NBA star Kevin Durant marches to the beat of his own drum. This was evident when he reportedly wanted to depart from the Phoenix Suns organization at the end of last NBA season. As a result, he was traded to the Houston Rockets in a blockbuster seven-team deal. The good folks at HHAD recall when fans of the Oklahoma City Thunder, one of KD’s former teams, were afraid he was going to leave them as well. In fact, they feared Jay-Z would be the orchestrator.
Back in 2013, KD signed with Roc Nation Sports, Jigga’s sports agency. During the signing, Jigga negotiated an endorsement deal with Under Armour for Durant. The brand was reportedly willing to pay Durant $320 million over 10 years. Obviously, they wanted to entice him enough to leave Nike whom he had an endorcement deal with at the time. Shortly after, rumors began floating that Jay-Z was going to direct Durant toward his next NBA team once he hit free agency in 2016. But Durant said those rumors were unfounded. Here’s what he told The Oklahoman:
“He (Jay-Z) has nothing to do with if I’m going to leave OKC or none of that. I heard that before, so put that out on the table. He has nothing to do with that. He knows his lane with me. Their team knows their lane with me. And they’re letting me handle the basketball part. I would tell fans not to worry about that at all.” — Kevin Durant (The Oklahoman)
As fate would have it, KD left OKC for warmer weather in the Bay Area, California, three years later. He’d eventually explain the reason for his departure during an episode of Out the Mud podcast — and Jay-Z’s name didn’t get mentioned.
“I wanted a new experience. I wanted to play a different way, a different style. I wanted to live in a different city, experience a different life in a different city.” — Kevin Durant
Case in point, we can’t blame Jay-Z for this one.
