Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving did not accomplish their championship goals together when they were on the Brooklyn Nets, but the Phoenix Suns forward believes their relationship was not the issue.
“That’s something I’m going to keep internal,” he said of the existing relationship, per Logan Murdock of The Ringer. “I don’t want to expose our relationship. I think that’s deeper than basketball, but I wouldn’t say it was a problem. I didn’t think it was a problem.”
The combination of injuries and eligibility issues prevented the trio of Durant, Irving and James Harden from building much on-court chemistry or living up to the sky-high expectations that were in place when they were all in Brooklyn.
The Nets traded Harden first last season when he pushed for an exit. After being dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers, he told reporters this season he knew things were trending in the wrong direction in Brooklyn.
“It was just a lot of dysfunction,” he said. “Clearly. But it was a lot of internal things that I’m not going to ever just say, put in the media or anything. And that was one of the reasons why I chose to make my decision.”
The Nets then traded Durant (Phoenix) and Irving (Dallas Mavericks) this season.
Durant dealt with injuries throughout his time with the Nets, missing the 2019-20 campaign and never playing more than 55 games in a season.
Irving missed time because he was suspended for promoting an antisemitic movie on social media and was far from apologetic when initially given a chance to walk back his actions.
He also missed significant time because he was unvaccinated against COVID-19.
“You got to ask them, to be honest,” Durant said when discussing where things went off track with the Nets. “My job is to play, and I think I did that. Rehab, a lot of stuff was out of my control that I didn’t … I can’t speak on, to be honest, but I just thought we didn’t play enough minutes together. That’s all.”
Durant is now on another loaded team alongside Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton on the Suns.
If they can live up to championship expectations, the time in Brooklyn will be a distant memory.
Source: bleacherreport.com
