Steve Nash signing with the Brooklyn Nets was seen as a good move by many people, but not everybody is convinced things will be smooth between the rookie coach and his new team. He has a good relationship with Kevin Durant and that’s good for everybody. The other thing is how he’ll manage his relationship with Kyrie Irving, the other star in the team.
Kyrie has earned a reputation of a difficult teammate and player and Nash will have to deal with it. The player recently said he didn’t see Nash being the every-day coach since Kevin Durant could take that job sometimes, as well as him and Jacques Vaughn.
He now doubled down on his comments, stating that he believes Nash can adapt to the Nets’ players. While addressing the rumors suggesting he and Durant were the responsible for Kenny Atkinson’s firing, Kyrie said:
“I want to give a shout out to Kenny Atkinson because some people came out and was like, ‘Yo, Ky and KD got Kenny fired.’ And look, that was completely false,” Irving said on his teammate’s new show. “Listen, Kenny was great for the group that he served, and I was very appreciative of what he was giving us throughout the season when we were playing. We always heard how great Nash was or saw how great Nash was as a player, but also when you get to know him as a person, you understand why he can co-exist with us because we don’t need somebody to come in and put their coaching philosophy on everything that we’re doing and change up the wheel and, ‘Yo, you guys need to start doing this,’ and we start running on the first day of practice, and it’s just like, “No.’
“I want somebody, I need somebody that’s going to understand that I am a human being first. I serve my community and where I come from first, and then basketball is something I come and do every single day because I love [it], and also I have the right ingredients and people around me to come in and do my job at a high level, and I know that they will hold me accountable to that level. It’s no disrespect to Kenny or any other coaches I played with, it’s just Steve coming in at this moment and then following up with putting together a great coaching core was going to make us more successful.”
Kyrie Irving believes Steve Nash can co-exist with this current Nets team
"We don’t need somebody to come in and put their coaching philosophy on everything we’re doing…I need somebody that’s gonna understand that I’m a human being first."
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 2, 2020
Nash will start his coaching career with this team. The expectations are high for them, as well as the pressure on everybody’s shoulders. All eyes will be placed on this team and if they don’t start playing well from the very beginning, the alarms will set.
