The Brooklyn Nets absolutely deserve this Norling Circus and the absurdist sideshow that defines it. They deserve to be universally ridiculed after Kevin Durant did a vicious putback dunk following his trade request. At a press conference, he announced that it was time to abandon the culture of superstar appeasement. Organic, team-centered growth. Over the weekend, The Athletic reportedthat Durant was a replacement player who could make a championship-level roster more desirable in a meeting in London with Nets owner Joe Tsai. announced it was time to ditch Marks and Nash for a postseason place over the first round sweep.
Durant reportedly made these terminations a condition of his re-signing, the only way back to Brooklyn, and on some level, Tsai gave him what he wanted. You might be tempted to give in. After all, KD is better at his job than Marks and Nash. Cold business needs to ask: Who will ultimately give a chance to win a championship, Durant and the new head coach and GM, or Marks/Nash and the Nets acquired in a KD deal? assets.
There's a reason they call his NBA the Players League. Basketball has fewer players in the arena than football, baseball, or hockey, delivering more value to individual juggernauts who can control the ball in nearly every possession. Durant would be one of his 10 or so greatest players in NBA history, and even though he suffered an injury in the opening game at the young age of 34, there is no one to replace him. No.
Durant, on the other hand, is someone who shouldn't be doing HR with Marks. . As I wrote before,KD executed one of the worst deals in league history. He traded his DNA for Stephen his Curry and Golden his State wins Kyrie he Irving and had a lot of problems that would later be named. Had Durant stayed with Curry and the Warriors, he would have ended up winning more rings than LeBron James' four and would have moved up a leg or three more on the Legacy ladder.
But Durant wanted to prove he could make his own winner with Irving on his side. No one is blaming the Nets for doing what they had to do to beat the Knicks and others in Durant and Irving's free-agent race in the summer of 2019. , and he shipped almost the entire development system for James Harden's 13 months of advanced maintenance as part of the compensation for his business with KD and Kyrie.
"The Nets should be fined by the league for using the word 'culture' again," said one prominent NBA source of his.
Of course, the Nets had already exposed their soulless core when they first succumbed to his COVID stance with the unvaccinated Irving.
Tsai and Marks discovered the hard way to turn your business over to talented people. Durant hadn't even started playing in a four-year overtime worth nearly $200 million until Durant told the Nets he wanted to go elsewhere. Shortly after Irving opted in, Durant opted out. Two years ago, he encouraged his uncoached sidekick, Nash, to get a job with the Nets, but now believes Nash barely knows what he's doing. beautiful.
After the Celtics swept the team in April, Durant was asked if he thought Nash was still "the right person to lead this group." He replied with some disbelief. So yeah, Steve has been treated like crazy the last two years when he had to handle so many things as head coach, first time coach. Trades, injuries, COVID, the many things he had to deal with and I'm proud of how he focused on his passion for us. And we will continue to grow over the summer and see what happens.
I know what happened. The Warriors won another championship by beating the same team in the finals that embarrassed the Nets, and Durant decided to be furious. Finding himself staying away — in large part because of his notarized contract and employment — and he wanted to go to a team that could cut Golden State's progress in more rings. No, he needed to get to a team that could cut off Golden State's advance in more rings. , realized that the team that acquired him was too depleted to win it all. So, in the heat of the summer, he warmed up to Tsai by saying he would come back if his owners let Marks and Nash go missing.
Durant is trying to close the trade. In the process, he made the Nets look like a league-wide joke that was often used in the old Jersey days.