Kevin Durant called out ESPN’s senior NBA reporter Ramona Shelburne for what he claimed was “unfair and lazy” reporting about the Phoenix Suns.
“I heard Ramona Shelburne come out and say our locker room is toxic,” Durant told reporters following the Suns’ Feb. 10 practice. “I try to tell people who aren’t around this game too much, it’s easy to say our locker room is not connected when you come in there 45 minutes before and guys are in their game mode and not talking to each other. Four or five guys might be in the training room, a few guys might be in the weight room. It’s not a welcoming environment right before the game, you know what I’m saying? That’s part of getting ready to play.
“I think it’s unfair and lazy to categorize our team as toxic when you come in there for five minutes throughout four months. That’s the only time you’ve been in our locker room and then you can make a narrative? I don’t think that’s fair to us, but like I said, that’s a part of the game. Part of the business we signed up for.”
The Suns have discussed Durant in extensive trade conversations with his former team, the Golden State Warriors, in the days leading up to the Feb. 6 trade deadline in their bid to land Jimmy Butler.
Durant got wind of it from the Warriors’ side, which ESPN reported, caught him blindsided. He ultimately thumbed down the idea of getting reunited with the Warriors in a conversation with Warriors star Stephen Curry, according to ESPN.
‘Toxic’ Suns Locker Room
Shelburne shared her observation of the Suns’ locker room on “NBA Today” on Feb. 6, the league’s trade deadline, amid the Bradley Beal and Durant rumors.
“The word I would use, he used glum, I’ll use toxic,” Shelburne said. “That shootaround yesterday I heard was very awkward, very weird in Oklahoma City because everybody was on pins and needles wondering what they were going to do. Now you have this reset where, how do you move forward as a team when there was a clear mandate here that they have to do something? And if they’re not able to get anything done, which, as we say, you talked about it in the open, it’s really hard to do something. The thing they were trying to do did not come to fruition because Kevin Durant said no. It’s hard to move forward and I think that’s where they’re left.”
The Suns scrambled to shake things amid another underwhelming season with the highest payroll in the NBA.
They focused on landing Butler, per multiple reports.
According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, the Suns exhausted all means to get Butler and finding a team that would absorb Beal’s enormous contract. But they could not pull it off because Beal did not want to waive his no-trade clause.
So they were left with only two options: either trade longtime Suns cornerstone Devin Booker or Durant. And that’s when they listened to Durant offers.
Kevin Durant Trade Talks
Shelburne and Brian Windhorst reported on ESPN that a multi-team trade framework was discussed with Butler landing on Phoenix, Durant back to Golden State and Andrew Wiggins to Miami.
“The three-way talks even expanded to loop in Washington. Those talks included Butler, Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, Wizards center Jonas Valanciunas, two first-round picks (from the Warriors) and two second-round picks (one each from the Heat and Warriors), and pick swaps going to the Suns, sources said. The Warriors would’ve received Durant, while the Heat could’ve received Wiggins, Cleveland’s 2025 first-round pick (via Phoenix), Dennis Schroder and Kyle Anderson,” Windhorst and Shelburne wrote.
After Durant said no to reunion, the Warriors proceeded to trade for Butler for Wiggins.
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