Trades are an integral part of being a professional athlete in a team, and the recent trade requests made by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have certainly stirred up the basketball world. Last month, Irving shocked fans by requesting a trade from the Brooklyn Nets to the Dallas Mavericks, where he donned the #2 jersey. Shortly after Irving’s departure, Durant, his longtime best mate on the court, followed suit and requested a trade out of the Brooklyn Nets to the Phoenix Suns. Now just recently, both players found themselves in the Western Conference, facing each other as opponents.

But first, let’s talk about how multiple basketball fans and others were taken aback by Durant’s decision to leave the Nets. For some, it came as no surprise. A few weeks prior to Durant’s trade request, the New York Yankees legend CC Sabathia predicted that Durant would be leaving the Nets soon after Irving’s departure. Let’s take a look!

Kevin Durant’s decision to leave didn’t come as a surprise to all

In the midst of discussing Kyrie Irving’s trade from the Brooklyn Nets to the Dallas Mavericks R2C2 co-podcaster, Sabathia priorly dropped a bombshell on his fellow host Ryan. “Hey man, KD’s out of here” – Ryan was initially taken aback as he narrated, but as the former MLB reliever later explained his reasoning, it all started to make sense.

CC explained that Durant loves the game and had grown tired of playing for a team that wasn’t living up to his expectations. “For the last three years, he’s just been hooping for nothing,” the podcaster explained. “He wants to hoop for a purpose.” 

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It was clear to CC that Durant was frustrated with the organization and was ready for a change. In his own words, “I’ve seen the writing on the wall like once, Kyrie was out of there and I knew he was frustrated with everything in the organization and all that, I was like, he’s out, he’s going to Pheonix.”

It was a bold prediction, but CC’s intuition proved to be spot on. Shortly after Irving’s departure, Durant moved on to Phoenix and the rest is history. 

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving faced off as rivals yet again 

Former teammates turned rivals, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving faced off for the first time since their respective trades last month during the Phoenix Suns’ win against the Dallas Mavericks just recently. After leading Phoenix to a 130-126 road victory with a team-high 37 points, Durant was asked how it felt to be playing against Irving. He responded, “No emotions at all. It’s another game.” 

Irving, on the other hand, starkly contrasted his former teammate’s statement and expressed excitement at the prospect of competing against his former teammate once again. “I think it’ll be an exciting time just for us to compete again, against each other,” he said. While this was the last regular-season matchup between the Suns and the Mavericks, there is always a possibility that they could meet again in the playoffs. 

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