Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving Took Less Money to Get DeAndre Jordan to Nets
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving clearly had a plan when they decided to play for the Brooklyn Nets. In fact, both players decided to take less than the maximum contract available to them in order to help the Nets sign DeAndre Jordan.
DeAndre Jordan has agreed to four-year, $40M deal with the Nets, Excel Sports agent Jeff Schwartz tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2019
Free agents Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are taking less than the max to allow DeAndre Jordan to get the $10M annual salary with Brooklyn, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2019
Jordan and Durant are good friends, while the duo won a gold medal on Team USA with Irving during the 2016 Summer Olympics. So this makes sense. It’s also amazing, considering Durant could have taken a five-year, $221 million contract from the Golden State Warriors, and instead will take a four-year, $164 million deal, while Irving will take a four-year, $141 million deal.
Neither Durant, nor Irving had to take those cuts, but they did because obviously they think Jordan will help them win.
Durant is expected to miss most, if not all of next season, but the Nets will surely be listed as one of the NBA’s favorites for the 2020-21 season.