Behind the Scenes of the Kevin Durant Trade

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The NBA is a study in chain reactions — many of which have been chronicled on this podcast. Like the fact that in November of 2021, our colleague Baxter Holmes published a bombshell investigation into the broken workplace culture of Robert Sarver’s Phoenix Suns. And now, 15 months later, those Suns have a new billionaire owner, Mat Ishbia…who promptly went out and apparently gave the Brooklyn Nets whatever they wanted for Kevin Durant. So we asked Brian Windhorst to take us behind the scenes, in Brooklyn and Phoenix, as the dominos very quickly started falling… And how that power dynamic also helps explain why Russell Westbrook is staying in Los Angeles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So Brian Winhorse, the NBA that is starting back up on Thursday is a very different NBA.
0:08.9	And the one we remember just a few weeks ago because of the trade deadline.
0:13.2	And I bring you here, not just because we always look at having you, but also because you
0:17.1	tend to be a guy who knows things who, as we saw this past summer, feels the tremors
0:24.7	in the ground that sometimes become memes.
0:27.7	Did you foresee the degree of change that the trade deadline brought?
0:33.4	No, because I thought that the nets would probably try to hold it together because they
0:39.3	had such a really good end of November and December.
0:42.2	Yeah.
0:43.2	I thought they would give it one last run and they had gone through so much drama Pablo
0:49.1	to hold that roster together over the summer and they pulled the rip cord.
0:58.7	They simply reached the point where they couldn't take anymore and within a couple of days
1:05.3	broke down something that they had spent years building up.
1:10.1	We see this happen in pro sports, but it is kind of a melancholy thing even if it creates
1:17.4	a frenzy because it represents the failure of a long term project and a failure in this
1:23.8	case that seems to be avoidable, but certainly helped reshape the league in the middle of
1:30.7	the season.
1:31.7	Yeah, I mean, one rip cord is pulled, a parachute is released, and it lights upon Phoenix,
1:39.5	which says what to you about where this is all headed now.
1:43.7	Well, it was a fascinating moment in Phoenix because I don't think in the 76 year history
1:52.5	of the NBA we've ever seen something happen like an owner buying a team and then the same
1:58.9	day making the biggest transaction in the history of the team.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ESPN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ESPN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.