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Suns owner Mat Ishbia detailed this week why he believes acquiring Kevin Durant was a mistake, and the 16-time All-Star responded with a social media post that featured a sarcastic hashtag along with seven crying laughing emojis.
“#blameKD even though KD stayed on top of his game at 36 and got u back this “culture” you love so much,” Durant posted on X while resharing a story containing Ishbia’s quotes.
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“Aye, Matthew acts like I got arrested for a DUI or sumn. Back to threads.”
The Suns acquired Durant from the Nets in a trade deadline blockbuster in 2023, sending Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks and a first-round pick swap in 2028.
Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) controls the ball during a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
KD played two-plus seasons in Phoenix, averaging 26.8 points per game in 145 regular-season appearances.
But the Suns won just one playoff series during Durant’s tenure and missed the playoffs altogether in 2025, leading to his trade to Houston that summer.
“The team was, I think, the eight or nine seed when I bought the team, and we had some good young players,” Ishbia said earlier this week in a CNBC interview. “Can we get over the top? And I basically was told like, ‘Hey, as an owner, stay out of it and give them some money.’ And so I said, ‘Hey, listen, we’ll go into the luxury tax. Go do whatever it takes to try to win a championship.’
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“And so we did that. But it was more going and getting Kevin Durant… that was not aligned with my vision. We had a couple of years, and it did not succeed, as we’re well aware of at this point. After that year, I decided to trade Kevin Durant, bring in my GM, bring in a coach, and get extremely involved personally with the type of guy and type of person we want at our organization, not just on the court, but off the court.”
Ishbia, who bought a majority stake in the Suns from Robert Sarver for $2.28 billion in February 2023, upset Durant by trying to trade him at the deadline in 2025….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kevin-durant-viciously-claps-back-200559403.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-17 20:05:00
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