Getty Kyrie Irving and James Harden are no longer teammates.
The Brooklyn Nets traded James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers for Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, Ben Simmons and future draft picks on February 10, the biggest blockbuster from this year’s NBA trade deadline.
According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, Harden and Kyrie Irving had friction as teammates and the latter was eager to see the former get traded.
Irving, who doesn’t have a good relationship with the media, saw Vardon’s report on Twitter and the one-time champion didn’t hold back destroying the veteran writer for The Athletic.
Irving Fires Back at Vardon
Vardon reported that when the Nets faced the Cleveland Cavaliers on January 17, Irving lit sage in the locker room and Harden “looked at Kyrie like he had three heads.” Irving, one of the most polarizing players in the NBA due to his vaccine stance and flat-earth comments, fired back at Vardon’s report with a powerful and cryptic tweet.
“Lol I guess this is ‘breaking news’ media nowadays,” Irving wrote on Twitter. “Keep my family name out y’all Simpleton articles. The Puppets are running wild Again.”
Irving has called the media “puppets” and “pawns” in the past. The All-Star was fined $25,000 in December 2020 for not speaking to the media and responded to the fine by saying he doesn’t speak to “pawns.”
The Nets were 13-3 when Kevin Durant, Harden and Irving played in the same game. Irving is a part-time player this season since he can’t play in home games due to being unvaccinated against COVID-19 and multiple reports stated Harden was frustrated by that. The one-time MVP wanted to play for the Sixers so he could reunite with Daryl Morey and he spectacularly got his wish.
Now, all the focus in Brooklyn shifts to Irving and Durant and how they mesh with their new teammates.
Nets Don’t Have That Much Time to Gel
The Nets are in eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings. They lost nine in a row before the Harden trade. Durant has been out since early January with a knee injury and it’s unknown when he’ll be back.
To make matters worse, Irving still can’t play in home games and Simmons won’t make his Nets debut for a while. The former Rookie of the Year last played a game on June 20, 2021. No one knows what type of shape he’s in and Simmons is still seeing a therapist for his mental health issues.
When they had Harden, the Nets looked like title contenders on paper. We saw how that turned out. Durant, Irving and Simmons look like a Big Three on paper, but it’s not 100% certain they will play well off each other on the court and lead Brooklyn to the promised land.
After all, it will take them considerable time to interlock and their chemistry may take longer to build than some Nets fans want since Durant is out, Irving is a part-time player and Simmons’ debut date is unknown.
What we do know is that Irving isn’t happy with Vardon’s report and doesn’t want people to think he wanted Harden traded. It will be interesting to hear what Irving has to say about the trade the next time he speaks to the media.