicks were in the Finals in 1999, which I saw, but the kids who came up after me didn’t see that. So that entire brand of the Knicks, to them, isn’t quite as cool as suppose a Brilliant State Heroes, or even the Lakers or the Nets now. You understand what I’m talking about? The cool thing right presently isn’t the Knicks.”
Kleiman encouraged Durant to sign with the Knicks in 2019, as did the perpetual Elite player’s dad and auntie.
“Around then, they weren’t [cool],” Durant said on Tuesday’s show. ” The Knicks weren’t cool, however they are a cool brand. … They’re popping at present. They’re playing great. The most recent couple of years, they were playing great. However, before that, they weren’t playing great.”
Durant, who passed on the 2019-20 season as he rehabbed from a torn Achilles, collaborated with Kyrie Irving to sign with Brooklyn, where they and James Solidify figured out how to win just a single season finisher series together during a doomed “Enormous Three” period. The Nets exchanged Solidify to Philadelphia in 2021 preceding sending Irving to Dallas and Durant to Phoenix last year.
After a frustrating 21-33 beginning to this season, the Nets terminated lead trainer Jacque Vaughn on Monday. Jalen Brunson and the Knicks, on the other hand, regularly play in front of raucous crowds at Madison Square Garden, which is why they are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference with a record of 33-22.
