When the Kyrie Irving trade request news broke, most of the NBA community was shocked.
However, reigning Finals MVP and Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant wasn’t.
In fact, he downplayed the situation and pointed out that trade requests happen more frequently than what people might think.
"It's just a regular NBA problem, right? A lot of teams have gone through this before," Durant told Chris Haynes of ESPN. "They'll figure it out. That's a great organization, a championship organization. They'll figure it out.”
Although James and Irving seem to have a fractured relationship, Durant claims that the two players share a mutual respect and even “love each other”.
"It's not the end of the world," Durant claimed. "Both of those guys won a championship together. They love each other. If Kyrie wants to do something else, that's on him. I'm sure whatever happens, it'll work out for the best for both of them. But it's just a normal NBA problem. It's just two big stars that it's happening to.”
Claiming that Irving’s request was a “normal” aspect of being an NBA player creates more questions than answers. Did Durant ever request a trade? What about former teammate Russell Westbrook? What about other former teammates or any of his buddies around the league? His comments suggest that a lot more than expected goes on behind the scenes.
Earlier this week, Durant flew to New York City to play pickup games with LeBron, Carmelo Anthony and some other NBA players. Therefore, he may have some inside information that the public doesn’t have regarding James and Irving’s relationship.
As for the star-studded pickup games? He downplayed that too.
"That's all it is at the end of the day. It's pickup," he said. "It's nothing serious about it, to be honest. We've been doing this our whole lives. We just went out there and played. If somebody wants to hoop, we just hoop. We just went out there and played, bro. Nothing too serious."
After winning his first NBA title, Durant made it very clear that he’s enjoying a summer of relaxation. Judging by his comments, it seems like he knows a lot about what goes on behind the scenes in an NBA front office.
As the presumed favorites to win another championship next season, the Warriors and Durant will be watching the situation in Cleveland closely, as the team that has challenged them in the Finals in each of the last three seasons may be completely torn apart and rebuilt in the near future.