When James Harden joined the Brooklyn Nets, it seemed like the team was destined to win at least a couple of NBA Championships. Apart from Harden, the franchise already had a superstar duo of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
Unfortunately, the superteam experiment failed for the Nets, as James Harden was recently traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal focused around Ben Simmons. This has led to the Nets getting another All-Star caliber player.
However, today our focus isn’t on Simmons, it’s on Kyrie. Ever since Irving left the Cleveland Cavaliers, he has constantly been part of controversies. It was the same during his time with the Boston Celtics and it hasn’t changed since he joined the Nets.
At the start of the 2021-22 NBA season, the league made sure that the majority of the players get their vaccine so there is no COVID-19 scare as the season progresses. But Irving made sure that he doesn’t plan to get a vaccine anytime soon.
As a result, he missed a big chunk of the season. He recently returned to the roster, albeit as a part-time player. Unsurprisingly, the 1x NBA champion is struggling to get back into rhythm.
This has led to the media placing a lot of blame on Kyrie and it feels like his teammate Durant has heard enough. In a recent interview, KD made sure to defend Irving and gave a valid reason for it as well.
Via ESPN:
“Kyrie has always been an easy scapegoat for everybody, especially for the media and the fans, they love to use him as a scapegoat for a lot of problems. So it’s easy to blame him.”
In the same interview, Durant also defended his former teammate James Harden after he was traded to Philly. So it is quite evident that Durant doesn’t like hearing negative things about his Brooklyn Nets teammates, current or former.
While it is good to see Durant doing this, it will not matter much to fans if the Nets fail to win the NBA Championship. With Simmons arriving post the NBA trade deadline for the team, they have little time left to fit him in the squad and get adjusted to his new role.
