Somers: Could playing for Phoenix Suns make Kevin Durant happy? Don't count on it

Kevin Durant’s relationship with his employer, the Brooklyn Nets, reached the ultimatum stage this week, with Durant telling owner Joe Tsai to make a choice between Durant and coach Steve Nash and General Manager Sean Marks.

Tsai responded by tweeting that he's sticking by his front office and coach.

In lesser news, I have contracted DFS — Durant Fatigue Syndrome.

At onset, DFS sufferers begin to wish the story of Durant’s desire to play elsewhere would just be resolved soon. At peak infection, the major symptom is a preference for Durant remaining a Net rather than your local team shipping half its roster and multiple draft picks so Durant can continue to pursue contentment.

Because chances are, Durant will never find it.

He didn’t in Oklahoma City, although he did try for nine years. He didn’t with Golden State, even though the Warriors won two championships in the three seasons Durant was healthy there. And he didn’t in Brooklyn, where Durant fulfilled all of one year of a four-year contract before wanting out.

That news broke only a little more than a month ago; it seems like three times that long to anyone who has paid attention.

Durant supposedly favors being traded to the Suns or the Heat, but they, nor anyone else, has offered compensation that tempted the Nets to part with one of the best players in history.

The allure of Durant to Phoenix is obvious. A starting lineup that features Durant, Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton is like something out of a fever dream.

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Need a fifth? Sure, but only because the rules allow it. Talk Larry Fitzgerald out of athletic retirement. Have Monty Williams become a player/coach. It's a dream. It wouldn’t matter much.

Durant, who turns 34 in September, still can score from anywhere within an area code. And when he’s healthy, he can carry a team, as we saw a year ago in the Tokyo Olympics.

It sounded good to me, too, in June when we learned Durant wanted out. But as the weeks passed, I’ve become dubious of the idea that Durant would be the missing piece needed for the Suns to win their first championship. Or that they would be any more entertaining to watch with Durant in the lineup.

In large part, the Suns brought us joy the last two-plus years because they were joyful, at least until the Game 7 meltdown against the Mavericks.

They shared with each other. They teased each other. They smiled. And they won everything except a trophy.

Acquiring Durant could change all that. By all accounts, he’s a good person. Never been in trouble and all that. But trading for him would mean parting with a lot of the people responsible for the camaraderie that existed the last two years: Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder and Cam Johnson, to name just a few.

There are no divas in that group, no one who cares if he took 20 shots or 10, no one who would tap out during hard times, no one who would become obsessed with firing back at critics.

Durant’s skin, in contrast, is as thin as plastic wrap. He couldn't resist responding to Charles Barkley when Barkley called into question Durant’s ability to lead a team to a title. Durant’s spatted with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

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Durant wants all that comes with being a superstar, including delivering ultimatums, except for criticism. If he were to come to Phoenix, Durant next to Booker would be an odd juxtaposition, because Booker endured the worst period in Suns history yet he embraced the area and always seemed content to be where his feet were, even when the B.S. around him was up to his knees.

And he never issued an ultimatum about my ways and highways.

There's nothing new about NBA players getting NBA coaches fired. It's happened for decades, but just last spring Durant was defending Nash. The coach, Durant said after the first-round loss to the Celtics, was “the right guy to lead this group.”

And now he isn’t?

Durant either changed his mind, or, more likely, just believes the ultimatum is the quickest available exit route from Brooklyn.

What’s the next stop for him? I don’t know, but I do know I’m tired of the question.

Reach Kent Somers at Kent.Somers@gannett.com. Follow him on twitter @kentsomers. Hear Somers every Monday at 7:30 a.m. on The Drive with Jody Oehler on Fox Sports 910 AM.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Could Kevin Durant find happiness with Phoenix Suns? It's doubtful