Kevin Durant reportedly lost trust in Ben Simmons over groupchat

Ric Bucher is a little less connected than when he worked for ESPN or Bleacher Report, but what he has just revealed is quite disturbing. We had understood, with his trade request and his supposed request to see Steve Nash and Sean Marks fired, that Kevin Durant no longer believed in the Brooklyn Nets project. The presence of Ben Simmonsexchange against James Harden, does not change anything. And it would even seem that it is of the aggravating kind…

According to Bucher, Durant immediately lost faith in Simmons because of an episode during Brooklyn’s losing playoff series against Boston. The rumor announced that the former leader of Philadelphia could participate in at least one match against the Celtics, he who was coming out of a white season for the reasons we know. The way he reacted to questions from his new teammates confused everyone, starting with Kevin Durant.

“The Nets were chatting in their groupchat before Game 4 against Boston. The players thought Ben Simmons was going to play. I was told the players asked Ben if he was going to play and…he left the chat.

He didn’t even answer the question, he just left. There, Kevin Durant would have said: ‘I signed for that, me? I gotta play with guys like that,'” Bucher said while appearing on Colin Cowherd’s show.

We will necessarily know at some point if things went well in this way. But with everything we’ve seen on the side of Brooklyn and even on the side of Ben Simmons in recent months, it’s completely believable. It’s sad for Nets fans, but we can’t wait for tongues to loosen in a few years to fully realize the enormous mess that was, and continues to be, this experience that had everything to be convincing on paper.

After the Nets game 3 loss vs the Celtics, Nets players asked Ben Simmons if he was ready to play in Game 4… Ben Simmons left the groupchat without answering.

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(Via @RicBucher @TheHerd )pic.twitter.com/ugUDUYra4Q

— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) August 8, 2022

Kevin Durant would have asked for the heads of Steve Nash and Sean Marks, without success