By Darnell Sallins
The Brooklyn Nets went from contenders in the East to an epic failure in three and half years after the blockbuster trade of Superstar Kevin Durant to Phoenix.
Early Tuesday morning around 2AM as the Phoenix Suns acquired KD from Brooklyn in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, and 4 unprotected 1st-round picks. Just happen days after the Nets traded Kyrie Irving to Dallas.
Three and half years ago, it was all eyes on Brooklyn because Kevin Durant choose to leave the Golden State Warriors to join the Nets organization alongside Kyrie Irving. Year one was just a preview of what the Nets could look like as KD was still recovering from a torn Achilles injury and Kyrie was dealing with a shoulder injury and only played 20 games.
Year two KD makes his return to the court and the duo showed why people had Brooklyn the favorite to come out of the East. However, Brooklyn felt the need to go over the top and add frustrated star and prolific scorer James Harden in a trade with the Houston Rockets. There's a Big 3 in Brooklyn of scoring proficiency with KD, Kyrie, and Harden.
"The Nest are definitely winning the NBA Championship; how can any team guard the Nets?"
However, that wasn't the case as the Big 3 only played 8 games together that season due to injuries to Irving and Harden. The Nets would get ousted in the second round against the Milwaukee Bucks as KD wished he had a half inch smaller shoe that sent Game 7 into overtime instead of ending the game which the Bucks rolled in OT on their way to the NBA Championship.
Year three is the year of the Nets. You know what they say, "Third time is the charm." KD is healthy. Irving is healthy. Harden is healthy. Then the COVID vaccination mandate took place in New York City and Kyrie Irving was at odds with it. To refresh quickly, the athletes in the Big Apple could only play at home if they were vaccinated in which Irving refused to get vaccinated. Thus, Harden makes the decision to want out of Brooklyn because the team isn't on the same page to make the same sacrifices to win the championship.
Harden gets traded to the Philadelphia 76ers from Ben Simmons, who was at odds with the 76ers organization and the city of Philadelphia. Simmons didn't a single second of basketball that season.
The mandate would be lifted to players like Irving to play home games, however it was a fight for the Nets to make the playoffs through the play-in route. The Nets would beat the Cleveland Cavaliers to become the 7th seed and a first round matchup with the Boston Celtics. The Celtics would sweep the Nets and another offseason filled with disappointment.
Irving wanted a max deal, but the Nets refused to give due what transpired throughout the season where Irving only played 29 games over the vaccination mandate.
Now before the trade deadline this season the Brooklyn Nets have traded both KD and Irving to the West thus ending what people thought would be the new dynasty in the NBA. Instead, this Brooklyn Nets team would go down as one of the biggest, epic failure in NBA history and even in sports history.
Only one playoff series win to show for the three and a half years of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving alongside James Harden in Brooklyn.
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