At one point, the Brooklyn Nets had Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving on the roster. They were projected to win the 2021 championship after beating the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2021 playoffs.
However, the Nets lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals in seven games. Both Harden and Irving got hurt in the Bucks series and Milwaukee won Game 7 in Brooklyn.
During the 2021-22 season, Harden requested a trade from the Nets and was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. Brooklyn got swept by the Celtics in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.
The following season, both Irving and Durant requested trades from the Nets. Irving got traded to the Dallas Mavericks and Durant got traded to the Phoenix Suns.
After the Mavericks recently lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, Irving talked about his Nets stint with Harden and Durant. Harden is now on the Clippers after requesting a trade from the Sixers and getting traded to LA.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets Updates
“We could sit here and play to what-if scenarios all day, bro,” Irving said. “But for me, even when James came to Brooklyn — and a lot of my peers, and a lot of my teammates I’ve played with — I’ve always told them that, ‘This is bigger than just us being teammates right now, present moment. You’ve got to do what is best for you.’
“And it’s unfortunate that me, James and KD are part of the NBA history’s ‘what ifs’ of just having a superteam, and the expectations on us. And we did have a few good seasons and outside of just the things we couldn’t control, with the vaccine stuff and the mandates in New York City, and just the ups and downs of scenarios and circumstances, I feel like we did pretty well.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets Updates
“I don’t look at that aspect of my career as disappointing. I think just think it’s kind of like one of those times that got away, the girl that got away… and it’ll hurt you for the rest of your life. You’re like looking at it, you got a great bad wife, kids and all that. So I don’t second-guess it, I don’t wanna get in trouble with my wife. I’m not thinking about nobody else, baby. But it just feels like that FOMO [fear of missing out], you missed out on something great.”
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