Suns Owner Ishbia Refuses to Back Down as Feud With Durant Escalates: "I Said What I Said"
Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia again pushed back hard in an October 20 interview against his social media feud with Kevin Durant, refusing to retract his earlier remarks. A few days earlier, Ishbia had said that "spending money to fix the problem is not the way," and named Durant, arguing that signing a two-time Finals MVP does not guarantee team success.
Durant, now with the Houston Rockets, was furious, and the two traded barbs on social media. In the interview released October 20, Ishbia said: "I said what I said, and I think he misunderstood.
He just saw a headline and didn't watch the video — he does that sometimes. So he misunderstood, and I want to clear it up for him.
But I feel good about what I said about how the NBA works." Ishbia bought the Suns in December 2022 for $4 billion from the scandal-tainted Robert Sarver, then broke up the core of the 2021 Finals team, sending away Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder and a pile of draft picks for Durant — whose two and a half seasons fell short of expectations. With the Suns off to a poor start this season, the war of words between the owner and the former star is still building.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：菲尼克斯太阳队老板马特·伊什比亚。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia. Source: Wikimedia Commons
