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The largest contract deal in league history, at $264 million over five years, will keep Nikola Jokic with the Denver Nuggets, according to reports in US media on Thursday. Jokic is the two-time defending NBA Most Valuable Player.
The Denver Post was one of many media sites covering Serbian star Jokic's enormous contract as the league's free agency season began.
The Post pointed out that the transfer wasn't a surprise given that Jokic, who was selected by the Nuggets in the second round of the 2014 draft, said he wasn't interested in leaving after Denver's playoff loss to the Golden State Warriors.
He added that he was in a “really good relationship with everybody from owner to equipment manager.”
Such stability wasn’t to be seen everywhere, as reports that Brooklyn superstar Kevin Durant had requested a trade shocked the league on Thursday.
ESPN, citing unnamed sources, said Durant — a two-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors — was eyeing a move to either the Phoenix Suns or the Miami Heat, but that the Nets would be aiming to get the best deal possible for the star with four years remaining on his contract.
Durant, 33, re-signed with the Nets in 2021 for four years and $198 million.
He arrived in Brooklyn in 2019, departing Golden State as a free agent to form a superteam alongside point guard Kyrie Irving.
The Nets would later acquire guard James Harden, but the star trio never gelled.
Irving missed much of the 2021-22 season after declining to be vaccinated against coronavirus, a disgruntled Harden was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in February and the Nets were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics.
Durant’s trade request shook the league hours before the opening of free agency on Thursday, when teams can officially begin talks to sign players who are not under contract.
A day earlier, Irving exercised his option to remain under contract with the Nets for a $36.9 million in the upcoming season. However, there were widespread predictions that he, too, would seek to depart Brooklyn.
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