Kevin Durant warns against believing rumors ahead of 2016 free agency
We know Kevin Durant is a Drake fan, and now he's warning fans to never pay attention to the rumors and what they assume.
The Oklahoma City Thunder superstar is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2016, and with the league's collective bargaining agreement and salary cap environment conspiring to discourage contract extensions for superstars, it's likely that Durant will hit the market, at least for a few minutes.
That means 2015-16, like 2014-15, could come with plenty of speculation about Durant's future, and he wants everyone to keep in mind that any rumors that get floated almost surely aren't originating from him.
As Durant told CBSSports.com, when asked about the most frustrating aspect of media coverage in the NBA:
Uh, just, I think we should … you know what, I'm not even going to answer that. I'm not gonna answer that one. Along with Matty Ice (Thunder PR man Matt Tumbleson), I've got two people that I trust with my life, my agent and my manager, who's my best friend as well. I trust them with my life. So if you hear sources or anything, don't believe it if it didn't come from them. I tell them everything. We bounce ideas off each other. We collaborate on a lot of different things. They give me advice. So throughout this year, if you hear sources from anybody, it's not true, unless you hear it from Charlie Bell, Rich Kleiman or Kevin Durant.
Durant coming out and saying this isn't likely to calm speculation throughout the season.
The Washington Wizards beckon, Toronto Raptors fans continue to cling to an unlikely scenario, and nearly every team in the league will have substantial cap space as the salary cap jumps from $70 million to an estimated $90 million. Analysts will speculate, agents and executives will talk off the record, and Durant will be in the news cycle plenty.
Just keep Durant's comments in mind when all of that starts happening.