On Friday, Nets forward Kevin Durant confirmed what most had already assumed, officially declaring that he will not play once the NBA season restarts in late July.
"My season is over," Durant told Marc Spears of The Undefeated. "I don't plan on playing at all. We decided last summer when it first happened that I was just going to wait until the following season. I had no plans of playing at all this season."
Durant was also asked if he had any urges to get back on the court sooner rather than later.
"It's just best for me to wait. I don't think I'm ready to play that type of intensity right now in the next month," Durant told The Undefeated. "It gives me more time to get ready for next season and the rest of my career."
After tearing his Achilles in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors in June, Durant joined Kyrie Irving in signing multi-year deals with the Nets. And while it didn't look like there would be any chance that Durant would play in the 2019-20 season, the league's coronavirus hiatus at least brought up the remote possibility that Durant could take the floor when play resumes.
That won't be the case, but he is very much looking forward to the day he's finally able to return to action with his new teammates.
"It will mean a lot. I'm excited," said Durant. "I can't wait to play the game again and be out there with my new team working for a goal that we all want to accomplish. Learning from my experiences, my thought process on the experiences overall and my advice and knowledge from being an NBA player, I'm just looking forward to it all. The new challenge of ahead of me is what I'm excited about."
Much of Durant's interview with The Undefeated focused on the 10-time All-Star's reaction to the ongoing racial injustice protests around the country, with Durant talking about the pride he's felt by seeing people come together after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.
"This is about our culture," Durant said. "I've seen the care, love and attention we have as a community. With everything going on right now it makes me have a lot of pride. We have a lot of stuff on our back, but we keep fighting through. It's beautiful to see everybody coming together as one right now for what we all believe in, which is equality. The black community always sticks together through tragedy. But to see everybody support us in their own way is cool."
Durant told The Undefeated that he's unsure if he'll join the Nets in Orlando due to capacity protocols being put in place, but fans now know for sure that they won't be seeing No. 7 on the floor for Brooklyn until next season.