Getty Coach Steve Nash and Kevin Durant (right) of the Nets
In the days before the Nets and Kevin Durant gathered in Los Angeles to conclude their Brooklyn standoff, an air of inevitability had settled over the situation.
There would be no dramatic ending in Hollywood.
According to multiple reports, Durant has given up his trade request and his concession that he’d stay if general manager Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash were fired. The Nets were never going to get their ridiculous asking price for KD — leading many in the league to wonder if they were legitimately trying to move him. And with four years on his contract, Durant could huff and puff, but he couldn’t blow down the Barclays Center.
They will, therefore, all now live soap-opera-dramatically ever after together.
It had been coming to this for weeks, but Durant didn’t have any real choice — and the Nets didn’t give him one.
After having their franchise wagged by the tail (and tale) of Kyrie Irving’s latest medical opinion or general sabbatical and Ben Simmons’ head and back issues, Nets owner Joe Tsai ultimately responded to Kevin Durant’s trade-me tantrum the way a successful businessperson — or parent — should. He took stock of his fair position and leverage then took a firm stance.
“Brooklyn just said, ‘Enough of this s***.’ And good for them,” a league exec told Heavy Sports. “This should be a blueprint for every team that goes through something like this, but I’m sure it won’t. Guys who run major businesses and are tough as hell all of a sudden change when it comes to their teams … and their stars.
“It’s important to maintain good relationships and loyalty and all that with your players, but if the player is doing something that’s hurting the team — hurting the business — then you have to stand your ground and remember how you got the money to buy the team in the first place.”
Joe Tsai ‘Didn’t Throw Good Money After Bad’
Tsai made the first move after Durant gave him the me-or-Marks/Nash ultimatum in their private meeting more than two weeks ago, tweeting, “Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”
Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.
According to one league source, this was a matter of Tsai, billionaire co-founder of the Alibaba Group, getting back to business after casting the franchise lot with free agents Durant and Irving in 2019.
“He didn’t throw good money after bad,” said the source. “He gave up a lot of money and control when he signed them, and the investment hasn’t given the return they wanted or expected. He gave those guys a big say in personnel and the running of the franchise.
“He gave them the keys to the Ferrari and they took it out and they wrecked it — and he decided he wasn’t going to give them another set of keys. The statement he made on Twitter? That was Joe Tsai saying that he was going to be the one who decides who drives, and it isn’t going to be them.
“He made a huge investment in these two particular players who were going to lead the franchise, and with that he allowed them unprecedented ability to impact future player acquisitions. They bought DeAndre Jordan for $40 million after DeAndre was long past his prime. And that was done essentially to provide KD and Kyrie with one of their guys. I know exactly what they were thinking there: Let’s get this shot-blocker and, hey, man, we don’t have to worry about the defensive end as much. But they ended up paying a ton of money to a guy who was done.
“It never came together — for whatever reasons. Their concerns and their input over the course of three years, given the cost of the operation of the franchise and the tax dollars paid, they got one playoff (series) win out of it. That’s a hell of an investment for that return.”
A source who’s been involved in both the basketball operations and business side of the NBA acknowledged that, because Durant and Irving are out front and therefore more visible, they will take most of the heat for this. But he went deeper to break down the breakdown. Said the source:
These guys, KD and Kyrie, are culprits, too — but so are Sean Marks and Steve Nash. But the guy at the head of this whole thing, Joe Tsai, with all due respect, gets the bulk of the responsibility.
My expectations of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant as evaluators of talent, designers of platform and program for an organization, I don’t have great expectations. They’re young. No one is born to this. This is an acquired skill, an acquired set of judgments and knowledge that you gain over years. Those guys don’t have that, because their major focus has been on playing.
And with the idea that game respects game, game doesn’t always know game, all right? So KD and Kyrie didn’t act anywhere outside of what my expectations for them are. If I take a look at Steve Nash in his first coaching job, if someone decides to give you a championship-level team and you are a rookie coach, they put YOU in a difficult position, because you, too, haven’t acquired the skills and the knowledge of being in that industry — being in that particular job — for a while.
Now, Sean Marks I understand had to do this to get these two superstars to come to Brooklyn. Whenever you recruit, there’s s price to be paid. But as you ask for more and more and more, Joe Tsai is the guy who had to make the judgment on what he was investing in actual dollars and ceding control. And as a 50-something billionaire, he’s the guy who acted outside of what would be considered his scope of responsibility and decision-making. He acquiesced foolishly, and I hold him to a higher standard because he IS a [expletive] billionaire. Bottom line: Kevin Durant and Kyrie f****** this up? Not a surprise to me. Joe Tsai acquiescing as long as he did? Surprising to me.
The Nets Reeled in the Situation in the End
The important thing — at least at this point — is that Tsai and the Nets reeled it all in. There is peace in the borough, at least until the next sneaker drops. While Brooklyn technically has the same roster that it did before this latest meeting, Durant laying down his arms has changed the on-court view. According to BetOnline.ag, the Nets’ odds to win the championship went from 14-1 to 7.5-1.
“I’m not sure how much they every REALLY tried to trade him,” said an exec from one team involved in a process that seemed more theater than substance. “What Brooklyn was asking for was ridiculous. They knew it. We knew it.”
Because of that, there was no real feeding frenzy around the league, and GMs were keeping tabs but not really wasting much time on the supposed KD sweepstakes.
Three weeks ago, a league exec put it in perspective in a Heavy story: “If Brooklyn wants to be good now, the fastest way to that is KD and Kyrie and [Ben] Simmons together playing well. With anything else, you’re pretty much scrambling this season and waiting for those draft picks to bring you something good down the line. No matter who you bring back in a trade now, he’s not going to be KD.”
Ultimately, by standing their ground, the Nets got the best player in the trade: Kevin Durant.