Kevin Durant addresses a potential move to Barcelona / News - Basketnews.com

Kevin Durant revisited a statement he had made three years ago, about him moving to Barcelona for the closing chapter in his career.

Credit: Zuma Press – Scanpix Credit Zuma Press – Scanpix

It was back in 2019 when Kevin Durant told Serge Ibaka on his show 'How hungry are you?' that spending his career-last season in Europe wouldn't look like a bad idea.

Kevin Durant

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"I would like to play my last year at Barca, the EuroLeague is the second-best league in the world," said the NBA superstar three years ago.

Durant was 31 at the time, beginning his journey with the Brooklyn Nets alongside Kyrie Irving after his departure from the Golden State Warriors.

Now he's 34, and he's still averaging big numbers, one of the highest in his entire NBA career. Maybe that's the reason why the idea of retiring in the Palau Blaugrana doesn't seem to excite him anymore. El Mundo Deportivo caught up with the two-time NBA champion and three-time Olympic gold medalist and asked him if a short-term EuroLeague stint might still be on the cards.

Durant received the question with humor and explained that his words to Ibaka only reflected his mindset at the time, as he was coming off two NBA championship seasons and felt like there was hardly anything more to win in the world's best league.

"I was excited at the time, years before I had won the championship (2017 and 2018). I was playing really well, and I guess you think a little bit about the end when you reach your pinnacle as an NBA player, and I said something crazy like that," Durant replied with a smile.

"I have a lot of respect for the EuroLeague," he stressed. "I have friends there, and I love watching the games. But I doubt it will happen, although it sounded good when I said it," the prolific scorer clarified.

"Isn't [Nikola] Mirotic over there? Barcelona?" Durant asked. "I don’t know a lot of people over there. Mike James played with me some years ago, so I try to follow him as much as possible… some hoopers over there.

I try to tell a lot of guys that they should pursue that route as well along with trying to get to the NBA," Durant concluded.

One only needs to recall the NBA star's visit to Monaco and Piraeus to watch the closing chapters of the playoff series between Olympiacos and AS Monaco, where his friend, Mike James, is playing. At Game 5, Olympiacos fans invaded the court, lit up flares, and created an atmosphere, unlike anything Durant had seen in the NBA.

The Brooklyn Nets leader KD called it "The apocalypse" on his Twitter account.

"Bring a flare to an NBA game if you want and you might be in Rikers (jail in New York)," he added regarding the crazy atmosphere at Peace and Friendship Stadium.

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