Kyrie Irving EXPLAINS Why the Nets Big 3 Failed
when I dealt with that after my first year in Brooklyn. Can you imagine how that could just take it a brief imagination when all these things are taking place? COVID hits March 2020, you know, prior to that Kobe transitions, GG transitions, you know, all of the families that were involved and and just there was a lot there was a heaviness in 2020, right? And I don’t and I’m not going to spend too much time on the past, but I just want to tell you this was a crazy time for sure. This is the prime of my career. I’m, you know, this is 2019. This is 6 years ago. I’m I’m 20, you know, 27, 28. I’m in the prime of my career. All I want to do is play basketball. All I want to do is focus on winning championships and playing with my friends, right? I’m I’m playing with great players. I, you know, I’m getting better with basketball. I’m getting better. I’m getting better. I’m getting better. I’m getting better. So, boom. I just wanted to tell you guys that like this was a crazy time, but there was a lot of context that was missing from this. You guys know who the after this, whoever made this decision. Now, I’m not dis I’m not disagreeing how they went about it, but I didn’t need to be the butt of the joke. I didn’t I didn’t need to have the brand shot or the the shots ring out at my at me or my family or what I was doing. You know, I was called crazy. I was called a bird brain. I was called an idiot. I was called ignorant. I was called everything under the sun, y’all, during COVID. And I had to let [ __ ] ride. Everybody at home seeing this [ __ ] on social media, scrolling. He he haha haha he he haha. But there’s real consequences that’s going on. People are really losing their lives. And now that we’re seeing all of the data come out with some of those vaccine situations, then you’re you’re starting to notice like, okay, maybe may maybe maybe something was missed here. You know what I mean? People getting pardoned and stuff for the vaccinations and things of that nature. I’m not going to detail about it. Again, this is forformational purposes only, entertainment purposes only, right? People getting pardoned and stuff. I wanted nothing to do with that. Nothing. And even the people that I was in business with were pro- vaccine. And I’m like, “Okay, look, that’s fine, but just leave me the [ __ ] out of this and let me go somewhere.” You know what I’m saying? I even told the Nets to release me. I said, “Yo, can you please just release me so I can” And obviously the money situation, different situation. I’m I’m [ __ ] Kyrie. So, it’s like, you know, it’s just I say that very very like aware of my position, but they weren’t just going to let me rock out, just go anywhere. So, I’m going to close it on this. It was a crazy time for sure because a lot was going on. But I always showed that respect for everybody’s position. And when I didn’t get that same when I didn’t get that same respect back, yeah, that’s when I I kind of knew I had to change up. And and you know, again, I wasn’t even in the healthiest space mentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally. So I take my accountability for how I reacted to certain things. But during this time, if if this were to happen now and I was to, you know, like they were like, “Oh, you can’t come practice or you can’t come play.” I’m I’m I’m fighting it. You know what I mean? Tooth and nail. I’m fighting it. I’m trying to get an exemption. I’m trying to get something. You know, I tried to get a religious exemption. I tried to get um you know, an exemption uh for health reasons. I tried everything in the book, you know. Shout out to the MBPA. They were trying their hardest on their own thing, too. even though that had its own um criteria and meaning then the NBA was doing their thing and you know we we had all these Madna and Fizer commercials and things of that nature. So again hands were in pockets. I’m not I’m not complaining about that. That’s just what it is. That’s just a fact. But it was a crazy time because I became the butt of the joke and I’m just like this is not funny though. Kyrie’s afraid of a shot but people are actually losing their lives. There’s nothing funny about that. I wasn’t joking about it. It was a very serious time. So, shout out to all you guys that were dealing with serious circumstances and and situations during co I don’t know exactly how it happened, you know what I mean? But I’m praying that you and your family made it out safely, right? I’m also praying that if you did lose somebody, I’m I’m praying that you’re you’re healing and you’re taking your steps necessary to move on cuz it co struck a lot of us differently. You know what I mean? Even the younger generation got changed up. The younger generation was on Zoom calls for class. That was crazy to me. That was crazy to me, you know, and it I was my name was just causing a lot of fire and I didn’t like that. And I didn’t have a good, you know, a great great great crisis PR team at that time. I was in between management companies. Uh, you know, also when I went to Brooklyn, oh, I want to tell y’all something, too. Before I move on to this next clip, right, and and talk about uh you know, Katie and what happened to Mind the Game, right, and and Steve talking, right? Um before me and Kay went to before me and KD went to Brooklyn, me and me, Katie, and DJ, right? Literally on the hour when free agency started, I hadn’t met with the Nets front office one time. I didn’t meet with the GM one time, the assistant GM one time. 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. You know, Katie had just tore his Achilles in the finals. Me and him were, you know, planning on doing things uh to go to Brooklyn, right? I I don’t know any of you guys that would still stick it out with one of your friends that tears their Achilles and wait a year and a half for them to get healthy, but I’m that dude. You know what I’m saying? Like, I’m not about to leave Kay out there after a torn Achilles and be like, “Nah, [ __ ] that. We not going to we not going to play together anymore. I waited for my brother to get healthy.” You know what I’m saying? And and now Brooklyn, I wish that we got a chance to get to know them beforehand because they wasn’t [ __ ] with me like that, you know? And that’s just me. That’s my perspective. That’s my perspective. Now, do did they want me on the team? Sure, you could say that. But Kenny Atinson wasn’t [ __ ] with me like that, bro. They Nets didn’t want me like that. They wanted K. And that’s my vantage point, right? This is the information that I gathered after I left. And again, this is not about Brooklyn. It’s just about business. I wish I would have handled the business better and got a chance to know them. First, ask them questions. Hey, what’s the future like? instead of just committing blindly and thinking that, hey, we we about to come in here and just do X, Y, and Z, right? I had I didn’t have much power going in there. I couldn’t say who we could get and who we could not get. I couldn’t hire the coach or if we you know, I I you guys knew my opinion on the head coach at the time, right? I It was It wasn’t perfect, but it was very immature, right? I was very immature at that point. Again, I’m 27, 28. I’m leaving Boston, feeling good about going back home. You I’m h I’m hyped. You know what I’m saying? I’m I’m signing, you know what I mean? I left my management company, went to Rock Nation at that point, ended up leaving Rock Nation two years after that. I signed with them. You know what I’m saying? Like it it just a lot of changes were going on. I had teammates. I had friendship changes. But I’m going to get back to the point, right? When I was in Brooklyn, I just look back at that business decision like, yo, get to know the front office before you make any decision. You know, it’s just it it’s Yeah. Now, it was a lot happening, you guys. Trust me. I Hey, a lot of tentacles in the brand, y’all. I don’t have that anymore. I’m grateful. But it was a lot lot of lot of involvement. And I had too many cooks in the kitchen, you know, and that was my fault, right? Shout out to everybody and the Nets organization. This is not anything personal against you, my old management company, you know, Rock, you know, anybody. This is not It’s just me taking accountability for where I was at that point, not knowing exactly what I wanted. And then also just kind of moving just like casual and just carefree. You know, I I take I own my faults. I I take my accountability for that. Y’all, this is not on them. This just I would have taken a different approach at this age or even if I knew better, right? I I was doing the best I could, but now I know better. Would never go into a business situation without getting a chance to know who owns the team, who’s doing what, asking questions. I will never do that. I’ll never have anybody that comes close to me and you know my little brothers that I’m raising up, my little sister raising up. Like don’t just go into business with just without asking any of those questions. Get to know who these individuals are and and really operate on that highlevel frequency space. Okay. No, I got you. I got you. I got you. My bad. My bad. I got you. I got you. My bad. I will save a lot of this stuff, right, for my doc, but I will leave it at that, right? in terms of just I take my accountability for how this may have come off probably to not only Kay and Steve but to everybody else. When you think 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 Mhm. Not in a bad way. We got We got GMs going to other teams. We got coaches going other teams. We got players forcing trades. We got bring in Ben Simmons. He’s back. Like it was just so much. I had just signed that deal. You had just signed a deal. Clarity here. All right. But I feel like we were secure, but everything else around us was going. So when when he says, not in a bad way. We got and and it’s obviously again I didn’t take this personally. everything else around us was so when he says this, I’m not I’m I’m not taking that personally. It was a lot going on around all of us, right? But how Steve ended up becoming our head coach. I’ll let Kay answer that, right, when he’s ready. But I already had my own thoughts on how the coaching situation was going to go, right? I felt like there were other candidates out there that could have definitely been our head coach that had championship experience. I think Steve had championship experience in his own way in his role that he played in Golden State. But in terms of being a head coach, I had my own thoughts, right? And I’ll get into that later in my documentary, but I’m just saying I had my own thoughts. And when Steve became our head coach, he even admitted to me that he had his own reserves on coaching me and I had my reserves on and him being coached by him. So, we had already hashed that out, but I’m not going to sit here and pretend like, yeah, it was all easy around just everything in Brooklyn. We’re one of the most watched teams now because we have allstars, MVPs on the team. We are in New York City in the media capital of the world. You just got to walk a little bit different. And I wasn’t ready to walk that walk. And I don’t know if I I can’t speak for them, but there was a lot going on. Just not within the team, but just Brooklyn in general, the Nets going, you know, I didn’t feel like it was I didn’t feel like it was going to [ __ ] But I felt like there was just a lot of structural change happening that was very quick. And he’s coming off an Achilles tear. You know what I’m saying? He he’s coming off an Achilles tear, right? And he’s trying to get back into who he is. I’m like, I’m ready now. This was a season I had my 5040 90 where Steve is head coach, you know what I’m saying? We’re having a great season, but at the same time, everything is just pretty much like easy, right? Everything’s pretty much easy. Like everything’s easy. Everything’s going. Then we trade for James and everything starts, you know, improving and things of that nature. But during that some during that season, I had a breakdown where I went through some things at home, went through some family stuff that I had to address, right? And I ended up not going into work for a certain amount of time and I got killed for that, right? And everybody was like, “Yo, where’s Kai at? Where’s Kyle?” And in between that time, Caris, Jared Allen got traded and others got traded. Torian got traded for James. Not for James, excuse me, for um we ended up trading Caris, Jared, and then we got James, right? And then it kind of just started like, think about it. Think about when you get James, Kyrie, Katie on one team and then you add in all the other complimentary pieces. It just your for your first year, your second year, that’s impressive. You know what I’m saying? That’s impressive. No, I I again when I had my 5040 90 season, did I want to leave the team the way I did? Hell no. But again, I take my accountability for not being in the greatest space mentally, physically, emotionally, you know? So, I didn’t know how to even express that to them at the time, like, yo, this how I was feeling. It’s what I’m dealing with. It was just kind of like me isolated, being reclused, like y’all don’t really understand what’s going on. So, I get it. We got other teams. We got coaches going to other teams. Yep. And he’s talking about coaches going to the team. Eay Udoka literally went to the Boston Celtics after coaching with us. That was crazy, bro. You know, that was crazy. We had M Udoka literally go to Boston the next year. [Laughter] Like, you had coaches leaving other teams and it wasn’t anybody’s fault. It’s just opportunity. But we’re in the same division. Can you imagine going against the coach that literally saw all of our strengths and weaknesses and now we’re playing against them? You know what I’m saying? So Boston was ready for us. Eay had them ready. Had the Celtics ready, dog. When we played them in the 2022 playoffs, [ __ ] got wild. [ __ ] got wild, y’all. For sure. [ __ ] got wild. So we we had a lot going on. Katie is right. That’s what I’m saying. I’m going to when I said I’m going to address this on stream, it literally was just about doing this and having fun with it and letting people know. Okay. Um, you know, letting people know. Just letting people know like what it is. That’s all. We got players forcing trades. We got bring in Ben Simmons. He’s back. Like, all right. So, so when we traded James for Ben, right, that whole Nets big three era, by the way, Nets World, um, you you probably won’t give me any credit, but Nets World, that’s definitely something that I came up with, but it’s okay. Nets World was existence before I came up with that’s fine, too. But when I started calling it Nets World, everything like that start going up. All right. So, when James got traded for Ben, I don’t think we knew the the landscape of where Ben was at, right? I don’t think we knew where Ben was at. So when that trade happened, it shocked a lot of people. It shocked me. I [ __ ] I was talking to James one day. I’m like, “Shit, bro, we about to go with these championships.” And it was like a day later. Asked for a trade. I was like, “Oh, [Music] shoot. Okay, [ __ ] like that. Now, okay, I can’t be mad. I’m not going to ever be mad at someone doing what’s best for them, right?” And shout out to James, right? And I’ve had my conversation with James and I told him, I said, “Bro, I understood completely. I understood completely what you were doing, man. I I understood like you’re in the middle of the season. You’re unsure about what I got going on. You know, you don’t know what the next portion of your career is going to look like. You know, things are going on. So, you have your questions. You know, what contract you going to get cuz we’re all Max deal players at that point. Me, James, and K are all max deal players. We are all worth whatever we’re about to get paid, right? I’m going to say that out loud. But when that happened and we got Ben, a lot more pressure started to come in on our franchise because now not only do we have this going on, but also we have a situation that Ben is dealing with where everybody is micro trying to micromanage the spun narrative like he doing this, he’s doing that. So it it wasn’t a fair trade at the at the outset, right? It was not at all. I didn’t feel like that was a fair trade, but at the same time when it happened, he went to our division. He went to Philly, you know, like he went to Philly. So, not only did we lose MA Udoka and then we lost one of our our assistant GMs, but we lost James to Philly. So, we’re in the same division with our with our brothers, you know, and they know everything that we got going on. So, when you spend a season or two with somebody, you’re going to know their habits. You’re going to know their strengths and weaknesses. you know that. And I just I’m like I’m grateful that all of this stuff is is just it’s just business, you guys. Basketball is not meant to be this harmful violent, you know, like he said, she said type of eventful space, bro. This is not Love Island, y’all. This ain’t this is not real world. This is not the shore. This is the basketball of like the NBA drama space is not real drama, you guys. It’s not. I’m here to tell you that. Now, it may seem like guys don’t get along because guys may be misunderstanding people’s moves or what they do or you know something. Of course, some certain situations are different. They’re serious. But I’m saying the basketball drama that’s created like look at them going against each other. Look at them. It looks like they don’t like each other. It’s like bro in competition if you’re my brother and you were just with me rocking with me and we were supposed to win championships together. We had these high expectations. Of course I’m going to try to knock your block off. I’m human. You know what I’m saying? It’s a business at the end of the day, but it’s entertainment, dog. It’s like NBA. Maybe that equal like that little equal sign to WWE sometimes, bro. Like people get it messed up in their minds. Be living out these characters and these nicknames. It’s just not it. It’s not it. I don’t live like that. You know what I’m saying? So, I’m able to talk about these things in a in a very uh um I won’t say in a very friendly manner cuz in business ain’t [ __ ] friendly, but you know, these are my brothers at the end of the day, you guys. The these are people I care about. I care about their families. I care about them succeeding. I care about them as as black men. I care about them as young men, older men as well, like in terms of just how we have made it out of we we made it out of nowhere damn near. You know what I’m saying? and we’ve been part of the renaissance of the league worth being worth billions of dollars. So, of course, like we going to have our spats, we going to have our [ __ ] But this when things like this occur, just so much stuff going on. It’s all good, y’all. Around us, I feel like, by the way, and and mind you, I’m aware that they’ve had a few drinks as well. Um, you know, so I’m not judging this too hard. Like, I’ve drunk wine before. This this podcast I feel like by Bra Bonn is meant to be more casual and and everybody else kind of um you know this kind of everybody just feeling comfortable speaking on things but hey it’s always time and a place in our 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. Nah, he’s not lying about that. I will commend Steve Nash for dealing with all these things as a coach. He did his best man. Um, he did his best. I I I what you know what I’m saying? He did his best. I’m going just leave it at that. He did his best. Didn’t 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. It was some of the best times that first year that’s why I signed that deal. Yeah. And and that’s what I’m saying like I’m glad that he said this is because that first year that we were all together was really special. It was really special. We had veterans, we had young guys, we we had a uh we we literally breeze through the regular season, you know. It was so easy. And I got to give everybody their flowers that was in that locker room because we really came together at the right time. You know, I I get injured, James gets injured in those playoffs. We don’t know what could have happened, right? We only played a few games together, all three of us, and and we were 13 and three, I believe, right? But it’s just sad when we look at these times and they’re like, “Well, this was a failure without the proper context to how all of this all this ended up happening.” you know, it’s it’s real people involved in this. It’s not it’s not for play, right? I I say it’s entertainment, right? And I’m saying it’s a business, but also tied into that, we’re real human beings dealing with trying to do something very special that comes with sacrifices that no one will appreciate except for the people that you in war with. You know what I’m saying? Or you’re going to you’re going to battle with. It’s things happen, right? those playoffs if Katie’s foot doesn’t you know hit that line or if I don’t get injured or if things don’t work out differently you know maybe we’re sitting here multi-time champions few of us got MVPs you know I got an MVP things work out of course we could play the hypotheticals but dealing with fact it was a tough environment for all of us I will say that it was a tough environment it wasn’t just for them it was for me too 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 and I pray that one day, right, we all get to sit down and I hope it’s for my documentary, then we get to talk about this time more openly because even I think even as I watch Braun sit there, he he knows that all like a lot of this stuff was happening, but also him being in LA, he had his own thing going too. So, this is giving him clarity on what happened, but it’s also coming from just Katie and Steve. And there were a lot of parties involved in this and and some of the other parties that are involved probably won’t ever speak on it, but you know, I wish 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. I see. So, this was the part where I I honestly looked at it. And I was like, when he said this emotionally, I was like, okay, we’re we’re all committed to the goal at the end of the day, but sometimes not everybody’s going to follow what you want them to do. I wish I had my like my soundboard for this, but like not everybody’s going to do what you want them to do. And I’ve had to accept that as a human being and as a leader, not everybody’s going to do what you want them to do. Not everybody’s going to be committed the way you want them to be committed, right? And and it’s not like Kay is asking me for this, but I like I’m ask I asked for this commitment before I committed to Brooklyn from him, which was a beautiful thing. I’m like, yo, let’s commit to this thing. We could build up Brooklyn. We could really put Brooklyn on the map. You know, nobody’s really thinking about Brooklyn. But when he said that, I’m like, “Bro, Steve wasn’t even in the play yet.” But this is your man’s. This is your man. So, I gotta support that. This is your man’s. Cool. You want him? Cool. I You like Steve, I love Steve. You know what I’m saying? Cool. As a as a younger brother, I’m like, “Okay, I don’t care. That’s fine. You want Steve coach, that’s fine.” But when you’re committed to the same goal and then a year changes things and then things going on behind the scenes, like come on. But everybody else wasn’t. It just was weird. Yeah, it was weird timing, bro. It was weird for everybody. It’s It was It was weird for everybody, y’all. You know, and and that’s what I’m grateful that I’ I’ve been able to to gather all the information and Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, again, I I gave you guys certain details of what was going on. You watched the clip. That’s all I wanted to address on that. All right. It’s No, guys. I’m not I didn’t address this just to be clipped up a bunch of times and this to be misconstrued, misunderstood. Okay? I was just speaking objectively and what happened from my vantage point and how that happened and also giving you guys the context that will be coming out down the line. Right? There are so many things that were missed during that time that I’m I’m always going to reflect on and look at it as if, you know, it gave me an ample opportunity to come and and be truthful, but while also making sure I’m protecting all those that were involved. Again, I’m not shooting shots at anybody. I’m not ever going to try to put anyone else down. I just always will try to big up my brothers and sisters and do it in the best way I know how and talk factually, but also, you know, again, give you guys the behind the scenes while also preparing you for what’s coming. If that makes sense. All right.
Kyrie Irving opens up about the rise and fall of the Brooklyn Nets’ superstar Big 3, alongside Kevin Durant and James Harden. In this honest and unfiltered segment, Kyrie shares the real reasons the team never reached its championship potential — from devastating injuries to shocking trades, locker room tension, and media narratives that tore the group apart. Hear Kyrie’s side of the story on one of the most hyped and short-lived superteams in NBA history.
Via: Kyrie Irving Stream
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