The Brooklyn Nets era when Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden teamed up for two years failed to deliver the kind of championship promise many expected it would bring. Harden was with the team for two seasons before requesting a trade, and Irving and Durant asked for a trade during the 2022-23 season, bringing to an end a tumultuous stint that amounted to just one playoff series win.
Durant spoke earlier this month about what went wrong during that era on the “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash, the latter of whom was the coach for two seasons during that time. Durant cited injuries and distractions as the two main factors for why things didn’t work out in Brooklyn, while Nash said, “I didn’t get to coach as much as I wanted to,” due to all the outside noise that surrounded the team.
A week after that podcast was posted, Irving responded on social media with the promise that he would address comments made by Durant and Nash. Irving did just that during a Twitch livestream in which he aired out his perspective on his time with the Nets, and specifically the decision to sign with them in the first place.
“I didn’t meet with the GM one time, the assistant GM one time — when I look back at that decision, I’m like, ‘Man I should’ve taken more time to delegate and figure out what’s best for me,'” Irving said. “K.D. had just tore his Achilles in the Finals, me and him were planning on doing things, to go to Brooklyn. I don’t know any of you guys that would still stick it out with one of your friends that tears their Achilles and wait a year and a half for them to get healthy. But I’m that dude, I’m not about to leave K.D. out there after a torn Achilles and be like ‘Nah f— that, we’re not going to play together anymore.'”
Irving continued, “I waited for my brother to get healthy, and now Brooklyn I wish that we got to know them beforehand, because they wasn’t f—ing with me like that,” Irving said. “That’s just me, that’s my perspective. Did they want me on the team? Sure, you could say that. But Kenny Atkinson wasn’t f—ing with me like that. The Nets didn’t want me like that. They wanted K.D., and that’s my vantage point. This is the information that I gathered after I left. Again, this is not about Brooklyn, it’s just about business.”
Durant and Irving were certainly a package deal when the two decided to sign with the Nets in the summer of 2019. It was a plan that had been in the works since the two — and Deandre Jordan — played alongside each other at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. While the Nets weren’t exactly the target destination, they became the team all three agreed to sign with as they hoped to bring a championship to Brooklyn. That, of course, never happened. As the roster changed over the years, which included Harden requesting a trade to the 76ers in exchange for Ben Simmons, and then eventually both Irving and Durant leaving, that short-lived stint turned into one of the biggest “What if’s” in NBA history.
Doomed from the start?
While Durant blamed the team’s shortcomings on injuries primarily, Irving’s perspective of the situation is different.
“I wish I would’ve handled the business better and got a chance to know them first,” Irving said. “Ask them questions, ‘Hey, what’s the future like?’ Instead of just committing blindly and thinking we’re about to come in here and do X, Y and Z. I didn’t have much power going in there, I couldn’t say who we could get and who we could not get. I couldn’t hire the coach — you guys knew my opinion on the head coach at the time. It wasn’t perfect, but it was very immature. I was very immature at that point, I’m 27, 28, leaving Boston, feeling good about going back home, I’m hyped. … When I was in Brooklyn, I just look back at that business decision like ‘Yo, get to know the front office before you make any decision.'”
Irving spoke from a place of regret and shared that he wanted the Nets to release him after he got suspended in 2021 for not wanting the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Even the people that I was in business with were pro vaccine, and I’m like, ‘Okay that’s fine, just leave me the f— out of this and let me go somewhere,'” Irving said. “I even told the Nets to release me, I said, ‘Yo, could you please just release me’ — and obviously the money situation … they weren’t just going to let me rock out and go anywhere.”
While Irving didn’t get the release he wanted, he did get a trade to one of his preferred destinations in the Dallas Mavericks. Irving helped them get to the NBA Finals in 2024, but an ACL injury in March, as well as Dallas’ shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic, derailed any hope of making the playoffs. Irving will miss most of next season as he rehabs from the ACL injury, but if he manages to return to his former self, he’ll be doing so with a roster of Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson and No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg.
The time in Brooklyn ended sour, and it doesn’t sound as though Irving has many fond memories of the situation, but in the end all parties involved got what they wanted. Irving, Durant and Harden landed in places they preferred, while the Nets got a pile of picks for their troubles.
