NEW YORK – On a late December evening in 2020, when the state of the world was bleak, Kevin Durant slipped on a Nets jersey and stepped into the Brooklyn spotlight for the first time. The possibilities seemed infinite. Hope sprang eternal.
Durant was brilliant that night—because, well, Durant is nearly always brilliant when he takes the court—but his long-awaited Nets debut was strange, strained, muted, performed as it was in a near-empty arena, in the midst of a global pandemic.
As omens go, this one was … well, rather ominous. A moment that should have ranked among the most thrilling in franchise history played out in a fan-less void, as if it were just some contrived simulation in the metaverse.
As it happens, the Nets’ superteam vision—built around Durant and Kyrie Irving (and briefly James Harden)—was always more virtual than reality. Durant wants out. Irving wants out. Harden departed months ago.
If only the Nets could take off the headset and just hit the reset button.
If you’re asking, in a slight daze, “What the heck happened?” you have plenty of company across the NBA, including in the Nets’ front office. If you’re trying to make sense of it all, good luck.
“Please let me know if you figure it out,” said a person with close ties to the situation, a sentiment shared by many others in and around the league. (We haven’t, but we’ll give it our best shot here, anyway.)
This much is clear: Durant is fed up, as underscored by the trade demand he issued on Thursday. From there, it all gets much more confusing.
Those who know Durant cite two primary factors: a rocky Nets season that ended in a first-round playoff sweep; and the franchise’s soured relationship with Irving, his close friend.
Durant doesn’t see much hope for a revival under the circumstances, those sources say. And he’s unhappy that his friend is unhappy.
This is where any rational observer must note: The Nets’ implosion was primarily triggered by Irving—specifically, his refusal to take the COVID vaccine, which made him ineligible for home games. It strained team chemistry, strained their rotation and irritated Harden, who forced a trade to Philadelphia in February.
All of which led the Nets to take a hard line with Irving in contract negotiations, and a refusal to offer him a maximum extension. As general manager Sean Marks said pointedly back in May, “We’re looking for guys that want to come in here, be part of something bigger than themselves, play selfless, play team basketball, and be available.”
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So back to Durant, and his purported reasons for wanting out. On the one hand, he is said to be disillusioned by the Nets’ disastrous season. On the other hand, he is said to be upset with the team’s stance toward Irving … who was the primary cause of the Nets’ disastrous season.
In trying to hold Irving accountable, in trying to protect themselves against his flightiness and unpredictability, indeed in trying to avoid a repeat of this past season—in essence, to ensure a more stable environment for Durant—the Nets instead alienated their franchise star.
As one insider sympathetic to Durant noted, “Kyrie sabotaged everything,” but Durant is reacting more to the effects than the cause, and he now views the Nets as unsalvageable. “There’s no use in (him) taking sides when it’s all too far gone,” the person said. In essence, the Nets were right in principle, but wrong in practical terms, failing to understand that making Irving upset “was going to drive Kevin away.” It’s instructive to note that for all the chaos, all the havoc and all the stress, Durant still wants to play with Irving, according to league insiders.
The irony of it all is that as the Nets canvass the league for trade offers, they will almost certainly send Irving and Durant to different teams anyway, ending a partnership that spanned just 44 games over three seasons. Salary-cap rules make it extremely difficult to acquire both players; and, other than the Lakers, few teams are eager to acquire Irving, period.
A charitable observer might argue that the Nets were simply the victims of bad luck—of untimely injuries to Durant, Irving and Harden in 2021; of a once-in-a-century pandemic that warped two seasons; of a vaccine mandate, unique to New York, that created the strains of last season—that this superteam was derailed by forces beyond their control.
There’s some truth to all of that. But the reality is the Nets long ago surrendered any control: signing DeAndre Jordan to a massive contract, at the insistence of Durant and Irving; pressuring coach Kenny Atkinson to play Jordan ahead of the promising Jarrett Allen; firing Atkinson when he chose Allen, and thus lost the support of his two stars; hiring a rookie coach in Steve Nash, in part because of his ties to Durant; trading all of their depth and draft picks for Harden, yet another enigmatic and unpredictable star; and bowing to Harden’s trade demand last winter.
By the time the Nets decided to wrest control back, by the time they took their hardline stance with Irving, it was too late. They’d already sacrificed their convictions and (as Marks himself conceded in May) their culture.
Three years ago this month, the Nets landed Durant and Irving in tandem, in one of the greatest free-agent coups in NBA history. Now they’re scrambling to salvage their franchise in the wake of what the fan blog NetsDaily is calling, “the single greatest failure by ownership and management in NBA history.”
The Nets will surely get a generous haul of talent and draft picks for Durant, and perhaps something of value when they offload Irving. They could retool quickly around Ben Simmons—albeit another enigmatic talent—and conceivably be back in playoff contention next spring. But it will be a long time before they recover from this debacle. And maybe longer still before anyone fully understands what the hell just happened.
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