Kevin Durant putting in his transfer request has put a dent in the legacy for many reasons, but a former rival reminds the NBA world of Slim Reaper’s greatness.
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Thursday night the Indiana Pacers shocked the NBA community when they offered Phoenix Suns’ Restricted Free Agent Deandre Ayton his $133 million max contract. That meant if Phoenix Suns matched that offer they would go $15 million into Luxury Tax and have no space to sign Kevin Durant.
The Slim Reaper has the Suns on the top of his target destinations, but Devin Booker and Co might have decided to run it back with the same core. They matched the Pacers’ offer without taking much time and made it clear about what their intentions are as they won’t be trading at least Ayton until January 2023.
This leaves one major team which was also on KD’s preferable destination, the Miami Heat. Now whether the Nets would be able to leverage teams into matching their expectations for their $198 million star will be the biggest question until we get an answer.
One of Durat’s and OKC Thunder’s biggest rivals believes there is nothing that can fill the void the Nets’ cerebral assassin will leave behind once he’s gone.
Tony Parker says Brooklyn Nets can never get an adequate return for Kevin Durant
Tony Parker, the former point guard of the San Antonio Spurs who has majorly helped Gregg Popovic and Tim Duncan win 4 of their 5 championship runs says Brooklyn will never get anything close to what they had with KD as he is one of the best of all time.
Spurs’ Legend Tony Parker On @KDTrey5:
“What ever decision they are going to make or trade that they make, if they make a trade. They will never get back what they had w KD. KD is one of the best in the history of our game,” says @tonyparker.#Netsworld #porvita #NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/8BPtIhdFu2
— Landon Buford (@LandonBuford) July 14, 2022
Few know Durant’s greatness better than Tony and others in Spurs camp. When he was in OKC with Russell Westbrook they were one of the top teams of the Western Conference that eliminated the Spurs twice in the postseason. First time – the season before their Finals (2013) and Championship (2014) run in 2012 WCF and the second time in 2016 Conference Semi-finals.
In the sea of criticism where most former players are singing songs of KD’s lack of leadership, his former rival and one of the legends of the game coming out with this take might bring some balance to the unnecessary mockery of The Slim Reaper on the internet.