To paraphrase (mangle?) the words of T.S. Eliot, the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving Brooklyn Nets team that was supposed to be a contender ended not with a Mike Breen “BANG!” but a whimper.
KD reportedly requested a trade on Thursday, and the NBA world was completely stunned, as it should be!! Kyrie Irving LITERALLY JUST OPTED IN and said that weird thing about “those who dare to be different lead us into tomorrow.”
As everyone says: This league.
So now that the KD-Kyrie era is over, let’s look back at the ridiculousness that transpired in the past few years:
1
2019-20: Durant doesn't play a single minute due to recovering from a torn Achilles
(Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
Not quite absurd, but worth noting that the Nets signed him knowing that he’d have to miss an entire season.
That Nets team in 2019-20 won just 35 games and Irving played in just 20 of them. But hope sprung eternal, because KD would be back next season!
2
2021: The trade for James Harden that didn't quite work out
Harden forced his way out of Houston and the Nets dealt Caris Levert and Jarrett Allen in a massive four-team deal.
It wasn’t that Harden was terrible, per se. There were questions about the fit with Irving and how he’d play with two other superstars. Couple that with health issues, and it just didn’t all work, leading to the trade for Ben Simmons (more on that in a minute!).
3
2021: KD and the Nets miss an NBA Finals bid by a literal foot
With six seconds left in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks, he stepped back and hit an awe-inspiring shot that, if it had been a foot back, it would have been a three-pointer that would have won the game and sent the Nets to the Finals.
But his toe was on the line. He tied the game, and in overtime, the Bucks emerged with a win and eventually, a ring.
4
2021-22: Kyrie Irving refuses to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and has to sit out
This saga feels like a while ago at this point … but it wasn’t.
Irving only played 29 regular-season games, and had sat out for a while as the Nets announced he wouldn’t be a part-time player given New York City’s protocols for unvaccinated individuals. But he returned later in the season.
Not that it helped. The Nets were a play-in team that got swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round.
5
2022: The Ben Simmons trade
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Well, that should also be the Harden trade. But the point is: The hope was Simmons might come back to play for the team that gambled by trading Harden for him.
6
2022 offseason: Durant requests a trade right after Irving opts in
Just. Absurd.
Durant requested a trade with the team today, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/BkNEHwkrc0
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2022
