Durant Settling In Out East?

National Basketball Association superstar Kevin Durant has a new $165-million contract, a new team (Brooklyn, no less), and a lot of free time on his hands: He’s expected to miss the upcoming season while he recoups from a ruptured Achilles.

And what better place to chill than the Hamptons?

This is not uncharted water by any stretch. Back in 2016, when Durant became a free agent, he was mulling his next move: so, he summoned a handful of players for a Hamptons-based pow wow.

The players, dubbed the Hamptons 5 by realtors in on the plan, turned out to be his future teammates from the Golden State Warriors.

Durant rented a place on Further Lane for a week and the rest is history. The Warriors ended up winning the NBA championship. The price of the rental was a mere $100,000, chump change to the world’s greatest player.

And by some accounts, he liked what he saw. “I know he was around last year,” said Paul Brennan, a vice president with Douglas Elliman who specializes in high-end properties in the Sagaponack area.

Brennan agreed that if Durant needed to nestle in a little summer cottage, he’d likely hire a buyer’s agent to do the preliminary search: figure a little something on Meadow Lane in Southampton Village or perhaps somewhere closer to the Further Lane neighborhood he last visited. Both are easy commutes to Brooklyn via personal jet.

Durant is reportedly looking to make a clean break from the west coast. Earlier this month, he sold his airy beach house on Malibu’s Broad Beach after just two months on the market, and recorded documents indicate the buyer is “CSI” juggernaut creator Anthony Zuiker.

Unfortunately for the former Golden State Warrior, the price is substantially under the almost $13.5 million price tag and, even more noteworthy, just $100,000 above the $12.05 million he paid for the multi-story ocean-front contemporary only a bit more than a year ago. Fortunately for Durant, his astronomically deep pockets can easily weather the small fortune he surely lost when considering carrying costs, any improvement expenses he may have incurred, and hefty real estate fees that could have easily topped half a million dollars.

On the other hand, mere cash pales in comparison to the pedigree: 2012 Olympic Gold medalist, highest scorer in the history of the Olympics; Most Valuable Player in the NBA 2014; two NBA Championship rings.

But it speaks to the rumor he is East Coast shopping, and everyone knows that means a summer pad and the requisite big city digs. And Durant is not one to deprive himself. “Everything in my life, I had to take it. They are not going to give it to you out of sympathy. I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he has said.

So who’s in on this hush-hush project?

We do know the original listing shifted from Compass to Sotheby’s International, where associate broker Patricia Wadzinski helped facilitate Durant’s rental before eventually finding a buyer and closing on the sale.

“It was my exclusive listing,” Wadzinski said this week about the Hamptons 5 pow wow palace. Might the superstar be entertaining something a little more permanent hereabouts? “I have no comment,” she said tersely. “No comment.”

By the way, the superb house at 189 Further Lane — what we might call the “Hamptons 5 house” — is no longer on the market. The 7400-square-foot house on 3.2 acres closed at $13.6 million, but that was only after a long, four-year march toward a compelling market price. In 2014, when the property was initially listed for sale, the asking price was $21.5 million.

rmurphy@indyeastend.com