#BLAMEKD

The fiasco that was the Kevin Durant trade request was the story of the summer and will serve as a monumental turning point in the "player empowerment movement" as it's been labeled, which essentially gives more power to the players than management in terms of dictating the direction of a franchise.

Following a lackluster first-round sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics, alongside the unpredictability of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant informed Governor of the Nets Joseph Tsai of his trade request.

With the big return from the Rudy Gobert trade earlier this offseason, the bar for a Kevin Durant trade was set very high. Teams such as the Suns, Heat, Raptors, Celtics, and Cavs all threw their hats in the race but ultimately backed out of negotiations due to the Nets' high demand due to that inflated trade value set by Utah.

Kevin Durant very much became a big domino during the NBA offseason, as many teams paused their Free Agent negotiations and further trade discussions waiting for movement from the Nets.

Media also became a big factor, with reports that Durant gave Tsai an ultimatum between himself and Steve Nash, and with some reporting that Kevin Durant was more likely to retire than return to Brooklyn. All of which initiated responses from the 12x All-Star on Twitter.

The Gobert trade also gave a lot of leverage to the Utah Jazz and Danny Ainge in terms of Donovan Mitchell trade talks. The Jazz and the Knicks have been strongly linked in trade talks for the All-Star Guard, and with the package they got for Gobert, they're expecting even more from their primary scorer.

This all comes back to the title, what does this have to do with Blaming Kevin Durant?

It was no secret that the league was on pause awaiting to see what KD would do, and yesterday after it was announced that the Nets would be running it back, many players spoke out about how this drama has affected them, and more importantly: their pockets.

Patrick Beverley was the first to speak out with his two tweets:

And his second tweet is really important for the future of the NBA. In an era of forced trades, load management, and whatever the Ben Simmons situation was in Philly, it's looking more and more like the next Collective Bargaining Agreement will feature backing from NBA governorship to try and prevent situations like these from happening moving forward.

And it's definitely expected for the vocal players to oppose and drawback against these attempts to once again shift the balance of power.

So fans, if we drift towards another lockout in the coming seasons: