Once upon a time, the Washington Wizards were thought to be the favorites to land Kevin Durant. He’s a DC-area native, and homecomings have been all the rage since LeBron James went back to Cleveland in 2014. But Durant has set his list of free-agent suitors beginning on July 1, meeting with six teams, and the Wizards didn’t make the cut.
According to CSN Mid Atlantic’s J. Michael, Durant just had no interest in playing for his hometown team.
While it’s evident that the Wizards aren’t in Kevin Durant’s plans for free agency, they aren’t holding out hope to make a pitch just for appearance sake. They’ve moved on, and league sources tell CSNmidatlantic.com on Monday that the idea of returning home just “doesn’t resonate” with the NBA’s hottest unrestricted free agent.
There’ll be no meeting.
Durant has made it clear that his free-agency decision will be based around which situation gives him the best chance to win, and Washington missed the playoffs this season. Even the idea of coming home doesn’t make it more appealing. At least Durant isn’t leading the Wizards on — every team he’s meeting with feels like they at least have a shot at luring him away from Oklahoma City, and if he has zero intentions of signing with the Wizards, it’s better that he’s letting them go about their business in free agency and not waste their time with a meeting that won’t go anywhere.
