what could have been and was not can not have Really, it hasn’t been, It’s just one of many ways, almost all negative, with which we can define Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant’s path to the Nets., Two players as talented as they are unpredictable have doomed the Brooklyn franchise to exhaustion, both the unit itself and the rest of the fans. A single playoff round topped three and a half seasons, 1,314 days into a calamitous, embarrassing and ultimately disastrous adventure. Both players go through the back door, each to a different location, to end months, years of nonsense, A project he built, shaped and destroyed without stopping anyone or anything, in a display of egomania and narcissism that resulted in both strange and controversial episodes and bad basketball on the court, A fleeting flash of brilliance and no chance in that ring They were going and weren’t even close to winning.
In three and a half seasons, Kyrie and Durant They have played 74 games together (47–27 record). possible out of 270 (all of regular season And (not counting the 9 confrontations in the Orlando bubble that he didn’t even participate in), 16 with James Harden whose time in Brooklyn was as unsuccessful as it was fleeting. He finished with a 13–3 record (5–1 in the playoffs). Beard was alone and if That’s all we can take with it, though the simplest explanation is often the best: Between coming and going, physical problems and unexplained disappearances, Kyrie and Durant haven’t had consistency on track. In this stretch of time, the point guard has lost 153 games and Durant has lost 151. A huge slab for a team that played and delivered everything on one card that had to be moved to three (along with the Pacers and Rockets) with one. harsh that they later lost, Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert, Taurean Prince and a second roundThus mortgaging the future of an entity that did exactly what they did in the megatransfer in 2013 in which they took over Kevin Garnett and Paul Pearce and that outrage was sponsored by tycoon Mikhail Prokhor until Kenny Atkinson left nothing and Hare Started creating a culture of colour. Shoots in an actual dry land.
He was the coach that Durant and Kyrie lashed out behind the scenes (no games for one in their first seasons in Brooklyn and only 20 for the other). before hiring Steve Nash in 2020 and saying the team was going to coach him”in all these,, And that was Nash, a mere puppet who obeyed the orders of a team that always had the upper hand and was only able to keep form And peace with the shadow of Mike D’Antoni backing up rookie coachWho dedicated themselves exclusively to giving their stars the large number of minutes they could with the giants (LaMarcus Aldrig, Blake Griffin…) and praying that things would sort themselves out.
Few inches from glory?
There’s always a place for fiction in the NBA that lives up to it, A discourse rooted in competition that has made constant debate a way of earning a living like any other, What could have happened usually generates a high level of discussion. what really happenedand talk about situations This never happened They are constantly making arguments to eliminate facts that has never been, However, the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals didn’t have as much merit in this form of reality: 4-3 for the Bucks with the seventh round in New York, one touchdown with Durant without Harden and Kerry, got injured after the third round and just when things were going in the right direction: 2-1 for the Nets after winning the first two home games and sweeping the Celtics (4-1) in the first round. That’s where Kyrie fell, when Harden was already injured. Escort returned late and touched, but the point guard no longer did so. All three had a 5–1 record in the playoffs when they were healthy. it was a missed opportunity, Only once have the Nets looked objectively as title contenders.
that seventh game was epic, one of titanic struggle, one of lost opportunity. This was the year the Nets won a round of the playoffs with the project of Kyrie and Durant. But they lined up to die on the coast: a tremendous effort from Durant, who played 53 minutes (there was overtime). In a game in which Nash added only 8 players to the rotation (counting one second from Nick Claxton), and went for 48 points (17 of 36 from the field) with 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Giannis Antetokounmpo (40+13+5) won, Mike Budenholzer kept a job that he still had and the centimeters that Durant could not stand did not end the game: 109-109, three With Star’s move on the line; 111-115 at the end, in overtime, and with a tired player. the nets had a lost ring, with some Eastern Finals that expected unexpected winners like the Hawks and an NBA Finals in which the Suns succumbed to the might of Milwaukee, not content with Brooklyn. He stayed by the side of the road.
past, future
It was the only time the Nets dreamed of something bigger than their own destruction. The Kyrie scandal soon unfolded: First, with the disappearance Nash couldn’t explain in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and the appearance on his sister’s birthday, then with the rejection of the vaccine itself that opened the franchise and angered its owner, Joseph Tsai, as well as fed up James Harden who requested a transfer and madly walked away to hug his ideal manager Daryl Morey, Later, With a disastrous series against the Celtics, he got revenge on the man who nearly ended his project at 4-0., and, more recently, With a recommendation for a documentary based on an anti-Semitic book What It has already left the glory of flat earthing far behind. why changed base public enemy number 1, all this, Durant puts himself in profile and both stars try to get their wayWhich has now arrived, disappointingly in a summer that had everything but nothing good.
Kyrie, who had left the Cavs to escape LeBron’s long shadow, wanted to join the Lakers and meet him. Ray To be an even greater contradiction. And Tsai has withheld this version in an exercise of pride. And he’s gotten rid of two stars who hijacked the franchise and left it at the mercy of two men who did nothing to keep their self-appointed coach (Steve Nash) and little more under watchful eyes. Have been comfortable. supervision and strong personality of Jack Vaughn. There they have put together a decent record and are starting to look like a good basketball team… until a new transfer request hastened everything. The booty is more than lush: Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks without protection (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029) and the right to trade, if the Nets want, the 2028 first-round picks for Durant, By Kyrie (with Markieff Morris), Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, 2029 first round and two second rounds (2027 and 2029),
Now only one toxic product on the nets (Ben Simmons and his millionaire commitment until 2025: 35, 37 and 40 million in this and the next two seasons), but many intermediate contracts and transferable material in addition to the draft round to transfer. They take a big booty and aspire to make the playoffs (33-22, fifth in the Eastern Conference) and are left without stars, but with huge development in terms of players like Phinney-Smith, Bridges or Cam Johnson. They can take it easy, wait for a bigger star to go after them in the future, or just let it run its course and see what results come. For the road they keep Royce O’Neill, Nick Claxton, Joe Harris… Some handsome veterans and lots of promising youngsters, But above all else, the Nets have gotten rid of two men who devoted themselves almost entirely to scandal-inciting, front-page covers for reasons unrelated to basketball
, and who made everyone and their Everything around has been hijacked. Now, they will mow And Sun who is in charge of managing these issues. And the Nets will be able to think about the future while they focus on enjoying a good rest., and well deserved,
