The night of June 30, 2019, brooklyn’s network Basketball staff gathered at the team’s training center. It’s the first night of free agency, and Kevin Durant And Kyrie Irving have all announced that they will be signing with the Nets.
With food and drink served from Carbone, the group’s decision-makers spent the evening celebrating their coup. The plan set up by general manager Sean Marks after being hired in 2016 — one that focused on culture and took three years of patient and painful rebuilding — paid off. The Nets – THE NETS! – changed their dying team. They don’t just seem destined to be really, really good, but also important in a way they’ve never been before.
Since then, almost nothing else for the Nets has gone the way it should.
You can point your finger at all kinds of people – Marks and Durant and Steve Nash and James Harden and Joe Tsai — but the core problem, as it became clear, was that Irving’s capricious, stubborn, selfish personality devoured the franchise.
To review: There was less than a year into his Brooklyn tenure where he told reporters, while standing in the locker room among his teammates, that the Nets have a “glare” need more staff. And then there was a time when you disappear for several weeks without notifying the group. And of course, who can forget his refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine (for reasons he never explicitly stated), making him ineligible for field matches. home. Or the time he advertised an anti-Semitic film on his social media accounts and then, with an even more brazen display, not only refused to apologize, but repeatedly defended that action.
And then there is Friday’s commercial demand. Irving doesn’t care that he’s playing for a team that has established itself as a championship contender. He’s a few months away from being a free agent and, in his eyes, the Nets’ refusal to give him a four-year, maximum extension is a reason to leave now.
And so, after four and a half years, Irving’s time with the Nets is over. It will be remembered as one of the greatest busts in sports history. Irving only appeared in the regular 143 games of the season. He and Durant have shared the field after only 74 years. The duo won only one playoff series in four seasons.
Now, Marks and the Nets have four days to save things. Credit them for this: They acted quickly on Irving and took advantage of the desperation of the Dallas Mavericks. Spencer Dinwiddie And Dorian Finney-Smith are two players capable of contributing game time. More notable, however, is the ability of the Nets to eliminate Mavs in the 2029 first pick unprotected (which happens two years later). by Luka Dončić current contract expires).
The Nets will now exercise that selection and shop, along with their own 2029 first round and the first round secured by the top eight 2027 they own through Philadelphia 76ersand see if they can find another upgrade. Maybe they’ll see if someone is interested Ben Simmons, although that is doubtful. It should also be pointed out how much Simmons’ fall has hurt this team. He is the insurance policy. They basically turned all the draft picks and assets they used to make Harden one of the league’s least desirable assets.
Throw in Cam Thomas and/or Day’Ron Sharpe, though, and they might have something. Maybe that’s enough to get one of these Toronto Raptors veteran? John Collins? Maybe someone else?
There’s a world where the Nets can come out of this looking better than before. Finney-Smith gives them another capable full-back, Dinwiddie is a solid playmaker, and any team with Durant has a shot. They would never be able to replace Irving’s ability to fire electricity, but they also no longer had to worry every day if they were about to descend into chaos.
Talent often wins in the NBA, but perhaps Irving is one of those rare examples where the reality is less.
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of Rise to the top: Philadelphia 76ers and the most daring run in professional sports history. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.
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