Nets' Kevin Durant Says He's 'More at Ease' Entering 2021-22 Season

Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant's NBA career began in 2007 when the Seattle SuperSonics selected him with the second pick out of Texas. Fourteen years later, he's well-established as one of the game's all-time greats.

It's been a long, winding professional road for KD, though, and on Thursday, he spoke with reporters about his mindset as a younger player compared to now.

ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk provided KD's quotes from the Nets' training camp at the University of San Diego:

"[When you are younger] you want to establish yourself in the league. Sometimes you may overthink it and may think too much about reactions and opinions of others because you are on the journey to perfection. But start to relax a little bit and understand what this is about and understand the long game, and it definitely made my mental a little bit more at ease coming to the gym every day and not focusing on that stuff."

There's plenty of outside noise with this Nets team, which not only plays in a major media market but also features three superstars in Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden.

That trio is the primary reason the Nets are considered among the favorites to win this year's NBA championship.

Durant noted, however, that he and the team aren't really concerned with anything from the outside. Per Youngmisuk, KD said this when a reporter asked whether pressure is a concern at this point in his NBA stint.

"Yeah, outside pressure don't really matter much. I think we all internally put pressure on ourselves because we hold ourselves to a high standard and you want to play well every time you step out there; that is just who we are as competitors."

"As far as the outside noise, no disrespect for you guys [in the media], for our families, friends and even our fans expecting us to do so much—if we don't live up to those, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. But we want to come out and play a great brand of basketball every night and we hold ourselves to that standard. I expect us to come out there with some swagger and some intensity. But outside noise shouldn't matter much to this group."

Pressure has never appeared to bother Durant on the court regardless of his career stage. He is a four-time scoring champion who led the league with 30.1 points per game at age 21 during his third NBA season (2009-10).

His resume also includes two NBA championships and Finals MVPs apiece, 11 All-Star Game appearances, nine All-NBA team nods, three Olympic gold medals and the 2013-14 NBA MVP award.

He and the Nets will be looking for the franchise's first NBA title this season, which begins on Oct. 19 against the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks.