Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant says development, not titles, is what drives him now

Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant is no longer in the league. After all, he won two. Instead, he says that the desire to be at the best level fuels him.

“I didn’t expect to be a happy human being from a title,” Durant told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in an interview with SportsCenter on Saturday. “I was expecting the end of a movie – once you’ve worked so hard and everyone tells you, ‘I have to work for this, it’s this golden ball and these rings.’ And I’m just like, “Okay, okay, let me get stuck on this.” And I got stuck in the desire to achieve this, but I also realized that there are a lot of things that factors in it are out of my control.

“And once I won a championship [with Golden State], I realized that, like, my point of view on this game is really about development. How good can I be? It’s not about, you know, going to take this championship. I appreciate those things and I want to win to experience those things, but it’s not the end, be it all the reasons I play the game. “

Durant averaged 28.4 points, 7.3 points and 5.3 assists in his first active season with the Nets, after missing the entire 2019-20 season, while recovering from an Achilles tendon injury .

“I’ve been around, I’ve been out of the game for two years and I’m anxious about ‘What do I do when I come back?’ “Said Durant, 32, who is in his 14th NBA season after stopping with the Warriors. and Thunder. “Being out with an Achilles makes you think of a different game. And my goal is to be there, you know. Who knows what will happen when I’m there. I just want to be available. And I think that’s it. I really want to be available for as long as I can. And we’ll see what happens between the lines. “

After losing 23 games this season due to a hamstring injury, Durant returned to standing ovation on Wednesday night, stepping off the bench for the second time in his career and responding with 17 points to shooting 5 of 5 of field in 19 minutes of explosive victory against New Orleans.

This was only the seventh game in which the Big Three team – Durant along with James Harden and Kyrie Irving – have been on the field together this season.

“I think our experiences with the US team have definitely helped,” Durant said of the chemistry that develops among the three stars. “When you’re in that environment, I wouldn’t say you have to shrink, but you really have to check your ego and figure out when to use it. You may need to take a step back for the team to be good. And I think we all understand that.

“… I like what we build. … Everyone brings their share. Everyone is valuable. And we’re just trying to create something cool enough for people to watch and for us to make players blame. play in. “

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