The Brooklyn Nets say goodbye to their big dreams with basketball stars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden.
Big Three: James Harden (13), Kevin Durant (7) and Kyrie Irving didn’t harmonize humanly either Photo: Corey Sipkin/ap
Spencer Dinwiddie had quite a good evening with 28 points. Mikal Bridges played his usual strong defense. And Dayron Sharpe came off the bench and collected eight rebounds. In the end, however, the bunch of solid backup players and likeable nonames had no chance against the New York Knicks. The Brooklyn Nets lost 106:124 – and were once again the gray mouse of the NBA.
As expected and unspectacular as the defeat was, a little bit of history was made that day in the traditional Madison Square Garden: Because the project to make the Nets the hub of the basketball world was finally buried.
Like any great shipwreck, this one begins with high hopes. James Harden was signed in January 2021, the supposed last piece of the puzzle for a championship team. With Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Harden, the Nets had supposedly gathered three superstars who not only finally outstripped the much more popular Knicks on the New York market, but should also start a long era of success. Three of the best basketball pros in the world should promote the gray mouse of the league, which has never won an NBA title, to the glamor club and permanent title contender.
The Nets and their “Big Three” made plenty of headlines, but mostly negative ones. Two years later, Harden is now playing in Philadelphia, Irving in Dallas and Durant since his move last week in Phoenix – and in Brooklyn Spencer Dinwiddie is supposed to pull the coals out of the fire. A sporting catastrophe that sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, as usual, eloquently described as the “biggest failure in the history of the NBA”.
Promises of salvation from the “Big Three”
The triumvirate was not the first to put together resourceful managers. At least since LeBron James went to Miami in 2010 to play with his buddies Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the “Big Three” has been a kind of promise of salvation. However, the fact that people are involved complicates the undertaking. The project in Brooklyn was also marked by mutual jealousies and animosity, conflicts with the coaches and officials. Nets manager Sean Marks finally had to acknowledge: “If we find that something is not working, either in the long term or in the short term, it’s time to end it.”
Even the rather taciturn James Harden recently felt compelled to murmur words like “huge frustration” and “big dysfunction” through his mighty beard in view of his time in New York. In addition, the time the three stars spent together was plagued by injuries, and Irving was absent for a long time because he did not want to be vaccinated against Covid. The result: Durant, Irving and Harden played together in only 16 games – someone was always missing, and success was not forthcoming. It ended up with a single playoff series win – and the Nets are further from championships than ever.
The expectations that their new teams now have show how great the potential would have been if these three talents had worked together. Together with Joel Embiid at the Philadelphia 76ers, Harden forms a formidable duo that is one of the narrow favorites. The Dallas Mavericks believe they have teamed superstar Luka Dončić with the right partner in Kyrie Irving to win a championship. And the Phoenix Suns, just one of the biggest disappointments of the season, have risen to become the top favorites for the title since Kevin Durant arrived at the Las Vegas bookies.
But as it is with the high hopes: In the end, only one club can win the title this season. At least one thing seems certain: The Brooklyn Nets will not be this club.
