Kyrie RESPONDS To KD, Harden Nets DRAMA

Kyrie RESPONDS To KD, Harden Nets DRAMA

Kyrie Irving. More drama this time bringing up the Brooklyn Nets and revealing some surprising things about how everything actually went down between him and Kevin Durant. I’m Trevor Lane. This is the Basketball Bulletin. Make sure you subscribe right here to the channel. Turn on those notifications as well. Joining me is Donnie Freeman. Donnie Kyrie no stranger to controversy, but uh he he’s been been doing pretty well in in Dallas and now we’re going back and drudging up the Brooklyn stuff. Well, to be fair, there was a podcast with the coach and co-star from that team, and they kind of talked about it inevitably because that was something that we needed to hear about, I guess, a little bit because we didn’t really know how things really were behind the scenes with KD and and Steve and all that stuff. So, I think they had no choice but to really talk about it as he’s the co-host on that podcast. And Kyrie just took it upon himself to respond and he had some really interesting comments. That’s fair. It should be should be noted that Kevin Durant and Steve Nash kind of talked about it first and then Kyrie responded to all of that. In fact, he wouldn’t have said anything if they didn’t say anything. So, true, true, fair point. Fair point. And and important that we do note that. Okay, let’s let’s get it. Here’s what what KD and Steve Nash had to say about the Nets. And there was one piece of this that Kyrie took exception to, and I understand why. Check this out. Back to our time in Brooklyn. What do you think of I had just signed that deal. You had just signed a deal. But I feel like we were secure, but everything else around us was going to not in a bad way. We got We got GMs going to other teams. We got coaches going to other teams. We got players forcing trades. We got bring in Ben Simmons. He’s back. Like, it was just so much stuff going on around us. I feel like we were locked in on the same page and understand like we trying to do something special here, but and I felt like your hands were tied a lot because you had to as a coach, you got to deal with so much. Get to coach as much as I wanted to. That’s what it was. I didn’t think we didn’t get the full Steve Nash like I wanted like you probably wanted. I just felt like it was just too much too many distractions in a way. And you know, you can’t win that way. And but I felt like we had great intentions though. I felt like we We cared enough. I felt like every day we were trying to push towards winning the champ. It was it was a great vibe in there. It was some of the best times that first year. That’s why I signed that deal that first year, man. Most fun ball I had some of the most fun ball I had playing my whole life. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Brooklyn a lot. I love playing for Brooklyn, but it’s just so much stuff happened around the around the guys that were committed to the situation. It felt like we were committed but only but everybody else wasn’t. It just was weird. Uh so I guess first and foremost talking about you know we were committed but everybody else wasn’t and then Kyrie kind of gets caught in that that net of everybody else right on the team was not committed. KD said you were me. I do wonder did he really mean every when he said we was he including like the the major stakeholders of Kyrie being involved in that or was Kyrie excluded from that and therefore Kyrie should feel uh a little bit I don’t know if offended is the right word but a little bit put off by suggesting that maybe he wasn’t committed to the Nets at that point. I thought it was more of a shot at Harden to be honest. He kind of catches I Yeah. Well, yeah, because it segus into Ben Simmons. Well, that’s true. Like it goes directly into Ben Simmons to be honest. I don’t like Kyrie is a part of everybody, but he’s I don’t think he really catches the same stray that Harden does in that. But um regardless though, he is a part of everyone. So, I do understand why he would feel slighted by that and want to clear the air and talk about it as well. Now, when I was also noteworthy that he mentioned that Steve Nash didn’t really get to be the coach he wanted to be and Nash said he didn’t get to do as much coaching as he wanted. Wasn’t Wasn’t that Nets team the one where there was like the the comment about you know well we don’t even really have we’re all like collaboratively coaching. It was something along those lines. Yeah, that to be fair that one is a Kyrie stray a little bit. Yeah. Um, but it’s more about like guys being bought in around Steve because I I think the operative word there was like or the operative around the situation with Steve is that KD really wanted him and KD I think really likes to play a fun brand of of basketball, read and react, things like that. Which is part of why I kind of it’s a little puzzling that he opted to go to Houston where while the championship aspirations are high, I think he’s going to have a very high uh burden on him offensively. it may not look the way he likes it to typically look when he’s out there playing. Um, but that’s part of why he was going to Brooklyn, things like that, and he really wanted Steve to coach, but it felt like these guys didn’t buy into Steve the way that he wanted them to ultimately. And I think Kyrie was one of the people. He literally said, “You what? We don’t need a coach. We don’t have a coach.” Something like that. So, that’s kind of damning to There’s literally a coach right there. Like, I don’t. So Kyrie went on Twitch and made some comments about this whole situation and talked about one of the things he said was that Durant was the one who wanted Steve Nash and so he just kind of jumped on board with it because that’s what his guy wanted. KD is his guy and KD wants Nash and so he went okay. It does kind of present this idea that that KD just kind of pushed through the idea of Nash becoming the the head coach. And if we say if that was kind of the the situation from the get-go where Kry didn’t really want Nash as the coach and now they’re saying, well, you know, maybe he wasn’t as committed. Maybe everybody else, maybe it was James Harden wasn’t as committed. Kind of makes sense. And now Nash is saying like, hey, I didn’t even get to do as much coaching as I wanted to because we’re dealing with all this drama. Well, because people were just kind of bowing to the will of Kevin Durant. And then and then Kyrie kind of added in that like, hey, the organization really just wanted KD um and I was their their path to get that by signing me as well by signing us as a duo because KD and I wanted to play together. I don’t know how much I buy that though. Like if you’re the Nets game with them in the tunnel and they’re talking like that season prior to, right? Yeah. Do you buy that the Nets though would pay Kyrie Irving the amount of money that we’re talking about like 35 million a season, right? Plus to just to get Kevin Durant like that doesn’t I think to have both of them and have a shot to win that’s something maybe they prioritize KD more but I can’t I can’t imagine that they just didn’t want Kyrie and that he was only there as the means to get Kevin Durant. Well, I think going back to that conversation from that All-Star game, I think these guys decided they were going to be a package deal. Yeah. And so, if you’re a package deal, you’re going to do that. And it’s not like Kyrie is a bad player. Like, it’s not like, you know, you’re getting Durant, but he’s saddled by this bad play. You’re getting a great player back. An all-star NBA champion, one of the most memorable shots in NBA history. True. You’re getting Kyrie. Like, that’s I think that’s a good problem to have. So yeah, I think if you’re Brooklyn and if you’re any team and you’re presented with that exact same opportunity to bring in two guys like that, if you can do it, I think you would, right? So I think that’s more about what it was. But I think that yeah, they they probably wanted KD more. I think that’s fair, but I think most teams probably would. But I think they wanted KD more and said, “Hey, yeah, we’ll take Kyrie as well. It’s not like he’s a bad player and everything else I just explained.” It’s not a bad problem to have if you didn’t really want Kyrie. Is the problem that the Nets saw Kyrie as Robin and Kyrie didn’t see himself as Robin? Um, well, there’s nothing I think that’s anything worse for Kyrie than literally being asked how LeBron is a father figure to him, which he also talked about on he talked about on Twitch like just like a week ago. He said, “Yo, that was a crazy question.” So, like I don’t know if he has some sort of complex about that or like Kyrie maybe feeling like he doesn’t get enough notoriety for that finals run that he had aside from the shot or something like that. Maybe he wanted to I mean it ended poorly in Cleveland and he wanted to establish something in Boston. It didn’t work out there. So maybe there’s some like I want to be the guy thing going on there. But I don’t know if that’s the case because because Katie is one of his good friends and they got along soundly and I thought that like I said they were a package deal and went together uh there. So I don’t know if that’s exactly the case. But there there could be a mix of some of that. I think where all this kind of blows up though is is the Harden piece. You know Harden makes his way there and Harden was really good for the team. You know Kyrie told him, “Hey, you’re the point guard of this team. You’re going to be the guy really doing things.” And Kyrie’s like, “I’m going to play off you.” and and and that team was really, I thought, synergistic and it was something that was questionable like how are these guys going to operate together? There’s only one basketball, you know, we’ve heard that a lot of times. Uh and and I thought that it worked out pretty well, but that all kind of blew up ultimately because Harden ultimately wanted to trade. So, and Harden like Harden was awful. I’ll never forget the final game of of Harden with Houston, right? Right. I mean, he was very I mean, we talk about guys who weren’t really playing hard like we talk about Vince Carter with with Toronto like James Harden. My god, he was That was fat suit Harden, remember? That was fat suit hard. That That’s fat suit. He looked like he did not care to be on the floor at all. I think he was going at 40% and yeah, he put on weight and everything like he made it clear he wanted out of Houston, but he wanted to go to Brooklyn and then that didn’t last very long. Now, in hindsight though, I think most people look at Harden and say he got to Brooklyn, wasn’t there all that long, and then once out, at first it was a lot of negativity about Harden, and then things continue to blow up in Brooklyn. And so now, in hindsight, James Harden kind of looks like, oh, he saw it coming. He was smart, and he got out. He was the first one to to get off that ride when he realized it wasn’t what he thought it was going to be. Yeah. And then, but since then, Harden’s kind of bounced a couple of times as well. had other situations kind of pop up. So, he’s not like he’s been without drama, you know, the last handful of years, but yeah, at the time, absolutely. Yeah, a little bit with the whole whole contract situation and all that. Um, but yeah, at the time, absolutely, it looked like he was the guy that got out at the right time, especially because Kyrie was also dealing with uh the stuff around COVID, not really playing all the games. In fact, Kyrie said he he actually asked them to cut him. So, that’s that’s another thing, too. But it’s it’s crazy because Kyrie, you know, was saying that he wanted to win a championship with Harden and he’s telling him, “Hey, we’re going to win a championship.” And then out of nowhere, there’s a trade request in there. So, Oh, yeah. Yeah. He said that they were talking like, “Hey, we’re going to go win a title.” And then like a day, two days later, Harden was like, “No, I’m out. I’m out. Get me out of here.” He said, “He said, “I’m done with this.” like they so like I just I think ultimately when you look back on that pairing or that trio um between those guys it you look at it as wasted potential firstly because those guys were all still really good and maybe if that KD shot against the Bucks goes differently you know they potentially even win that year who knows but and then you look at it entirely differently than you do now but you know waste of potential being the way that you look at that and then ultimately just a lot of drama AMA, whether that was the stuff surrounding Kyrie, just the fact these guys were also constantly hurt. Um, the hardened trade request, all that stuff. Like, it just never really meshed in terms of that stuff, but I thought they were amazing when they were out there playing. They’ve got some great highlights of the three of them together. And it’s unfortunate that it worked out the way it did. I think the most unfortunate piece of that though is that we didn’t get to see more of it because I would have really liked to have seen that trio. like they were they were super good and we saw even like the Lakers that off season make a super rash um judgment decision, you know, coming off the Russell West and that was that was attempt to try to counter Brooklyn. Exactly. They they saw them get those three guys and were like, “Yeah, no, we need to we need to get a star in.” Then they tried to get a number of guys, but ultimately settled on Russell and that obviously didn’t work out, but it didn’t work out for anybody. In fact, it was to the degree that the Lakers, when the Russell Westbrook trade got turned into a four team trade and Brooklyn was involved in it, that because Brooklyn was involved and Brooklyn was going to be improving, the Lakers were actually able to pull, I believe it was a second round pick or something. Oh, that’s extra in the deal because the Lakers made the argument to the Wizards at the time saying, “Well, now you’re turning this into a four team trade and the Nets are going to be better off because of it. we we’re competing with them. We want to be it’s us against them as the two powers in the league. And obviously it didn’t work out for either party there, but if you’re going to be helping them out, we don’t want to be involved in that. We need to be compensated by getting something. And I think they got a second round pick or something like that. I like it was Nets Lakers and then obviously it never really um became that blew up. It blew up. So yeah, I think that for both sides, a lot of waste of potential there. Um, but at least on the Net side, I mean, we did we did have some really good games and all that stuff and it looked pretty good. They just couldn’t all click at the same time. And then at the end of it, there’s a little bit in there with Ben Simmons where he actually plays on the Nets and just it didn’t work out. It didn’t It didn’t work out. And and as we’re recording, these guys wind up leaving him and he’s the last guy. Yeah, he’s he’s the last guy on that roster, I believe, at the end. And he is now afraid. In fact, wasn’t there a Ben Simmons sweep stakes thing earlier? Yeah, from Wendy. I think I saw that and laughed at it. But yeah, sweep stakes. Sweet stakes. Sweep stakes. Um, I I will say this though to to put a bow on all this. I think what’s cool is, you know, you look back on all that drama and it was obviously not conducive to winning basketball and everything that happened around that Nets team and, you know, bleeds into the 76ers a little bit with Harden and and that whole situation with Daryl my you could take sides there and everything, but but you look at what those guys have done now today and I think if you look at what Harden has been doing with the Clippers, he had a really nice season this last year and mostly dramafree, right? just kind of went and did his thing and played basketball and played pretty well and even I thought exercised some of the ghosts uh of his playoff struggles. I thought that he had some big moments in the playoffs as well. And then Kyrie in Dallas has been really really good and again for the most part pretty pretty dramaree right obviously hopefully he heals up and and uh that ACL heals up quickly and he can get back hopefully early in 2026 we can see him back but not a whole lot of drama. just out there just playing, doing what he needs to do. And then when you look at Kevin Durant, yeah, trained to the Houston Rockets, but most people look at that and say, “Well, that was that was Phoenix screwed up. That wasn’t Kevin Durant being a diva or being dramatic or anything like that. Was Phoenix screwed up the way they built their roster.” And so, of course, KD is going to want out when he turns around and finds out that Phoenix is trying to trade him, right? That they they were going to send it back to the Warriors and and all this stuff. So all of these guys in their own way have really distanced themselves from drama since for the most part. Not entirely. Obviously Kyrie’s doing stuff on Twitch and everything, but when we look at the the most recent stuff, they’ve really kind of let their play uh do their talking and they’ve been fairly distant from at least the level of drama that we saw with with the Nets, which I think has been been cool because they’re all all-time greats. They’re all first ballot hall of famers and and that’s that’s really what you want to see is what they do on the floor. Yeah. I I think I think that was a valuable learning experience for probably two of those guys. Uh and those two are not KD because he turns around and tries to be a part of another threeman super team afterwards and it blows up again. I think now he’s kind of got the memo though. But uh I think for two of those guys it was it was very much that. Kyrie coming off of a finals appearance last year. I sent you in the private chat basketball reference for Harden. Yeah, I wanted to really quickly say this if you could show it. Harden comes off of a three-year stretch where he’s averaging 36, 34, 30 points, but the season he’s traded, he actually makes a shift from then to now into being more of a primary point guard. Yep. He had seasons with double digits assists before, you know, or one, I guess, but he’s since then been a lower scoring, low 20s, but a double digit assist guy. Yep. Like like that’s I think Harden really made a shift there. And I really like what he’s done. Uh and he’s still doing it to a high degree, right? And I think that for him that may have been a valuable experience for him basketball-wise. You could say he’s maybe lost a step. I I think he has. He’s not able to get by guys the same way. Exactly. like he I think he lost it in that area around like 33 or so, but um he’s not able to get by the guys the same way. But I think he really evolved his game and some of that is an extension of that stint in Brooklyn by necessity needing to be more of a lesser scorer but more of a playmaker guy and uh I think that was a good experience for him as well. So for for some of these guys and like I said I think KD you know I don’t want to I don’t want to downplay him too much but uh I think for these guys you know I think that was all a learning experience. Yep. Yep. And now, of course, we’ll see if they continue to go back and forth on what really happened in in Brooklyn. But all three guys in really great situations, of course, all three in the Western Conference. But all in all in great situations right now when you look at at Kyrie with his Mav squad, uh Kevin Durant with the Rockets and and James Harden with uh with the Clippers. I mean, wouldn’t be out of the question for these guys to potentially meet up with each other in the postseason, and that would sure be a lot of fun. Oh, man. A Dallas Houston matchup would be spicy. And you don’t even have to travel. That That would be spicy, man. That would be a good one. That would be a good one. Um, all right, everybody. Give us your thoughts in the comments down below. Should Kyrie be offended in any way by KD’s uh comments? What about what Kyrie revealed about how he felt about the Nets? Was all of that warranted the way the Nets acted in that situation and the way Kyrie felt in that situation? Give us your thoughts on the entire story in the comments down below. Don’t forget to subscribe right here to the channel. Till next time, see you and stay safe.

In this video, Trevor Lane and Donnie Freeman dive into Kyrie Irving’s comments regarding the Brooklyn Nets. They discuss the drama and surprising details about what occurred behind the scenes with Kevin Durant. Hear their thoughts on this NBA news.