Durant, a two-times NBA champion and twice Finals MVP, had
requested a trade at the end of June before free agency, with
the 12-times All-Star linked to teams such as the Boston
Celtics, the Miami Heat and the Toronto Raptors.
"Steve Nash and I, together with (Nets co-owners) Joe Tsai and
Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and (his manager) Rich
Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday," Nets General Manager Sean
Marks said in a statement.
"We have agreed to move forward with our partnership. We are
focusing on basketball, with one collective goal in mind: build
a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn."
Last year, Durant had signed a four-year, $198 million extension
that begins this season. He was sixth on the list of the world's
highest-paid athletes over the last year according to Forbes,
earning $92 million in total earnings.
He averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 55
games last season.
Durant had joined Brooklyn as a free agent in 2019 alongside
Kyrie Irving in a bid to form a championship winning team along
with James Harden, who was later traded to the Philadelphia
76ers in a deal that brought Ben Simmons to the Nets.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha
Sarkar)
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