Back in February of 2019, there was a video floating around of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving talking at the 2019 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte. It led to a lot of speculation the two were planning to team up as free agents.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving last night 👀
— Ben Stinar (@BenStinar) February 18, 2019
(@jpizzy15 sent me the video) pic.twitter.com/xKXT8MPnwm
Days after that video was shot, the growing speculation led then Celtic Irving to scold the media and shoot down the idea he and KD were talking about teaming up, saying, “It’s a video of me and one of my best friends talking. And then it turns out to be a dissection of a free-agency meeting?... That’s what disconnects me from all that s***.”
Turns out, talking about free agency was exactly what they were doing.
Durant admitted it on his new podcast, The ETC’s with Kevin Durant on The Boardroom. Get to the 36-minute mark and Durant says:
“The All-Star game video where they caught us in the hallway. That’s when it was solidified that we were going somewhere. They didn’t know for a fact where it was, but it was somewhere.”
That somewhere turned out to be Brooklyn.
The groundwork for Durant and Irving’s partnership started long before All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, Durant said.
“Like we would have these types of [basketball related] conversations all day, every day. And it grew from there. It just grew from there, it was organic, you know what I’m saying? And it wasn’t something that you can kind of pinpoint and say like, this was the moment. It just, it just happened.”
This is just going to fuel future conspiracy theorists — any time two players are talking at an All-Star Game (or in the bubble), someone will jump to a conclusion. Of course, 99.9% of the time the players are just talking about family or cars or where the Cheesecake Factory closest to their hotel Is located. But every once in a while the conspiracies are right.
This is just fuel for that fire.