Kevin Durant and Steve Nash likely have their opinions on what went wrong in Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair actually discussed just that Tuesday on a podcast, with the former breaking down why the Nets Big 3 broke up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nets general manager Sean Marks built a superteam with Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden that lost in Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals when Durant\u2019s toe was on the line for a potential game-winning 3-pointer, and the latter two were hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nash was famously dumped by the Nets in November 2022, after Durant demanded his firing. Durant requested a trade the following February.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, Nash \u2014 who co-hosts the \u201cMind The Game\u201d podcast with LeBron James \u2014 asked his former star what he recalled about that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had this conversation in Portland I think right before a game, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Who am I spending my next five years with?\u2019\u2009\u201d Durant said. \u201cI had just signed that deal, you had just signed a deal. It felt like we were secure, but everything else around us was going to s\u2013t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot in a bad way, we\u2019ve got GMs going to other teams, we\u2019ve got coaches going to other teams, we\u2019ve got players forcing trades, we\u2019ve got bringing Ben Simmons, he\u2019s back [Durant pointed to his back while saying this line]. There was so much bulls\u2013t around us. I felt like we were locked in on the same page and understanding we were trying to do something special here, but \u2026 and I feel like your hands were tied a lot because as a coach you had to deal with so much.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steve Nash (l) and Kevin Durant (r) in 2021. for the NY POST<\/p>\n
Nash dealt with Irving\u2019s refusal to adhere to New York\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which made him ineligible for home games in 2021-22.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then Harden passive-aggressively forced his way out that February, not telling the Nets he wanted a deal until two days before the trade deadline, leaving them to swap him for the chronically injured Simmons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kevin Durant on the \u201cMind The Game\u201d podcast. @MindTheGamePodcast\/YouTube<\/p>\n
And, of course, Nets fans are as familiar with \u201cBen Simmons is back\u201d as Durant is \u2014 the point guard\u2019s start-stop recovery from back woes having been a constant issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was noteworthy that Nash interrupted Durant, interjecting, \u201cI didn\u2019t get to coach as much as I wanted to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That could be a double entendre. Did Nash mean that the Big 3 logged just 16 games together? Or that his tenure was abruptly cut short by Durant requesting his ouster? Or that he spent more time putting out fires than coaching?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what it was. I didn\u2019t feel like we got the full Steve Nash like I wanted, like you probably wanted. I feel like it was just too many distractions in a way, and you know you can\u2019t win that way,\u201d Durant said. \u201cBut I felt like we had great intentions though. I feel like we cared enough. I feel like every day we were trying to push toward winning a championship. It was a great vibe in there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s some of the best times I\u2019ve had. That first year, that\u2019s why I signed that deal. That first year, man, most fun ball I had. Some of the most fun ball I had playing in my life. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed playing in Brooklyn a lot. I loved playing for Brooklyn. But it\u2019s just so much around the guys who were committed to the situation. I felt like we were committed, but everybody else wasn\u2019t. It just was weird.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Durant did not mention Irving\u2019s absences or Harden by name, but he alluded to Harden demanding a trade (Irving did so the following season, finally forcing Durant to be the last star out the door).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steve Nash during the episode. @MindTheGamePodcast\/YouTube<\/p>\n
For his part, Nash \u2014 who hasn\u2019t coached since \u2014 said he struggles with how to view his Nets tenure, and admits he feels like he failed Brooklyn. But he also acknowledges that there were many things out of his hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Durant \u2014 who recently told the crowd at Fanatics Fest that he was a \u201cNet for life\u201d \u2014 freed Nash of any blame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LeBron James (l), Durant (c) and Nash (r) on the show. @MindTheGamePodcast\/YouTube<\/p>\n
\u201cHell, no. Come on, man,\u201d Durant said. \u201cI just think your hands were tied too many times. You had to be a super, a principal more so than anything. \u2026 You just couldn\u2019t like inject your basketball. \u2026 Just everything that you have basketball, I didn\u2019t feel like you could inject that into everybody in the way that we all envisioned just because of the distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant and Steve Nash likely have their opinions on what went wrong in Brooklyn.\u00a0 The pair actually…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,938,6,671,3569,66,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-157530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-kevin-durant","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nets","15":"tag-podcasts","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-steve-nash"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114821588988750909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}