Kevin Durant just remarked that it likely won’t sit well with his former Brooklyn teammates Kyrie Irving and James Harden. Speaking recently with LeBron James and Steve Nash on the Mind in the Game podcast, Durant appeared to open Pandora’s box with his candid comments.
Felt like we were committed, but everybody else wasn’t. It just was weird.
The question now is whether those words were directed at Harden and Irving.
Kyrie Irving fires back at Durant’s comments
Without hesitation, Kyrie Irving quickly responded to Durant’s statement, saying:
This was the part where I honestly looked at and I was like, when he said this, emotionally I was like ‘okay.’ We’re all committed to the goal at the end of the day, but sometimes, not everybody is gonna follow what you want them to do… Not everybody’s gonna be committed the way you want them to be committed.
Irving also pointed out that Steve Nash wasn’t even in the picture in 2019, when the trio first came together in Brooklyn. Nash arrived the following year, in 2020, with the blessing of both Irving and Durant.
This is your man. So, I gotta support that. You want him. Cool. You like Steve, I love Steve. As a younger brother, I’m like, ‘Okay, I don’t care.
Irving continued:
When you’re committed to the same goal and then a year changes things and things going on behind the scenes, it’s like, ‘Come on.’ Yeah, it was weird timing, bro. It was weird for everybody.
In Nash’s first season coaching the Nets, everything nearly clicked. They reached the Eastern Conference semifinals, but they never came close to replicating that success afterward. Since then, the three former friends have been trading blame publicly.
Irving laments not being as wanted as Durant
The idea of teaming up with Durant and putting Brooklyn on the map initially thrilled Irving. Looking back now, however, he admits he regrets how things unfolded.
Literally, when I look back at that decision, I’m like, ‘Man, I should have taken some more time to delegate and figure out what’s best for me.
While the Durant-Irving partnership looked unstoppable on paper, reality was different. Durant tore his Achilles, and once he recovered, the momentum had vanished. “I waited for my brother to get healthy,” Irving recalled.
He later revealed he wished they had held more discussions about the team’s future.
I wish that we got a chance to get to know them beforehand because they wasn’t f– with me like that… Did they want me on the team? Sure, you can say that. Kenny Atkinson wasn’t f– with me like that. The Nets didn’t want me like that. They wanted KD.
Irving doesn’t blame anyone outright but admits he was immature at the time.
I wish I would have handled the business better and gotten a chance to know them.
Things would have turned out differently had these stars aligned in another way. Instead, their time together remains a disappointing what-if in NBA history.
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