I don’t think the Knicks success has anything to do with me or Kyrie. An Organic nba team, what does that even mean in professional sports?

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) May 18, 2025

The Brooklyn Nets were considered a championship contender in the NBA not too long ago and the main reason why was Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving coming to the Nets in the summer of 2019. While the duo surprised many at the time by choosing Brooklyn over the New York Knicks, there are some that believe that Durant and Irving passing over the Knicks actually benefitted the franchise.

Anthony Puccio, site manager for NetsDaily, posted on X that the best thing that happened to New York was Durant and Irving not choosing them years ago. With the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000, many around the NBA believe this statement to be true, except for someone who was in the thick of things at the time.

“I don’t think the Knicks success has anything to do with me or Kyrie,” Durant said on X in response to Puccio. Not only did Durant push back against the idea that he or Irving had anything to do with where the Knicks are at the moment, but he also posed an interesting question for everyone to ponder.

Durant asked “an organic nba team, what does that even mean in professional sports?” In what was once a running joke with the Knicks in that they were linked to every star-level player heading into free-agency during the 2010s, such as Durant and LeBron James, only for those players to sign with other teams.

To Puccio’s point, New York couldn’t rely on marquee free-agent signings to get them to the point of contending for a championship so they had to build a different way. After adding guard Jalen Brunson in free-agency during the 2022 offseason, it’s safe to say that everything for the Knicks took off from there.

Durant and Irving weren’t able to achieve as much as they hoped to do in Brooklyn as they made it past the first round just once in the four seasons they spent with the Nets. Durant may feel that he had nothing to do with where the Knicks are right now, but his choice very well could have benefitted New York at the same time.