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    How the Nets Fell Apart From the Top

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    Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have become the faces of their superteam’s failure, but the Nets leadership could have averted disaster several times, and didn’t.Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant didn’t trade themselves from the Nets.They didn’t hire Steve Nash to coach the team, even though he had no experience.They didn’t trade for — and then trade away — James Harden.They didn’t sign off on Irving playing only part-time because he would not get the coronavirus vaccine.As players, they couldn’t have done any of those things. But the team owner Joe Tsai and General Manager Sean Marks could. And they did.Over the past three and a half years, the Nets’ ambitious plans to form a championship-winning superteam have fallen apart in fits and starts, finally imploding over the past week with the trades of Irving and Durant. Those two superstars have become the faces of the collapse, but the rubble of the franchise may reveal that the problem extends to the foundation — to the people who had the power to avert disaster many times and never did.During a news conference on Thursday, Marks was asked whether he deemed the Durant and Irving era in Brooklyn a failure.“I think it would be easy to look in from the outside,” Marks said. “And, you know, honestly, I look at it internally and say, ‘Wow, it didn’t work.’ Like, let’s be honest there. We did not reach the full potential of where we thought we could get to.”‘We do have the pieces’In the summer of 2019, Durant and Irving spurned the Knicks and joined the Nets in free agency. Tsai, a billionaire co-founder of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba, assumed full control of the Nets and Barclays Center at a record-setting $2.35 billion team valuation. The Nets were primed to be not just the dominant basketball power in New York, but also in the N.B.A.“I think the fans expect that we win a championship,” Tsai said in a YES Network interview months later. “And the good thing is, I believe that we do have the pieces in place.”Few teams ever do, and the Nets, it’s now clear, didn’t either. But it wasn’t for one of the most common reasons — a cheap owner — since Tsai has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury tax penalties for his starry teams over the past three seasons.But he waffled on key decisions, signed aging veterans who were little help and tolerated behavior that eroded the team’s culture. He was more visible than most team owners, often sitting courtside at games and posting on Twitter in response to rumors about team drama. The N.B.A. has fined him for criticizing officiating on Twitter.Tsai also has been willing to use his financial muscle to help his players, even if it invited public criticism. He arranged for all of the Nets to be tested for the coronavirus early in the pandemic when tests were scarce for the general public, earning a rebuke from then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. Tsai also owns the W.N.B.A.’s Liberty, and in 2021 the women’s league fined the team $500,000 for secretly chartering flights to games for the players. Tsai has been critical of the W.N.B.A. requirement that players fly on commercial airlines.But catering to players can backfire, as Tsai found out.Steve Nash won two Most Valuable Player Awards as an N.B.A. player, but he had no coaching experience when he was hired to coach the Nets in September 2020.Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports, via ReutersA coach with no experienceCoaching is typically considered a crucial piece for superstar-laden teams. Coaches must manage egos, maximize talent and manage workloads, all while winning basketball games. Only Golden State’s Steve Kerr has won a championship as a rookie head coach without having been an assistant coach first.But for the Nets superteam, Tsai and Marks decided their head coach would be Nash, who won two Most Valuable Player Awards as an N.B.A. player but had no coaching experience. They drew criticism for overlooking Jacque Vaughn, an experienced Black assistant coach, for Nash, who is white. The hiring, in September 2020, came at a time when only seven of the N.B.A.’s 30 team head coaches weren’t white. Most N.B.A. players are Black.But Nash and Marks were teammates on the Phoenix Suns, and Nash knew Durant because he consulted for Golden State when Durant played there.Irving almost immediately undermined Nash during an appearance on Durant’s podcast, saying: “I don’t really see us having a head coach. You know what I mean? K.D. could be a head coach. I could be a head coach.”While both expressed their respect for Nash, Irving’s comments indicated that the Nets would need structure and accountability, since Durant and Irving were already resisting the traditional hierarchy. For his part, Durant responded to Irving and called the partnership with Nash “a collaborative effort.” It was a glaring instance in which leadership experience might have made a difference. After Durant requested a trade over the summer, he described a culture on the Nets that seemed adrift.“I went to them and was like: ‘Yo, I don’t like how we are preparing. I don’t like shootarounds. I like practices. I need more,’” Durant told Bleacher Report in November.He added, “Hold me accountable.”The Nets fired Nash in November and hired Vaughn.Irving vs. TsaiNowhere were the cautionary signs for the Nets more clear than in the rift between Tsai and Irving. Irving declined to take the coronavirus vaccine as the 2021-22 season got underway, but Tsai was a vocal proponent of vaccines, telling ESPN that it wasn’t “a matter of belief” but rather a scientific “matter of fact.”Irving became a liability. He was not allowed to play in home games because of a local vaccine mandate, and he showed no signs of changing his mind. Tsai and Marks allowed him to become a distraction. First, they said he would not be allowed to play in road games either, citing the harm to the organizational culture of having him play only part-time. But just two months later, they changed their minds, even though Irving hadn’t changed his and the team was in first place in the Eastern Conference.It sent the message that Irving could play by his own rules.About a year earlier, the Nets acquired Harden from Houston by trading away promising young players. But soon after Irving was allowed to return, Harden stunned the Nets by asking for a trade. Harden later told reporters that Irving’s decision to not get vaccinated had a “very minimal” effect on his trade request, but he acknowledged that “it definitely did impact the team.”The Nets quickly acquiesced to Harden in February 2022 by trading him to the Philadelphia 76ers, the competitor of his choice, instead of riding out the season, since they were playing well, or giving themselves time to explore all of their options to be sure they were getting the best deal.In December, Harden told Fox Sports why he wanted out of Brooklyn.“It was just, there was no structure and even superstars, they need structure,” Harden said. “That’s what allows us to be the best players and leaders.”Four days after the Nets sent Harden to Philadelphia, one of the popular players they had traded away to get him from Houston — center Jarrett Allen — was named an All-Star with his new team in Cleveland.Days after trading Kyrie Irving, the Nets reached a deal to send Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns.Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via ReutersLast chanceEven after the Boston Celtics embarrassed the Nets last year by sweeping them in the first round of the playoffs, the Nets still had a shot to fulfill the promise of Durant and Irving this season. The Nets leadership attempted a culture reset — a public display that they would not be pushed around by stars anymore. When asked about Irving receiving a long-term extension, Marks demurred.“I think we know what we’re looking for,” Marks told reporters in May. “We’re looking for guys that want to come in here and be part of something bigger than themselves.”After Durant requested a trade in the off-season, Tsai tweeted support for the front office and coaching staff. A few weeks later in August, Durant backed off his request and Marks said the sides had “agreed to move forward with our partnership.”Then in October, when Irving refused to disavow antisemitism or apologize after posting a link to an antisemitic film on Twitter, Tsai publicly rebuked him and suspended him.Irving missed eight games. But when he returned, the Nets showed their tantalizing potential once again, going 18-2 in one stretch, only to unravel again as Durant got injured and Irving’s contract-extension talks fell apart and he asked to be traded.“I want to be in a place where I’m celebrated and not just tolerated or just kind of dealt with in a way that doesn’t make me feel respected,” Irving said Tuesday, a day after the Nets traded him to the Dallas Mavericks.Two days later, the Nets traded Durant, too, to Phoenix. “We believe making this trade now positions the franchise for long-term success,” Marks said Thursday in a statement.Marks, at a news conference Thursday, was asked what his message would be to Nets fans who expected to see a championship contender this year.“That’s honestly tough,” Marks said. “But my goal here and our goal is, from ownership all the way down, is to put something out on the floor that everybody can be proud of.” More

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      Nets Cut the Drama and Rekindle Championship Hopes

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      Kevin Durant’s trade request, a coaching change and Kyrie Irving’s suspension made the Nets look destined for another season of disappointment. Now, they’re the hottest team in the Eastern Conference.The Nets were a complicated franchise when Jacque Vaughn met with his players at a morning shootaround in Washington on Nov. 4.Before their game against the Wizards that night, the Nets had filled the early weeks of their season with substandard basketball. But it was their off-court issues that were worthy of a telenovela. The Nets had indefinitely suspended Kyrie Irving for refusing to disavow antisemitism. They had fired Steve Nash as their coach. And Ben Simmons was scuffling through his delayed debut with the Nets.Vaughn, a longtime assistant, was in a tenuous spot as the team’s interim coach at a particularly fraught moment for an organization that had already experienced its share of fraught moments in recent seasons. But Vaughn was hoping to act as an agent of change.“Our shootaround was the precipice of that,” he recalled, “me getting up in front of the group and being as vulnerable as I can be in explaining the situation and telling them that ‘I’m going to be as consistent as I can be with you every day, and as honest as I can be — and I’m always going to do what’s best for the group.’”As a self-described “simple person,” Vaughn wanted his team to rid itself of unnecessary clutter. So he stripped down the playbook. He began to stress just three defensive concepts — “I won’t say what those are,” he said — so that his players could focus on them rather than make huge adjustments from game to game. And he emphasized the purity of their pursuit: Why make life in the N.B.A. more difficult than it needed to be?“We kind of pledged to each other that it was going to be about basketball,” Vaughn said, “and hopefully not let any outside noise interfere with that. And our guys have done an unbelievable job protecting each other.”Nets guard Kyrie Irving was suspended for eight games in November after he would not disavow antisemitism. He apologized and has averaged 25.6 points per game since he returned.Kirk Irwin/Getty ImagesThe Nets won that game against the Wizards, which was the start of a trend — a trend that has them climbing the Eastern Conference standings and back in the conversation as, yes, a championship contender.The Nets, who extended their winning streak to nine games on Monday night with a 125-117 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, have won 20 of their last 26 games under Vaughn, who was named the head coach on Nov. 9. The Nets’ resurgence has been notably drama-free, no small feat given their early challenges.Kevin Durant is assembling one of his finest seasons, averaging 30 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game while shooting a career-best 56.3 percent from the field. Simmons, after missing all of last season, has rebooted and found his footing as a pass-first facilitator and disruptive defender. And Irving, whose suspension lasted eight games, had 32 points and 5 assists in the Nets’ win over the Cavaliers.“I think we’re finding our identity off the court in terms of how we treat each other, and that’s looking good on the floor,” Irving said after the game. “It’s looking great on the floor, honestly. We just want to keep it up.”There is no denying the Nets’ talent, but everyone has already heard this story. They were talented last season, too, until their grand experiment blew up in spectacular fashion. Remember last season? Irving refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. James Harden asked to be traded. And the Nets crashed out of the playoffs when the Boston Celtics swept them in the first round. During the off-season, Durant asked to be traded, and Irving seemed to be on his way out, too.Both stars stuck around, but the Nets seemed bound for more dysfunction anyway in the wake of the early coaching change and Irving’s high-profile suspension. For his part, Durant blamed the news media, rather than Irving’s behavior, for creating a lot of the “outside noise” that had the team flailing. But Vaughn has operated as a calming influence.“Coach shored up our roles, pretty much letting us know each day what he needs from us,” Durant said. “I think that’s been our focus. It’s not like, ‘Man, finally we got the noise out of our locker room, and now we can play.’ I think we always been locked in on basketball to try to get this thing back on track.”The question now, of course, is whether the Nets can sustain their strong play. The answer will hinge in large part on Irving, a gifted player who is not known for being the most reliable teammate.“Any external negativity or praise, I really don’t care about it,” Irving said. “I think I’m just focused on being the best version of me and letting the results play out based on how well we trust one another as a group.”After Monday’s win, Irving reflected on the six seasons he spent with the Cavaliers at the start of his career. He recalled the pressure he put on himself when they made him the No. 1 overall pick of the 2011 draft and how he felt like a “lone superhero” for several lean seasons before LeBron James returned to the Cavaliers after four seasons away in Miami. Together, they delivered an N.B.A. championship to Cleveland in 2016.“I think the greatest lesson I learned throughout that process is that it’s not a lonely road that you’re supposed to take on your own,” Irving said. “It takes a lot of help.”In Brooklyn, Irving has help. He has help from Durant, who has outsize goals of his own. He has help from teammates like Simmons and Nic Claxton, a promising young center. And he has help from a coach who has urged the Nets to get back to basics.“And we’re not going to change that anytime soon,” Vaughn said. More

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      Nets Name Jacque Vaughn as Head Coach

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      Vaughn, an assistant coach, was filling in since the team fired Steve Nash last week. Guard Kyrie Irving, who promoted an antisemitic movie on Twitter, remains suspended.No stranger to drama lately, the Nets eschewed a protracted coaching search and made a quick decision to hire someone familiar.The team named the longtime Nets assistant Jacque Vaughn as head coach Wednesday to replace Steve Nash, who was fired last week. Vaughn has coached the team in an interim capacity in the four games since then.Vaughn took over at a particularly fraught time for the organization, whose star point guard Kyrie Irving posted a link to an antisemitic film on Twitter in late October. The Nets suspended Irving indefinitely for refusing to disavow antisemitism. He has missed three games, and the team said he would miss at least two more.“Finding somebody with some stability, that’s J.V.,” Nets General Manager Sean Marks said. “Very stable, poised under pressure. Gentleman. That’s sort of who he is.”Before Wednesday’s game against the Knicks, Vaughn met with reporters and smiled brightly. In answering one question, he nodded to the rampant rumors of the past week that the Nets had chosen Boston Celtics Coach Ime Udoka, who is suspended for the season, to replace Nash.“I guess I was the write-in candidate,” Vaughn said, laughing. He added: “I’m OK with that. I said to my wife, I might have not been her first choice and we’ve been together 20 years. So, you know, it could all work out. Off we go.”Vaughn has been an assistant coach for the Nets since 2016 and served as an interim head coach in 2020 after Kenny Atkinson was fired as coach. The Nets considered him to replace Atkinson but ultimately hired Nash, and Vaughn remained on Nash’s staff.On Wednesday, Marks praised Vaughn for stepping in, again, as an interim coach. This time, Marks saw enough out of him to give him a shot on a more permanent basis.The Nets had a 2-2 record under Vaughn heading into Wednesday’s game, and Marks said he liked the energy around the team during those four games.“We’re looking at the big picture here and having a relationship with him for seven years, his relationship to players, his competitive spirit, a lot of that goes a long way,” Marks said. “We’re seeing how this team, to be quite frank, has responded to him lately.”Vaughn said he had not reached out to Irving since he was suspended Thursday.“I thought in the capacity that I was serving that it wasn’t my place to,” Vaughn said. “I’ve always understood my boundaries as an assistant coach. That could change going forward in the position that I’m in now.”Marks said he had not spoken to Irving since Thursday, either, but he did not explain why he hadn’t.The team announced Nov. 1 that it had agreed to part ways with Nash. Not long afterward, news media reports began to link the Nets with Udoka, who was suspended by the Celtics in September for violating unspecified team policies. According to two people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak about it publicly, Udoka had a relationship with a female subordinate.When asked specifically about why he didn’t hire Udoka, Marks said it wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss what candidates were considered. The Celtics have given Udoka permission to talk to other teams and will not demand compensation if another team signs him, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.Nash initially had the support of Irving and forward Kevin Durant when he was hired in 2020 with no previous coaching experience. But he presided over a chaotic time for the franchise that included: Irving missing most of the 2021-22 season because he would not get vaccinated against the coronavirus; injuries to Durant and Ben Simmons; and James Harden being traded to the Nets from Houston — and then to Philadelphia from the Nets as the team struggled last season.This summer, The Athletic reported that Durant had asked the team owner Joe Tsai to choose between him or Marks and Nash. Nash, Marks and Durant all said at media day in September that they were ready to move on together.Healthy again to start this season, the Nets continued to struggle. They began the year 2-5 before firing Nash. Marks said that players had “zero” input on the decision and that he and Nash “felt that it was time.”“If I sat here and listed one by one all the things that he had to go through over his tenure here, I’d be doing him a disservice because he doesn’t want excuse,” Marks said. “That’s not who he is. So he has certainly not had an even playing field over two years here. And for that, I certainly feel definitely some responsibility because this does not all fall on him.”Vaughn began his N.B.A. journey as a player, with a 12-year career that included two seasons with the Nets. He won a championship as part of the San Antonio Spurs in 2007.San Antonio was where Vaughn’s playing career ended and his coaching career began. He was an assistant for Coach Gregg Popovich for two seasons before the Orlando Magic hired Vaughn as their head coach in July 2012.The Magic were beginning a rebuild. They traded the All-Star center Dwight Howard that summer, then went 20-62 in Vaughn’s first season. It was the worst record in the N.B.A., and the next year was only slightly better at 23-59. After a 15-37 start to the 2014-15 season, the Magic fired Vaughn.He joined Atkinson’s Nets staff in the summer of 2016. The Nets fired Atkinson on March 7, 2020, less than a week before the season was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. When the N.B.A. resumed the season in a bubble environment at Walt Disney World in Florida that summer, Vaughn coached the team to a 5-3 record in playoff-seeding games and then lost to the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs.“I was a young coach,” Vaughn said. “I’m definitely glad I took that job. It made me a better assistant coach.” He added: “I’ve just grown as an individual. Much more secure in myself, as you can see with this beard right here.” More

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      Nets Say Kyrie Irving’s Apology Isn’t Enough, and Nike Suspends Its Ties

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      Irving was suspended after he would not say he held no antisemitic beliefs. Nike suspended its relationship with him Friday.WASHINGTON — Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who was suspended indefinitely in the fallout of his social media posts promoting an antisemitic film, will have to meet with Jewish leaders and with the team before he can return to play, General Manager Sean Marks said Friday.The comments came a day after the team announced it had suspended Irving without pay for at least five games because he “refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge specific hateful material” in the film he posted about last week.“There is going to be some remedial steps and measures that have been put in place for him to, obviously, seek some counseling designated by the team,” Marks said, adding, “We’ll evaluate and see if this is the right opportunity to bring him back.”On Friday, Nike, which has produced Irving’s popular signature shoe since 2014, announced that it had suspended its relationship with him “effective immediately” and would not launch the next version of his shoe, the Kyrie 8.“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech, and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the company said in a statement, adding, “We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.”Last week, Irving posted a link on Twitter to an antisemitic film and posted a screenshot of the movie’s online rental page on Instagram. As fans, team leaders and even N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver called for Irving to apologize, Irving resisted until after he was suspended Thursday.“I think we started this off by trying to work through an education piece to this and educate all parties involved,” Marks said. “That obviously did not work.”Hours after the team announced his suspension, Irving apologized in a late-night post on Instagram, saying, “To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize.”Marks addressed reporters at a morning shootaround Friday before a game against the Washington Wizards during a tumultuous week. The Nets are one of the worst teams in the N.B.A., with a record of 3-6, and they fired their coach, Steve Nash, on Tuesday.Antisemitism in AmericaAntisemitism is one of the longest-standing forms of prejudice, and those who monitor it say it is now on the rise across the country.Perilous Times: With hate speech on social media and number of reported incidents on the rise, this fall has become increasingly worrisome for American Jews.Kanye West: The rapper and designer, who now goes by Ye has been widely condemned for recent antisemitic comments. The fallout across industries has been swift.Kyrie Irving: The Nets suspended the basketball player, citing his “failure to disavow antisemitism,” after he defended his support of a film that made hateful claims about Jewish people.Midterms: No major contest this year has been shaped by concerns of antisemitism more prominently than the Pennsylvania governor’s race.Marks said Irving’s apology was a “step in the right direction” but “certainly not enough.”He added that he had not spoken to Irving since he apologized and that the Nets had not considered releasing him. As to whether Irving had shown any willingness to fulfill the team’s mandates for his return, Marks said, “I think we’re going to give him some time, and it’s up to him.”He continued: “His actions will speak louder than words. And if he wants to participate in that, we’ll see where it all goes.”Nets forward Kevin Durant, the team’s best player, also addressed reporters Friday but did not criticize Irving. Durant and Irving, who are friends, both joined the Nets in 2019.“I ain’t here to judge nobody or talk down on the life or how they feel, their views or anything,” Durant said. “I just didn’t like anything that went on. I felt like it was all unnecessary. I felt like we could have just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization. I just don’t like none of it.”Asked if he thought Irving’s suspension was unfair, Durant said, “I believe and trust in the organization to do what’s right.”After Durant began to receive criticism on social media for his comments, he followed up with a Twitter post an hour later.“Just wanna clarify the statements I made at shootaround, I see some people are confused,” Durant said. “I don’t condone hate speech or anti-semetism, I’m about spreading love always. Our game Unites people and I wanna make sure that’s at the forefront.”The backlash against the 30-year-old Irving began last week, when he posted a link on Twitter to the 2018 film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which promotes several antisemitic tropes. On Saturday, after a loss to the Indiana Pacers, Irving reiterated his support for the film and for an antigovernment conspiracy theory promoted by the Infowars host Alex Jones.The Nets owner Joe Tsai and Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, were among those who had criticized Irving for the post. Silver, the commissioner, called Irving’s post “reckless” and said that he would meet with Irving soon. But even after Irving announced with the A.D.L. on Wednesday that he would donate $500,000 to anti-hate causes, he spoke to reporters and declined to apologize. He acknowledged that there were some things in the film he did not agree with, although he did not specify what they were.“Some of the criticism of the Jewish faith and the community, for sure,” Irving said Thursday. “Some points made in there that were unfortunate.”That was around noon. Over the next 12 hours, the Nets suspended him, saying he was “unfit to be associated” with the team, and Greenblatt said the A.D.L. could not “in good conscience” accept his donation. (The donation announcement had not said that Irving’s funds, or an equal amount from the Nets, would go to the A.D.L. A Nets spokesperson said later that the team and the A.D.L. would work together to decide where the donations would go.)Representative Yvette Clarke, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn, said in a Twitter post that Irving’s suspension was “long overdue” and that antisemitism “has no place in Brooklyn or anywhere else.”In response to Irving’s apology, Greenblatt tweeted Friday morning: “Actions speak louder than words. Because of his post and previous refusals to walk it back, the #antisemitic film/book is now a best seller in multiple categories on @amazon. There is a lot more to do to undo this damage.”Irving’s signature Nike sneakers are popular among players in the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. Nike suspended its relationship with him Friday.Jessie Alcheh/Associated PressOn Friday afternoon, the film was ranked No. 1 among documentaries on Amazon, and a complementary book with the same name was top-ranked in the Christian education category.Irving said in his apology that he “initially reacted out of emotion to being unjustly labeled Anti-Semitic, instead of focusing on the healing process of my Jewish Brothers and Sisters.”Some fans have said they would no longer support the Nets because of Irving, though others had mixed feelings. And Nike’s decision to cut ties with him could have a ripple effect in basketball: Irving’s shoes are popular among players at colleges and in the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. Sue Bird, who retired from the Seattle Storm in September, played in custom versions of Irving’s sneakers that read “Keep Sue Fresh.” Many players at Duke University, which Irving attended, have worn his shoes.Most N.B.A. players have agreements with shoe companies that provide them money and shoes, but few have signature sneakers branded with their names — just 20 to 30 each season. Nike, for instance, makes lines of shoes named for Durant, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, among others. The contracts between players and Nike usually remain private, however, judging by details known about other shoe deals, Nike likely pays Irving several million dollars per year.Nike has been the official provider of N.B.A. uniforms and apparel since the 2017-18 season.The drama around Irving’s posts and now his absence have added to the woes of a reeling Nets team that entered the season less than three weeks ago with championship aspirations. On Friday, Durant spoke about the role the news media has played in Irving’s situation.“This is the way of the N.B.A. now,” Durant said. “So many outlets now, and their stories hit pretty fast now. So that’s where all the chaos is coming from — everybody’s opinions. Everybody has an opinion on the situation, and we’re hearing it nonstop.“But once the ball starts bouncing and we get into practice, none of that stuff really seeps into the gym. So that’s the cool part about being in the league.”Irving will be out at least until Nov. 13, when the Nets will be in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers. This will put much of the team’s offensive burden on the 34-year-old Durant. Ben Simmons, who starts at guard alongside Irving, has been injured for the past two games and is expected to miss at least two more games with left knee soreness.The Nets also have not announced a permanent head coach to replace Nash; the assistant coach Jacque Vaughn has been filling in since Nash was fired Tuesday.Tania Ganguli More

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      ‘It Hurts’: Season Is Over Before Nets See How Good Big Three Can Be

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      Injuries kept the Nets from knowing what they could really look like once their stars — Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden — were playing well together.Whether Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving could collaborate, share the basketball and play good enough defense to bring a championship to New York’s less heralded N.B.A. franchise were unknowns that nagged at the entire league.Now, after being eliminated by the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, the Nets cannot hush their skeptics until next year. After a 48-24 season and playoff ride that lasted only two rounds, the biggest questions about their three stars remain unanswered.Injuries overrode potential basketball issues and neutralized the Nets’ status among Las Vegas oddsmakers as title favorites. Durant, Harden and Irving shared the floor for only 43 seconds in the Bucks series. In Game 7, with only Durant as a dependable offensive option and Irving in street clothes, Milwaukee outlasted the Nets, 115-111, in overtime at Barclays Center, which inflicted a searing pain of its own.“It hurts,” Coach Steve Nash said, lauding the efforts of Durant, who scored 48 points in 53 minutes in Game 7, and Harden, who also played all 53 minutes, despite a hamstring strain. “I hurt for them more than anything.”The N.B.A.’s 75th season will be remembered for its Covid-19 protocols, game postponements and empty arenas for months. But the Nets became the league’s biggest on-court story after their acquisition in January of Harden from the Houston Rockets. Five years after General Manager Sean Marks was hired to rescue a franchise devoid of elite talent and draft picks, Marks built a legitimate contender by assembling one of the most impressive offensive threesomes in league history.The trouble for the Nets was not their defensive shortcomings, the depth they sacrificed to make the trade with the Rockets, the lack of available practice time during the coronavirus pandemic or Nash’s inexperience as a first-year coach. It was this: In the regular season, Durant, Harden and Irving were healthy enough to play together for only 202 minutes across eight games. Their 130 minutes together in a five-game dismissal of the Boston Celtics in the first round proved to be their only burst of continuity as a unit. Milwaukee won three of the final four games of the series after Irving’s nasty right ankle sprain in the first half of Game 4.These playoffs were supposed to be the Nets’ chance to shift a slice or two of cultural relevance to Brooklyn from Manhattan in a city teeming with Knicks fans. In the end, neither Marks nor Nash really came away knowing what the Nets could really look like when whole.Some key moments that brought the Nets to this point:Durant and Irving Sign OnEntering the 2019-20 season, there was much speculation about where Durant and Irving would end up. Earlier in the previous season, Irving had committed to staying with Boston long-term, while Durant seemed to be on his way to another title with Golden State. As the world found out after their seasons unraveled — Durant’s through an Achilles’ tear in the 2019 N.B.A. finals — they wanted to play together.The Nets had enough salary cap flexibility to sign them, as well as their friend DeAndre Jordan. The Knicks had the same wherewithal, but Durant and Irving chose the Nets and took Jordan, who finished the 2018-19 season with the Knicks, with them.Nets officials made the moves knowing Durant would probably miss his entire first season as a Net while recovering from the Achilles’ injury. Irving wound up playing only 20 games in his first season in Brooklyn because of shoulder problems. Both are now halfway through four-year deals.Nash’s HiringSteve Nash had a 48-24 record and was the Eastern Conference’s coach of the month in February in his first season as a Nets and N.B.A. coach.Elsa/Getty ImagesThe Nets shook the N.B.A. again by hiring Nash as coach in September 2020. He had no coaching experience, even at the assistant level, but he won two Most Valuable Player Awards and was one of the best point guards in league history.He was essentially chosen by Marks, his former Phoenix Suns teammate, who felt he had the gravitas and communication skills to manage the Nets’ two mercurial stars. Harden would not arrive until a few weeks into Nash’s first season on the bench. The Nets also brought in Mike D’Antoni, Nash’s former coach in Phoenix, to lend veteran guidance.“I wasn’t hired to come in and be a tactical wizard,” Nash said on a podcast hosted by the N.B.A. sharpshooter JJ Redick.Hiring Nash, who is white, nonetheless elicited criticism, given the dearth of Black coaches in the N.B.A., whose player pool is estimated to be nearly 80 percent Black. Nash’s hiring came after Jacque Vaughn, who completed the 2019-20 season as the team’s interim coach and had the Nets playing unexpectedly well without Durant and Irving in the N.B.A.’s so-called bubble in Florida. Vaughn, who is Black, stayed on as an assistant alongside D’Antoni and Ime Udoka. On ESPN, Stephen A. Smith called Nash’s hiring “white privilege.”“Well, I did skip the line, frankly,” Nash said at his introductory news conference. “But at the same time, I think leading an N.B.A. team for almost two decades is pretty unique.”The Harden BlockbusterHarden entered this season as a disgruntled member of the Rockets. He wanted out after D’Antoni and Daryl Morey left the team without an established coach and its top front-office executive, and Harden pushed for a trade to the Nets to reunite with Durant, his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate. It was an audacious move for someone with three years left on his contract — and it cemented the Nets as league villains when it worked.Harden reported late to training camp to apply pressure on the Rockets to trade him. Appearing to be in less than optimal shape made his disinterest palpable during the eight regular-season games he played. The Nets, off to a 6-6 start, ignored Harden’s checkered playoff résumé and the rampant skepticism that one ball would not be enough to satisfy three high-volume scorers, and proceeded with trade talks.In January, the Nets acquired James Harden, pictured shooting over Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he strained a hamstring and missed more time than he had in any previous season.Wendell Cruz/USA Today Sports, via ReutersIn a four-team trade, Marks agreed to surrender control of the Nets’ top draft pick through 2027 to the Rockets and deal two young fan favorites, Caris LeVert (to Indiana) and Jarrett Allen (to Cleveland), to land Harden. As a bonus, the trade kept Harden from landing alongside center Joel Embiid in Philadelphia, after the 76ers offered the Rockets a deal involving Ben Simmons.The deal remains a gamble for the Nets. Every year without a championship will increase the scrutiny and pressure. Management must decide whether to pursue contract extensions with Durant, Harden and Irving that would cost hundreds of millions in salary and luxury tax or risk seeing any of the three opt for free agency after next season under their current contracts.“This is just the start of our journey,” Joe Tsai, the Nets’ owner, said on Twitter after the Game 7 loss. Known as one of the league’s wealthiest owners alongside the Los Angeles Clippers’ Steve Ballmer, Tsai certainly has the financial might to keep the core together.Irving’s AbsencesDuring the pursuit of Harden and after his arrival, Irving missed seven games in January for personal reasons. Marks said Irving’s sudden unavailability and the acquisition were “completely separate.” Yet the Nets felt it was urgent to maximize Durant’s championship window and made the trade with that in mind, according to two people familiar with the club’s thinking who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.Kyrie Irving, left, who was out since Game 4 with a right ankle sprain, supported his Nets teammates from the bench in Game 7 against the Bucks on Saturday night.Elsa/Getty ImagesThe Nets knew they wouldn’t have a training camp to try to assimilate Harden into the team, but figured that by bringing in a durable player, they would almost always have two elite players on the floor. It also became clear, soon after Harden’s arrival, that he was best suited to be the team’s playmaker, according to one of the people. Clear, even, to Irving.“We established that maybe four days ago now,” Irving said in February. “I just looked at him and I said, ‘You’re the point guard and I’m going to play shooting guard.’ That was as simple as that.”Cries that Harden was a luxury item for the Nets faded fast. The team went 29-8 in the regular season in games that Harden played and 12-11 without him.InjuriesHealth woes began almost immediately; Spencer Dinwiddie was lost to a season-ending knee tear just three games in. Dinwiddie averaged a career-high 20.6 points per game the season before, and he was expected to be yet another scoring threat on a team full of them.Durant overcame his Achilles’ tear in a big way, ending his season with 49 points against Milwaukee in Game 5 and 48 points in Game 7. But he wound up playing in only 35 of the Nets’ 72 regular-season games because of a hamstring injury. Harden, who was dealing with his own hamstring injury, missed more time in the regular season (21 of the final 23 games) and playoffs than he had in any previous season.The Nets were rocked in April when LaMarcus Aldridge, a former All-Star they had signed after he negotiated a buyout with the San Antonio Spurs, retired at age 35 because of a longstanding heart condition. Nash used a franchise-record 38 starting lineups in those 72 games and four separate ones in the Bucks series, leaning upon the well-traveled Jeff Green; Blake Griffin, a former All-Star who joined the team in April; and Griffin’s former Detroit Pistons teammate Bruce Brown.For the playoffs, the Nets finally seemed healthy — for one round. Harden missed all but the opening minute of the first four games of the Milwaukee series and lacked explosion or lift in his legs when he volunteered to return for Game 5 after Irving’s ankle sprain. Green’s plantar fascia strain kept him out of the first three games with the Bucks.“It’s been a really difficult year,” Nash said. “We’ve had a lot thrown at us.”Even with the injuries and Milwaukee’s stars healthy, the Nets came within an inch of advancing to the next round. With one second left in regulation in Game 7 and the Nets down by 2 points, Durant made a contested shot from the right wing that appeared to be a 3-pointer for the win. But his toe was on the 3-point line, and it counted as a long 2, sending the Nets to overtime instead of to the Eastern Conference finals.“My big ass foot stepped on the line,” Durant said. “I was just seeing a little screenshot how close I was to ending their season on that shot. But it wasn’t in God’s plan, and we move on.” More