The Brooklyn Nets are heading into the 2025-26 NBA season in which they will be going through the second year of their latest full-scale rebuild under general manager Sean Marks. Brooklyn aren’t expected to compete for a championship this upcoming season, but it wasn’t too long ago when they had three some of the best players in the league.
“That point guard position is crazy. You got CP (Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul), you got Russ (Russell Westbrook), and you got Kyrie (Irving). That is hard. Let me just go Kyrie, Russ, me, KD (Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant), and Joel (Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers center),” Clippers guard James Harden said in an interview with content creator FaZe Lacy. It’s not surprising to see the starting five of teammates that Harden picked.
Harden, 35, has spent time throughout his 16-year career playing with some of the best players in the NBA, including Durant and Irving during their time with the Nets. During the 2020-21 season, Harden was traded from the Rockets to Brooklyn to play with Durant and Irving in the hopes of leading the franchise to its first championship while allowing Harden to win his first title.
Harden, Durant, and Irving were able to take the Nets to the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals, but eventually fell to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games. The 2021-22 season presented another chance for the trio to pay off what Marks invested in bringing Harden to Brooklyn, but the partnership ended fairly quickly as Harden was traded to the 76ers at the trade deadline.
Harden went on to play with Embiid for parts of two seasons, but the superstar duo were unable to get past the second of the playoffs in their two seasons together. While Harden has yet to have championship success with a teammate, outside of Durant and Westbrook during their time with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the former Arizona State Sun Devil still looks back on his time with those players in a positive light.