Photo courtesy of Flickr
It feels like forever ago that the Brooklyn Nets were the consensus best team in the NBA. Going into the 2021 NBA Playoffs Brooklyn was seen as the favorite to lift that years’ Larry O’Brien Trophy behind their big three of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden. If it weren’t for injuries to Irving and Harden, and if KD had a smaller shoe size, Brooklyn very well may have been the 2021 NBA Champions instead of the Milwaukee Bucks. Despite that season’s disappointment, the belief around the NBA was that Brooklyn was set up to dominate the league in the short term behind that big three.
Since the Nets lost that fateful game seven, it has been a never-ending stream of drama and disappointment for Brooklyn, most of which has centered around the mercurial Irving.
When the Nets signed Kyrie to a four year contract in the 2019 offseason, they were well aware of the baggage that he came with, and the potential for his presence to combust their locker room. In the two years prior to Irving’s arrival in Brooklyn he had forced his way out of one championship contender via trade demand in 2017 (the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers) and had burned all bridges beyond repair with another championship contender in 2019 (The Boston Celtics, who would eventually sweep the Nets in the 2022 NBA Playoffs en route to their NBA Finals appearance). Brooklyn seemed to view Irving as a risk worth taking because of his friendship with Kevin Durant, and believed that they would not have been able to sign Durant away from the Golden State Warriors if they didn’t bring in Irving as well.
The logic was, at the time, sound. Whatever Irving’s warts were when Brooklyn signed him, if his presence would guarantee the arrival of Durant, the Nets were able to justify to themselves that he was worth the risk. But that risk has backfired spectacularly over the past 18 months. The first season of Irving and Durant was always going to be somewhat of a wash due to the Achilles injury that Durant had suffered playing for the Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals, while Irving also battled his own injury issues. The 2020-21 season was viewed as their first real look at what they had. Durant and Irving were spectacular for Brooklyn on the court that year, and the Nets also traded for the disgruntled James Harden from Brooklyn to assemble what was on paper the best collection of talent on one team since the Golden State Warriors superteam of Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
Although injuries prevented them from reaching the heights that they had hoped in the playoffs, hopes were high going into the 2021-22 season. Then, Kyrie Irving happened, and the risk that Brooklyn took on him blew up in their face.
New York City was one of three NBA markets that implemented a vaccine mandate for players to play that season (the other two were San Francisco and Toronto). Irving refused to get vaccinated, citing conspiracy theories to back up his decision. This was not the first time that Kyrie has cited ridiculous conspiracy theories (his flat earth theory from 2017 was eye-opening to the beliefs he holds), nor the first time that he would take time away from his team for seemingly no good reason (before the Nets traded for Harden, Irving had spent two weeks away from the team without providing a reason for his absence). Irving stood firm in his anti-vaccine stance, and even though he was eligible to play in away games as a part time player, the Nets refused to indulge him and told him to stay away from the team until he got vaccinated or until the mandate was lifted. A similar ultimatum was given to Golden State Warriors forward and fellow vaccine skeptic, Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins got vaccinated and the Warriors won the 2022 NBA Championship. Irving did not and the Nets are now arguably the biggest circus in the league).
Injuries to Durant and inconsistent play from Harden in the first half of the 2021-22 season led to Brooklyn struggling in the standings, yet Irving still refused to get vaccinated. Eventually the Nets caved and allowed him to play in road games. Durant seemed ready to welcome Irving back, but Harden was fed up and demanded a trade to Philadelphia. The Nets got Ben Simmons in return, which has been a disaster in and of itself.
The Nets were swept out of the first round in 2022 by Irving’s former team, the Celtics. Irving played horribly in three of the four games. After the season ended, Brooklyn gave him permission to seek a trade, but there were no takers, with teams not willing to take on his baggage. Durant unsuccessfully demanded a trade away from Brooklyn, with many believing that Irving’s unreliability was a big reason for his trade demand.
Now this season, Irving is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. He posted a link to an anti-semitic film from far right wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his instagram. When confronted about this, instead of admitting a mistake or apologizing, Irving defended his stance. He then got into a heated back and forth in a media session with ESPN reporter Nick Friedell. It was only when Brooklyn and several of his sponsors suspended him that he issued a half hearted apology statement.
The Nets have been almost as much of a mess on the court this season as off. Prior to Irving’s suspension, many still viewed them as potential championship dark horse if all went well. They started the season 2-5. Since the suspension, Brooklyn has been refreshed. They are 5-4 without Irving, and look more free and fluid without his ball-hogging tendencies and the drama he brings. Additionally, Irving’s absence drastically improves Brooklyn’s defense, where he has always been a liability.
In years past, Irving was worth the baggage that came with him. At his best, he is a dynamic scorer and shot creator, but no team has really figured out how to maximize him since LeBron James and the Cavaliers did. At this point, he isn’t even really a winning player. He doesn’t make his teammates better. He’s a huge negative on defense. He isn’t good enough to justify his superiority complex. And of course there’s all of the off court issues, the latest of which being the worst. It is still unsure when Irving will return to the court for Brooklyn, but if the Nets knew what was best for them he never would. He’s a lost cause at this point. It’s fair to wonder how much longer he’ll be in the NBA. At this point he’s only getting by on his popularity, highlight reel handles, and the lasting impact of the shot that he hit to win game seven of the 2016 Finals for Cleveland. It’s fair to wonder whether teams would be willing to put up with him at all by this point if he had never hit that shot.
