Back during the 2018-19 NBA All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had a little impromptu meeting in the bowels of Spectrum Arena that had fans wondering about their basketball futures and if they'd soon be teaming up to dominate the league for years to come.
It was a brief chat filled with whispers, laughs, and, well, hope for some fanbases (hello, Knicks fans!) who would have loved nothing more than to welcome them to their team.
It felt like something special was going to happen soon.
It felt like the NBA was about to get a new super team that would become an absolute force.
It felt like a sure thing was on the horizon.
The first part of that speculation from that not-so-secret meeting played out a few months later when Kyrie and KD joined the Brooklyn Nets as free agents.
That second part - the dominating part - never came close to happening, though, as the two basketball greats stumbled through a few bad years together and never had a chance of even catching a glimpse at the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
The Kyrie-KD Nets are now done. The pairing that arrived with so much promise fizzled out in stunning fashion. Kyrie was traded away to the Mavs earlier this week and then KD left town in a surprising move in the wee hours of Thursday morning thought saw him heading to his new home in the desert with the Suns.
When you think about it, the end of this hilariously bad run was pretty fitting - it all started with those hallway whispers and ended with KD being shown the door while most of the East Coast was asleep.
The KD-Kyrie Nets have to go down as one of the biggest busts in NBA history. All that promise and all that talent led to one trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals back in the 2020-21 season.
The conference semifinals!
Last year they were swept by the Celtics in the first round.
Swept in four games! In the first round!
This year they were in seventh place in the East when the franchise threw up its arms and decided the best move was to wave the white flag and say goodbye to the two star players who left them with very few positive memories.
Basketball fans will long look back this brief Brooklyn run and laugh. When they are done laughing they will take a breath and then laugh some more.
Kyrie and KD were so sure that they'd be able to team up and build a winner and take over the league. Instead, they failed miserably and left town to the chorus of boos and laughs.
Many fans probably could have seen this coming with Kyrie, considering his past exits in Cleveland and Boston.
The Durant fall from grace in Brooklyn is much more a surprise. He's one of the best basketball players alive right now and someone you should be able to build a franchise around.
But now he's off to his fourth team in his career and will try to lead Phoenix to a championship.
The Nets, meanwhile, are left to wonder what in the you-know-what just happened.
Meanwhile, we all know what didn't happen - any championship parades.
