The Brooklyn Nets hoped to be championship contenders when they signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the summer of 2019. Those hopes were reinvigorated when the Nets acquired James Harden in a 4-team trade in 2021. However, things never worked out as all parties wished, and the Nets finally have broken apart their core.
The Nets traded Harden to the 76ers last year. Then just last week, the Nets traded Irving to the Dallas Mavericks and Durant to the Phoenix Suns.
Harden addressed the matter on Saturday night after his Philadelphia 76ers beat the Nets 101-98. He said it was “frustrating” that due to injuries or other reasons, he, KD and Irving hardly ever played together and never got the chance to see what they could do on the court.
Harden, while discussing his tenure with KD/Kyrie:
"Frustrating. It's a lot of what ifs, I think when you play less than 20 games together. So it's a little bit frustrating, but it is what it is. Hopefully everybody's in a good place now and we can move on."
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) February 12, 2023
“Frustrating. It’s a lot of what ifs, I think when you play less than 20 games together. So it’s a little bit frustrating, but it is what it is. Hopefully everybody’s in a good place now and we can move on,” Harden said, via ESPN’s Nick Friedell.
Harden then shared an interesting comment and said that he feels vindicated that people now see he wasn’t the problem or crazy one on the Nets.
Harden: "I don't look like the crazy one. I don’t look like the guy or the quitter or whatever the media want to call me. I knew what was going on and I just decided to…hey, I'm not built for this. I don't want to deal with that. I want to play basketball and have fun"
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) February 12, 2023
“I don’t look like the crazy one,” Harden said. “I don’t look like the guy or the quitter or whatever the media want to call me. I knew what was going on and I just decided to…hey, I’m not built for this. I don’t want to deal with that. I want to play basketball and have fun.”
Harden said he got out of Brooklyn last year because of all the dysfunction that he didn’t see changing.
Could the #Nets have done anything to keep Harden: "Yeah, there was a lot of things. But it was just a lot of dysfunction. Clearly…And that was one of the reasons why I chose to make my decision. Fast forward to date, I don't look like the crazy one…I knew what was going on"
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) February 12, 2023
James Harden said he came to the #Nets to play with KD & Kyrie: "That didn't happen as much as I'd like to or probably the organization wanted to. It was just something where I knew it wasn't going to change. So I just had to make an individual decision." #NBA #Sixers
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) February 12, 2023
That’s true. Harden is not the crazy one. That would be Irving. What’s crazy is that Harden didn’t realize Irving was crazy and a flake prior to requesting a trade to Brooklyn. Did he miss how Irving ended his tenures in Cleveland and Boston?
Harden asked to be traded away from Houston and wanted to go to the Nets. He cost himself a season with his poor decision-making.
