Mike James reveals Kevin Durant's bad feeling about the Nets' playoff chances / News - Basketnews.com

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According to Mike James, Kevin Durant called him before the EuroLeague playoffs and told him he knew the Brooklyn Nets were going to get eliminated early.

Mike James

Position:PG, SGAge:31Height:185 cmWeight:84 kgBirth place:Oregon, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

However, at the time of Durant's call, the Nets were trailing 0-3 in the first round series against the Celtics.

Olympiacos forward Shaquielle McKissic, one of the interviewers on the Players Choice podcast, asked James about his relationship with the Nets superstar, with whom he used to spend time while both were on the Brooklyn team towards the end of the 2021 regular season.

The former NBA MVP and James grew to become very good friends, where Durant actually visited him in Greece and Monaco during his EuroLeague postseason. The three-time Olympic gold winner watched Games 4 and 5 of a spectacular and dramatic series that went down to the wire, responding to his former teammate's challenge.

In setting up a timeline, the 32-year-old guard essentially said that Durant had admitted the Nets' defeat before it actually happened. First, James described how he came to know Durant.

"I only knew Blake (Griffin) before I got there. Kev was one of the people that vouched for me and for Brooklyn to sign me. So, when I got signed, and we were going on the road, we liked a lot of the same stuff. We ended up hanging out with each other every time we were on the road. He got the big suite, so we just went in there, hang out, play the game, kick it, talk. We got close.

When I went back overseas, it was like, 'Alright, whoever's season ends first, the other one is going to come and watch the playoffs.' When I first said it, I thought, 'OK, you're going to be in the [NBA] Finals, I'm going to get to the Finals, that's lit!'.

So, when they were trash and losing, I called him one day and said, 'So, you know what this means, right? You're coming to my playoff game.' He was like, 'There's no way I'm coming to your playoff game.'

And then, like a week later, he called me before the (EuroLeague) playoffs started, and he was like, 'Alright, I'm going to be there in a couple of weeks. We're fitting to lose.'

James also revealed that Durant only flew private on his way back to the States "because it was too expensive and he was mad about it."

Durant ended up being spot on with his prediction, as Brooklyn would go on to lose in the first round against the Boston Celtics. He asked for a trade weeks later.

When Twitter users reacted to what James had said on the podcast, the All-EuroLeague guard responded that what Durant had told him was more due to his changing mood and less because he wanted to leave Brooklyn.

"Bro had MCL problems, and nobody was playing when all that happened. The funny thing is on the day of the game, he called me saying, 'I feel good. We're going to win it all.'

So your season has its up and downs. Don’t think bro ever thought he couldn’t win it all. He thinks he can go out there with four gym teachers and win," James wrote in a couple of tweets.

When someone commented that Durant first signed a four-year deal with Brooklyn and now wants out, James replied:

"I'm pretty sure he signed a four-year extension. That’s as good a sign as any he is committed."

Asked why his ex-teammate would want to leave the Nets, James admitted to being clueless. "That’s above my pay grade," he tweeted back.

In the same podcast, James also talked about the player he couldn't guard by any means in the NBA. It was D'Angelo Russell when James was with the Phoenix Suns in 2017-18, and Russell was playing with the Nets.

"He had 30, and there was nothing I could do," James recalled. "He was tall, moving slow. I was trying to get him to move fast, and he wouldn't. He was shooting weird mid-rangers, and I was like, 'He's killing it.' I had like 24 points and 6 assists. We won, but still, I felt like I couldn't guard him.

I couldn't figure him out the whole game, and I remember Book (Devin Booker) saying, 'Do you want me to guard him?' and I told him, 'Bro, he's your best friend. You're playing one-on-one all summer. You should have guarded him all game. I don't know why you're having me guard him.'

If I play against my best friend, I'm going to guard him the whole game. I know what he wants to do," James commented.

Watch the full podcast:

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