The two-time NBA champ and Finals MVP will re-sign with the team on a four-year deal.
Two years after joining the Brooklyn Nets, 11-time NBA All-Star forward Kevin Durant has agreedĀ to sign a four-year contract extension with the team worth $198 million on Friday, Durant’s longtime manager Rich Kleiman confirms.
Following the 2020-21 season, Durant had received $306,172,746 in total career earnings from his NBA contracts, which ranks No. 5 on the all-time list. The 32-year-old’s new deal in Brooklyn will take him above half a billion dollars earned on the court.
As part of this extension, Kevin Durant will decline his existing player option for the 2022-23 season, and will instead add four years beginning in 2022.
Durant, a two-time NBA champion and Finals MVP as a member of the Golden State Warriors, signed a four-year, $164 million contract with the team on June 30, 2019 as part of a sign-and-trade to Brooklyn just 20 days after rupturing his right Achilles tendon in Game 5 of that summer’s NBA Finals. The 6-foot-10 four-time scoring champion didn’t play another NBA game for more than 18 months, missing the entire 2019-20 season.
In 2020-21, Durant averaged 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game in the regular season, setting career highs in field goal percentage (53.7%) and three-point percentage (45%). During the playoffs, his numbers skyrocketed to 34.3 points and 9.3 boards per game on 54.2% shooting, including a 49-point, 17-rebound effort in Brooklyn’s second-round Game 5 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
A native of Prince George’s County, Maryland who attended the University of Texas and became the consensus NCAA National Player of the Year, Kevin Durant was drafted No. 2 overall by the Seattle Supersonics in 2007. He was named the 2007-08 NBA Rookie of the Year, 2013-14 NBA MVP, and has made nine All-NBA teams to date.
His re-signing continues a strong Nets offseason that includes retaining forward Blake Griffin and guard Bruce Brown, signing guard Patty Mills and forward James Johnson, and drafting guard Cameron Thomas and center Day’Ron Sharpe.
