LAS VEGAS — While Caris LeVert and Taurean Prince are close friends with Kevin Durant, they both downplayed any role they had in luring him to the Nets. What they didn’t downplay, however, were the team’s new championship aspirations.

After landing Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan in free agency, the Nets players are done with managing expectations and treating “title” like a four-letter word.

“Now it’s championship talk. That’s all you’ve got to think about. It’s what we’ve got to work towards,” Prince said Sunday during the Nets’ 74-58 summer league win over Croatia. “We’ve got to do exactly what we’ve got to do to get there. Whether it’s with Kevin Durant or without him, and then next year even with him, it’s the same talk.

“Having those guys that are now on our team that’ve been in the league, have been doing it for a long time, and also being around guys who’ve done it for a long time, that automatically brings us up to an advantage that a lot of teams don’t have without those superstars.”

Prince called Durant a mentor in life, but said he never tried to hard-sell him on Brooklyn.

“No, we never talked basketball. When it comes to me and Kevin Durant, we talk about a lot more than just basketball. When we’re on the court we mesh well. We’ve worked out a few times last summer, so the connection was there. Besides that, we don’t really talk,” said Prince, who also knows Irving and called the guard a deep thinker.

“I’m blessed to just be friends with those guys now, and even more blessed to have them as teammates, being two of the best players in the world, to be able to learn from them on a daily basis and pick up on some of the things that’ve created their success and add it to mine. You’ve got to be a sponge in this league and always grow. With those two guys in front of your face every day, you have no choice but to.”



LeVert’s friendship with Durant started after Nets team orthopedist Martin O’Malley operated on LeVert’s foot in 2016. Durant — who had his foot repaired by O’Malley a year earlier — reached out to the young guard.

They formed a bond, and have worked out together over past summers. And this time it was LeVert who reached out to Durant when the latter ruptured his Achilles during the NBA Finals.

“I really didn’t [recruit], honestly. We have a good friendship, but I never really pressured him about it,” LeVert said. “When he got hurt I reached out, made sure he was OK. But obviously he knows that he’s a great player, he knows that I’d love to play with him. But I left him alone with that stuff.



“He actually did [reach out] a couple times, just asked me about the city and the organization. But obviously we have a great organization, so it was easy to talk about. But I really didn’t sell anything.”

While LeVert will miss D’Angelo Russell — who went to Golden State in a sign-and-trade for Durant — he was happy to see his friend not only get a max contract, but get it from a contender.

“Obviously very excited, on both ends. I feel like we got a lot better as a team. And obviously you hate to see somebody like D’Angelo go. He was great for our organization, obviously one of my best friends as well. But good to see him get paid, good team as well. So both sides did a good job,” said LeVert, who is excited to play alongside Durant.

“It’s going to be huge for myself as well as the rest of the team. He’s a championship guy, multiple championships, multiple MVPs as well. So huge to learn from someone like that who works so hard on their game, such a great person as well.”