{"id":521444,"date":"2026-01-07T01:35:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/521444\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:35:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:35:29","slug":"rockets-kevin-durant-says-suns-kicked-him-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/521444\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets&#8217; Kevin Durant Says Suns Kicked Him Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NBA legend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-06_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kevin Durant<\/a> of the Houston Rockets hit the game-winner against the Phoenix Suns on Monday (1\/5). <\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t Durant\u2019s first game-winner of his career, but this one meant a little bit more.<\/p>\n<p>Durant told reporters after the game that his game-winner was special because it came against the Suns. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost definitely,\u201d Kevin Durant said. \u201cA place that I didn\u2019t want to leave. My first time \u2014 I don\u2019t want to sound too dramatic, but I will \u2014 to be kicked out of a place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Suns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/45561747\/sources-suns-trading-kevin-durant-rockets-blockbuster-deal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">traded<\/a> Durant to the Rockets this past offseason. Durant never wanted to leave Phoenix, but it was out of his control.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt feels good to play against a team that booted you out of the building and scapegoated you for all the problems they had,\u201d Durant said. \u201cAnd it hurt because I put all my effort and love and care towards the Suns and the Phoenix area and Arizona in general. But that\u2019s just the business, that\u2019s the name of the game. So, when you play against a [former] team, yeah, you got a chip on your shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Suns almost traded Durant to the Golden State Warriors at last year\u2019s trade deadline. However, the NBA icon made it known behind the scenes that he didn\u2019t want to return to the Warriors. <\/p>\n<p>Durant appeared in 145 games with the Suns in the regular season. Phoenix acquired <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenja05.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-06_bbr\">Jalen Green<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brookdi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=dallashoopsjournal.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-06_bbr\">Dillon Brooks<\/a> from Houston in the blockbuster KD trade. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s nothing but love for the players, but I want to beat that team,\u201d Durant said. \u201cI want to show them that I still got some juice in the tank. Even though I\u2019m old, I still can play. I feel like every player has that mentality playing against their former team. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s malicious in any way towards them. But just as a competitor, you want to go out there and beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Rockets are 22-11 on the season. They are in fifth place in the rugged Western Conference standings. <\/p>\n<p>Durant (37) is averaging 25.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game for Houston. The two-time Finals MVP is shooting 52.0% from the field, 40.4% from 3 and 89.7% from the foul line. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dallashoopsjournal.com\/p\/category\/nba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Latest NBA News &amp; Rumors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA legend Kevin Durant of the Houston Rockets hit the game-winner against the Phoenix Suns on Monday (1\/5).&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,938,6,3101,6050,472,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-521444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-kevin-durant","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-news","15":"tag-nba-rumors","16":"tag-phoenix-suns","17":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115851252483665620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}