Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving joined forces in 2019 when they both signed with the Brooklyn Nets. Durant left the Golden State Warriors, with whom he had gone to 3 NBA Finals and won 2 NBA championships.
As for Irving, he left the Boston Celtics after 2 short seasons with them. Both players left their respective franchises to build a championship-winning team in Brooklyn and elevate the franchise.
One fan on Reddit, u/To_me_my_board, pointed out how unsuccessful they have been in doing so since then, and how their former teams have been able to get to the NBA Finals before them.
3 years ago, KD and Kyrie left their respective teams to ‘build something special’: Now the teams they left are facing off in the NBA finals
This isn’t meant to detract from the Celtics and Warriors accomplishments (I’m sure there will be lots of posts on that).
And I’m no Celtics fan with a hate-on for Kyrie or Warriors fan with a hate-on for KD.
But I am a fan of the game who loves to see teams play team ball where guys share the rock and work together.
When you get guys as talented as KD and Kyrie (and there are few as talented as those two in the league) who are in great situations (Kyrie in Cleveland and then Boston; KD in Golden State) and then walk away to pursue personal glory, it’s always kind of sad to miss out on what could have happened.
But it’s also great to see those teams move on and still thrive, reaching the top spots in the league.
So congrats to Boston and Golden State, and let’s hope other great talents take this as a lesson to appreciate the good fortune they have so we can see dynasties like the Showtime Lakers and Bird’s
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have not been successful during their tenure with the Nets so far.
The Nets haven’t even made it to a conference finals so far, as they’ve been eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in 2021, and the Celtics, Irving’s former team, swept the Nets in the first round of this year’s playoffs.
As for Irving and Durant’s former teams, the Celtics and the Warriors, they are set to face off against each other in the 2022 NBA Finals. The Nets have been very unsuccessful in their pursuit of an NBA championship so far.
That doesn’t mean the Nets can’t turn things around going forward, as they could look to regroup and make a push for the NBA championship next season. With KD, Kyrie, and now Ben Simmons, the Nets have the talent to win it all. The problem for them is putting it all together.
