Get your freakout on: Kevin Durant says he likes New York
The Nets, along with two-thirds of the NBA, will have enough cap room to offer a max contract this summer. The Knicks could be able to create that room, too. So, the Kevin Durant dreams have swirled around as the Thunder forward and former MVP waits to hit the free-agent market this offseason.
Durant is having yet another typical KD season, one which would firmly entrench him in the MVP race if a guy named Stephen Curry hadn't been running away with the trophy ever since the Warriors' undefeated start which spilled into December. Still, Durant has been as great as ever. Now, coming off a loss to the Nets in Brooklyn, he's sprayed a few words which will certainly stick in New York...amongst both fan bases.
From Brian Lewis of the New York Post:
“It’s always fun. It’s the mecca of basketball, New York City,’’ said Durant, who had 32 points in the Nets’ 116-106 win Sunday and faces the Knicks on Tuesday.
“Just to play here in front of these fans here, who enjoy the game of basketball, it’s amazing. You can tell when you walk into an arena — being at Barclays and being at Madison Square — it’s just that pure basketball feel that you get when you walk in those arenas, so it’s just a joy.”
It's fun when the biggest free agent of the upcoming summer makes a positive comment about your city. KD probably wasn't making up anything he said about NYC. It's certainly possible, if not plausible, a guy who has spent time balling at Rucker Park would love the New York basketball culture. After all, plenty of great players have come out of the five boroughs.
Naturally, New Yorkers are going to get excited about this one, probably Knicks fans more than Nets ones, considering the implication that he feels the same atmosphere in Barclays as he does at MSG is likely just a nice guy being nice. On top of that,, the treading-.500 Knicks already have a young star (Kristaps Porzingis) and a veteran one (Carmelo Anthony) to make them attractive. The 12-33 Nets are missing both. But remember, there are lots of other places for Durant to go, including Oklahoma City, where he could clearly re-up with another max contract.
There are other possibilities than him signing a long-term deal this summer, too. The salary cap isn't just going up in 2016-17. It's also going up in 2017-18 (work stoppage pending). And considering Russell Westbrook's contract runs a year longer than Durant's, it could even make the most sense for KD to take a one-year deal with the Thunder so they could hit free agency together with the cap at an all-time high in 2017.
But that's all conjecture. The facts are these: Kevin Durant said he likes New York. So, Knicks and Nets fans, enjoy the day.
