![[Rankin] Kevin Durant: "I heard Golden State was in the mix around the trade deadline, but that's when Rich came into play, and those relationships that we built around the league and also playing in Golden State helped, We were able to tell them kind of hold off on that."](https://www.rawchili.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/VWsIMRqFlWqZdUaPbD26RizVKDKhyAFdlvyus0sVXJ8-1920x1024.jpeg)
Kevin Durant filled in some blanks on the timeline of the Phoenix Suns trading him to the Houston Rockets before the 2025 NBA Draft.
Speaking at the Game Plan Sports Business Summit on Tuesday, Sept. 16, in Los Angeles, Durant addressed being traded, saying the Suns let it be known “around February” he was available.
"Initially, I was a little upset because I felt like we built a solid relationship, me and the Phoenix Suns,” Durant said as CNBC and Boardroom hosted the summit event. “And to hear that from a different party was kind of upsetting, but that's just the name of the game. So I got over that quickly and was trying to figure out what the next steps were.”
Durant spoke on the idea of teams making huge trades Feb. 1, after learning about the Dallas Mavericks dealing Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers and getting Anthony Davis in return.
The trade deadline was Feb. 6.
“You start seeing stuff like that, as an organization, you might get a little more courage to do some stuff,” he said after Phoenix lost at Portland. “You see another team trade away somebody like that. This got to be the biggest trade I've seen since I've been in the league or since I've been watching the sport. This is insane. So yeah, every other team might get confidence and say (expletive) it, I'll trade a few of my top players if this ain't working.”
Durant said during the Sept. 16 event that trade chatter involving the Suns possibly dealing him to Golden State last season was real, and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, helped defuse that idea.
Durant won two NBA championships and back-to-back finals MVPs (2017, 2018) with the Warriors.
“I heard Golden State was in the mix around the trade deadline, but that's when Rich came into play, and those relationships that we built around the league and also playing in Golden State helped," Durant said. "We were able to tell them kind of hold off on that.”
Durant remained in Phoenix, but he missed the final seven games of the 2024-25 regular season with an ankle injury suffered March 30 against the Rockets at PHX Arena. Houston won, 148-109.
Three months later, the Suns dealt Durant to Houston for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and the 10th overall pick in the 2025 draft, who ended up being Duke freshman 7-footer Khaman Maluach.
“Since me being on the market in February when there's also a trade deadline, people were just kind of seeing how their seasons played out and what they needed for their teams,” Durant said. “We knew we would revisit that right around the summertime, and Houston kind of jumped on, and it happened pretty fast from there."
Houston is considered a championship contender with Durant, while Phoenix is expected to have a down season without the all-time great. Durant averaged 26.8 points in his 145 games with the Suns, who landed him in a blockbuster deal from Brooklyn before the 2023 trade deadline.
Phoenix never made it past the Western Conference semifinals with Durant. The Suns failed to even make the play-in last season, finishing 36-46 to mark their first losing season since 2019-20, which was the last time they missed the playoffs before last season.
The Rockets and Suns face each other four times this season, with Durant’s first return to Phoenix set for Nov. 24 on Peacock.
12 comments
I’ve heard that Miami intentionally leaked the KD trade to Golden State to try to get him for themselves, which of course let to 2 swings and 2 misses.
As a fit, GS would have been a lot better off with KD instead of Jimmy, particularly with Kuminga in the fold.
Aka – someone with GS hit me up and I said nah
A whole lot of talking from somebody who supposedly “just balls” “loves the game”
“Just wants to play”
Bus rider is literally the perfect adjective to describe him despite how mad it makes him
He’s in a wayy better situation in houston anyways imo. Him going back to GSW wasnt gonna turn the clocks back to 2017, they wouldve still had OKC and Denver to contend with, and I think he knows that.
Plus KD is also injury prone at this stage. Houston is younger and can better offset that, while Steph is just as injury prone and the Warriors have a much smaller margin for error when he’s out.
Instead of playing with steph he rather miss the playoffs and try to carry Houston.
I wanna see if him and their coach will butt heads. Both have large personalities.
[deleted]
The suns should have never let this bum dictate where he would end up. They could have gotten a way better deal.
Most likely not an anti-Golden State thing so much as a pro-Houston thing. He presumably sent out the same information in the summer to other suitors like Minnesota.
I hope the best for him, but the suns owed him nothing. Dude was not putting up shots and was not being a leader. I knew he wasn’t a leader of course, but god damn when shit was getting bad he didn’t do shit to talk or help, and not scoring was crazy to me. He was getting the ball and than would turn the ball over.
honestly if the trade went through, it would’ve been so crazy… im excited to see KD in houston though
It’s funny reading the article saying that Houston won their last game with Durant on Phoenix. It’s a mini version of the prior storyline of people saying he jumped on the team that beat them (OKC to GSW).