Getty Kevin Durant guards Jayson Tatum.
With the Brooklyn Nets sitting home watching the Boston Celtics, the team who eliminated them in the first round, compete in the NBA Finals it appears that fans have a lot of time on their hands.
It’s not exactly a well kept secret the Nets-Celtics trade from 2013 that landed Brooklyn Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett ended up landing Boston a pair of stars. Draft picks sent over in that trade turned into Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, players who have blossomed with the Celtics.
While many fans have moved on as this trade happened close to a decade ago now, there are still many people out there who point out that the Celtics are on the verge of winning a championship because of it while the Nets haven’t gotten close.
One fan went as far as editing former general manager Billy King’s Wikipedia page to criticize the trade.
King’s Page Changed
GettyThe former Nets GM helped the Celtics land Jaylen Brown.
When prominent figures have their Wikipedia pages changed, the edits are usually undone pretty fast, but that isn’t the case here. First pointed out on Reddit by user LinuxUbuntuOS on June 1, the changes made to the page are still active at the time of this writing.
“As general manager of the Nets, King’s legacy in the NBA was hurt by a series of oft-criticized trades that were deemed among the “worst in league history,” reads his page. “It was discovered later on that King was actually hired by the Celtics as an undercover scout with the intent for him to give away several unprotected 1st round picks to the Celtics in hopes that they would form a dynasty. This made sense for King because he had a natural hatred for the Nets franchise. This turned out to be a home run for both parties, as two of those picks were used to draft all-stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, with another pick being used in a 2017 trade to acquire Kyrie Irving. It is rumored that if the Celtics are able to win a championship, the Celtics will build a statue of Billy King right in front of the TD Garden, putting him up there as being one of the best front office executives in Celtics history.”
Obviously King was never an undercover agent during his time as the Nets GM, but this does show that fans still hold him accountable for the way that trade went down.
What Now?
GettyBen Simmons will help the Nets.
While things clearly didn’t turn out the way the Nets expected with that trade, there’s really nothing that can be done about it now.
Both Brown and Tatum are among the best players in the NBA, and the 2022 playoffs might’ve been what finally launched Tatum into superstardom. Both of them figure to be in the league for a long time so the Nets will have to find a way to deal with them.
Having Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons is certainly a good start, but it’s clear they’ll need a bit more help to get over the hump. Getting a healthy Simmons back is step one, but they can’t stop there.
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