Getty Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving embrace after a win over the Atlanta Hawks.
The Brooklyn Nets are riding high now as winners of 12 of their last 13 games and threatening to overtake the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings. But things have not been peaches and cream for the Nets all season. For those who may be tardy to the party, Nets star Kyrie Irving was suspended for eight games earlier this year for posting the link to a film that featured anti-Semitic tropes.
After the Nets announced Irving’s indefinite suspension, some thought it was a death sentence for the Nets’ title hopes this season. But Nets star Kevin Durant told ESPN’s Nick Friedell his faith that the Nets would eventually weather the storm never wavered.
“I think coming into the training camp, we understood that it’s going to be a lot on us from a media standpoint, from just the noise in general around our team, so I think that made us tighter once camp started,” Durant told Friedell.
“So we was able to take the Kyrie stuff and move in stride because we were already stuck together before that. We started to win some games, started to get better as a team, and do some things out there that work for us. And now it seems like everything was patched all together, but it felt like it was always cool, to be honest.”
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Kevin Durant: Championships ‘Come With the Process’
Irving may have been the focal point of the Nets’ drama this season, but their woes started way before they even started training camp. After being swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics, Durant requested a trade from the Nets during the offseason.
Durant and the Nets went the entire summer navigating through his trade request, trying to find a deal that would benefit both sides. But ultimately, Durant agreed to return to Brooklyn.
The majority thought Durant wanted to leave the Nets for the opportunity to compete for a championship, but that was just part of the reason. The All-Star forward wanted reassurance that the franchise was still invested in “the process”.
“I don’t even look at s— that way. My whole thing was like — are we, does the process matter to us? And that’s one thing I did know that people here enjoy, grinding,” Durant continued.
“So that was the most important thing for me. Titles and stuff come with the process in which you — how you prepare. It was more so, “All right, are we going to practice harder? Are we going to pay more attention to detail?” Not just everybody else, all of us, me included. Is that going to be preached to us every day?”
Kevin Durant Gives Insight on Offseason Trade Request
When Durant initially asked out of Brooklyn, many fans thought he had played his last days in a Nets jersey. Usually, when stars of his caliber ask for trades, a la James Harden, Anthony Davis, and Kawhi Leonard, deals get done. Maybe not rapidly, but eventually.
But despite making his demand for the Nets to trade him, Durant still had hope that the Nets could rectify the situation with him in Brooklyn, and he would be provided with the type of basketball environment he desperately desired.
“I had faith that that would happen because I voiced that throughout the summer as well. Even behind the scenes, like, “Yo, this is what I like to do. This is how I like to practice.” I’ve been saying that for the last couple of years,” Durant added.
“So I figured at that point, with me going through that, they understood what I value. That’s what I was hanging my hat on, the preparation side of it.”
With all the Nets have endured over the last several months, capping off this season with a championship would make it that much sweeter.