by Ryan Mercier
Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, one of the best players in the NBA was traded to the Phoenix Suns. Kevin Durant joins Devin Booker and Chris Paul to make up the best trio in the league. Barring lingering injuries to KD or CP3, a legitimate concern, Phoenix is the rightful favorite in the Western Conference.
Oh yeah, the Suns somewhat remarkably still have disgruntled center Deandre Ayton on the team, too. However, the full construction of any NBA roster can’t be completely analyzed until the trade deadline passes on Thursday.
The other story here, is the Nets. Who are always the other story. Durant and Kyrie Irving once spurned the New York Knicks after some flirtation and, on purpose, chose to join the Brooklyn Nets.
History was supposed to look down on the Nets infamous failed trade of a million draft picks for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett as their biggest buffoonery ever. How could you top that? With a championship-ready trio of KD, Irving, and James Harden all eventually asking to get the Hell out of there within four years.
Brooklyn’s gutless pandering to Kyrie Irving has to be where the franchise lost its soul. The Nets took a seemingly firm stance on not allowing unvaccinated players to be part-timers during the post-bubble season. Per rules out of their control, no matter anyone’s feelings on the matter, unvaccinated players could not play home games in New York. They would be allowed to play road games.
However, allowing a silly thing like that do go on with easily foreseen continuity issues would never happen. Oh no, not by the Little Brother New York team. They took a stance. Until, UNTIL, they started losing and let their unhinged star have his way. Suddenly, having a part-time player was fine.
Brooklyn also allowed Irving’s horrid dipping of his toes into antisemitism without any real consequences.
Adding Durant was a no brainer. Pairing him with Kyrie was dicey at the time, but a reasonable business move. However, a franchise without a backbone could not handle the mercurial KD, abbhorant Irving, and a hot-and-cold James Harden.
They had no real solutions, at every turn. They stated there would be no part-time players, and went back on it. Among all of Irving’s nonsense, the Nets could have moved him on their own terms. Instead, they let Kyrie dictate to them. When Harden wanted out, they traded him for yet another talented but completely risky personality in Ben Simmons. When Durant wanted everyone fired and demanded to be traded? They ignored it. Now they’re all gone. Oh, except Ben Simmons. For now.
This was a circus, not a basketball organization. Always the little brother.
Struggling Actor Sports 