The friendship between Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving is well-documented across the NBA community. In 2019, the pair left their teams behind to pursue an on-court partnership and it broke the NBA at the time.
Four years later, the Durant/Irving experiment is already over after a series of controversies and behind-the-scenes drama destroyed the franchise from the inside out.
It finally ended this February, when Kyrie Irving formally requested a trade from the Nets due to principle differences with the front office. What followed was a domino effect that ultimately led to Durant joining Devin Booker in Phoenix.
But during his introductory press conference on Thursday, Durant took a minute to reflect on his time with Kyrie and on his trade request that ended their professional partnership.
“I was upset we couldn’t finish. I thought we had some good momentum, we were finally building the culture that we always wanted. I felt like every game we were building our chemistry. But I didn’t know what was going on with Kyrie and his situation with the organization. I didn’t really focus on that. It was a blow to our team, it took away our identity. Without him, we didn’t have a clear identity.”
Kevin Durant says Kyrie Irving's trade request was "tough to stomach":
"We were finally building a culture that we always wanted. I didn't know what was going on with Kyrie and his situation with the organization…without him, we didn't have a clear identity." pic.twitter.com/8mHdhwJ24a
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) February 16, 2023
It wasn’t that long ago that the Nets looked like one of the best teams in the East after winning 11 straight games. At the time, Durant and Irving were in a stride and looked to have finally cracked the formula on how to play together.
Sadly, it wasn’t enough to convince Irving to stay and by the time his trade demand went public, the writing was already on the wall for the Nets.
Who Is To Blame For Nets’ Failure?
Durant, James Harden, Sean Marks, and Joe Tsai all played a hand in the downfall of the Nets but it’s hard not to put most of this on Kyrie Irving. His decisions to avoid the vaccine and post anti-semitic material on his platform became an enormous distraction for the Nets and the team was forced to respond.
It caused an all-out war from within, as Kyrie’s camp and the team’s management continued to be at odds over his beliefs and actions. When people look back on the KD era in Brooklyn, it will be Kyrie Irving who people remember as the one who got in the way.
Regardless of your opinion on the matter, Durant is ready to move on and focus all of his energy on his new team.
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