It wouldn’t be a free agency without some Kevin Durant trade rumors and some of the biggest names in media are fuelling the fire.
Stephen A. Smith said to ignore what the Suns owner was saying about wanting to keep the 14-time All-Star around.
“[The Suns] want out of Kevin Durant right now,” Smith told viewers on First Take.
Then, Adrian Wojnarowski reported around draft night that Phoenix were interested in making a trade deal with Houston, so the KD to the Rockets rumors started.
Durant isn’t immune to the gossip and he’s fed up of being a victim of the rumor mill.
“You could just press the ‘KD want to leave’ button anytime you want some attention,” Durant told Yahoo Sports.
“Yes, it’s a button. What else is gonna get people going around this time? Besides, ‘Oh, the journeyman is leaving again.’ That story is always gonna hit.”
He also addressed the trade chatter personally, calling the claims “lies”.
“So for somebody to say, ‘Phoenix wants to get out of the KD (business),’ I’m sitting here like, where is this coming from?” Durant said. “It bothers me that people lie like that and that the audience eats up the headline. I get sad when people buy into lies and just make up s***.
“It’s bigger than ball at that point for me. I can’t control that. I feel for people. It’s a bad practice to have when you just believe anything, for one. Just believe what you see on TV. And then it’s another bad habit when you’re just lying.”
Suns GM James Jones was also asked point blank what he thought of Smith’s claims that Phoenix “want out” of the KD situation.
“It’s the question, it’s the topic of discussion, it’s the stuff that gets clicks that everyone wants to talk about,” Jones said, via AZ Central on June 27th. “But I think I said it specifically back on May 19th when I was asked are we trading Kevin Durant. I said ‘no’ then, I’ll say ‘no’ now.”