Kevin Durant shared his thoughts on a few Nets topics during an interview on Elite Media Group’s Play For Keeps Podcast.
On whether teammate Kyrie Irving is misunderstood following the role he played in players voicing concerns about playing in the Orlando bubble:
“With anybody in the league, what does misunderstood mean? You know exactly what he’s talking about. You know what I’m saying. All of us do.
“I think the truth sometimes can hurt a lot of people. When you tell the raw truth, especially in this society, it’s frowned upon,” Durant told hosts Kameron Hay and Drew. “And Kyrie just tells it how it is, there’s no sugar coating. If he walks into the gym one day and say, ‘I don’t like how this going.’ It’s probably not going well. But he just don’t mind voicing it.
“In this situation with the NBPA, he wasn’t the only one that had a problem with what was potentially going to happen in the bubble. Everyone had concerns. But obviously he’s Kyrie, the biggest one. That’s going to sell papers. Especially at this time, during the pandemic, nobody’s making money. So you get an opportunity to get some clicks, it’s easy to use Kyrie. But there’s 80-90 players who had the same questions he had.
“He’s not even the voice for them, he’s one of the bunch. We all are a voice. We all had a concern. So it’s like, Kyrie wasn’t the one (who said), ‘Let’s get everybody together.’ No, five or six people called one another and their like, ‘oh s---t, I’m feeling that way too.’ Then another ten people called. That’s how we got it together. But Kyrie’s the biggest voice of them all because he relates to everybody in the league.
“He says it all the time. He’s not going to let the system or whatever this is make him conform to something that he’s not on the day to day. Whether it’s as a basketball player, trying to tell him how to play; as a person, trying to tell him how to speak or what to think about. From anything involving basketball, he’s going to have his own thoughts and opinions. It’s really on everybody else to just kind of let him be who he is. Because he’s not bothering anybody, he don’t get in trouble. He is who he is.”
Durant and Irving are expected to take the court together for the first time as Nets next season. Durant, who missed the 2019-20 season while rehabbing an Achilles injury, reiterated in the interview that the opportunity to play with Irving and some of the young Nets drew him to Brooklyn.
“I wanted to be around younger players. I wanted to be around Caris LeVert – guys who I got to know over the last couple of years. Spencer Dinwiddie, somebody I enjoyed playing against,” he said. “So everything felt like it aligned when I was thinking about it. And obviously, Kyrie is somebody I admire, his game. (Somebody) I wanted to hoop with. It was just who I wanted to hoop with at this point. What’s the next experience? I felt that would be a good place for me to experience basketball. Whatever that brings, everything that comes with me. And I felt that it was the perfect time for me to step into that phase… I’m excited about playing in front of that fan base, whenever that is.”
On Jamal Crawford:
“Mal is just a hooper, through and through. He’s one of those guys that just loves to play and appreciates being in the NBA. Even if he’s not playing big minutes, I think it’s somebody you need to have on your roster especially if he can still practice and still be a player. I understand if he can’t move and he can’t guard anybody and he can’t play - but he can still move. Even if you’re not going to play him big minutes, he’s not going to complain. He’s just going to do his job, but also he’s going to be good for the younger players. He’s been great for Caris and Joe Harris, he’s been great for them. Just getting reports back from GM Sean (Marks) and some of the guys down there. They just love having him around.”
Crawford signed with the Nets prior to the restart of the NBA season in Orlando. Marks has intimated that the organization will consider re-signing him for next season. He’s played in one game for Brooklyn in Orlando, suffering a hamstring injury in his Nets debut. He missed Brooklyn’s prior games due to conditioning issues.
Durant believes Crawford can add a lot to a team even in a limited role.
“You need people like that on your roster, even if they’re the 15th, 14th man,” he said. “I think Jamal can provide a lot for you in that role, you know what I’m saying? If you can throw somebody like him out there, end of a playoff game or end of a game, he can definitely win you a game, hit some shots.
“And you minimize his role? Give him a few minutes with the third unit or the second unit? He’ll get buckets. He can swing a game, be an x-factor still.”