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KD didn't plan to team up with Kyrie: 'It wasn't necessary'

Juan Ocampo / National Basketball Association / Getty

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were heavily rumored throughout the year to join forces in free agency.

The two are good friends off the court and grew close as members of Team USA during the 2016 Olympics.

But Durant denies that their pre-existing relationship had anything to do with their decision to join the Brooklyn Nets this past summer.

"I think the friendship part of the league has really grown, especially since LeBron James and Dwyane Wade became such great friends and ended up playing together," Durant told Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes. "People see friendship as the way guys are teaming up. There’s nothing wrong with people speculating. That’s just what it is, but we’re just good friends no matter what.

"We didn’t have to play together. It wasn’t necessary. But, we were friends before anything, and we just happened to want to hoop together. But it wasn’t a thing we planned. It just came together."

The New York Knicks were speculated to be the front-runners for Durant, especially after the two-time Finals MVP moved his "Thirty Five Ventures" company into a new office in the Big Apple.

But Durant was impressed with the young core in Brooklyn and by the work of general manager Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson, and ultimately committed before taking a formal meeting.

"If I was leaving the (Golden State) Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets," Durant said. "They got the pieces and a creative front office. I just like what they were building."

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