[Sullivan] Kyrie Irving invited his old friend Kevin Durant for dinner at his mansion. That night in the suburbs, KD even ate a vegan burger for the first time. "I could fuck with this," he said. A super-team was starting to be formed, over a side of kale salad and... clink.

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This is from the book "Can't Knock the Hustle Inside the Season of Protest, Pandemic, and Progress with the Brooklyn Nets' Superstars of Tomorrow" by Matt Sullivan

(An award-winning journalist's behind-the-scenes account from the epicenter of sports, social justice, and coronavirus, Can't Knock the Hustle is a lasting chronicle of the historic 2019-2020 NBA season.)

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Jan. 25, 2019; Weston, Massachusetts

Kyrie Irving invited his old friend Kevin Durant for dinner at his mansion, a seven-bedroom spread in the woods of suburban Boston that did not feel particularly lived in. This was the night before the two-time defending-champion Warriors played the Celtics on network television, and Kyrie was battling the flu. That didn’t stop the wine from flowing, because Kyrie was a gracious host — Michael B. Jordan planned to stop by when he was in town — and nothing could stop Kyrie from getting what he wanted, which was to move the hell out.

 

Going home and doing good had lingered in Kyrie’s mind, and the Brooklyn Nets were a team he and KD could manipulate — two max-salary slots, a flexible general manager, a few pieces, maybe even some room for their friend DeAndre Jordan — while Kyrie built a house in Jersey for his daughter, and perhaps more children yet, to grow up in. KD told a confidant that he didn’t think the Warriors would get any better if Steve Kerr couldn’t hold Draymond Green accountable for his outbursts, and that he was occasionally irked when Steph got so much attention from the media and from the fans. Kyrie and KD, on the cusp of their free agency, shared a loner’s longing to settle down but look straight ahead.

"He didn’t like what his situation was," KD later said, "and me either in Golden State. And it was just like, ‘Hey, man, let’s just see how this would work. Let’s try it out.’ And DJ wanted to play with us to be that center for us that can kinda hold it down, and play for something, really — play for a team that’s going somewhere, not just keep moving around and bouncing around to leave."

 

Having left OKC nearly three years earlier and experiencing the rage of its fans upon his "revenge game" with the Warriors, KD didn’t feel as bad about bailing on a franchise and its fan base. As he advised the All-Star Gordon Hayward on his 2017 free-agency choice to leave behind the team that drafted him, "You don’t owe anybody anything." And by 2019, KD’s own Warriors teammate Andre Iguodala had guilt-free advice for his friend. "At this point, f--- everybody," Andre told him. "That’s including management, anybody — from this team to that team, fans, whoever. Do whatever makes you happy, man, and don’t feel like you’re letting anybody down with any decision that you make."

 

KD would follow Kyrie’s lead. That night in the suburbs, he even ate a vegan burger for the first time. "I could f--- with this," he said. A super-team was starting to be formed, over a side of kale salad and... clink.

KD and Kyrie went upstairs to the playroom, shared a vegan smoothie, shot a Nerf ball into a toy hoop and played NBA2K. Controlling miniature versions of themselves and their teammates, like marionettes, they wondered how else they could string together a team that was going somewhere. "And from that point," Kyrie said, "we took the power back and put it in our hands."