Getty Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving of the BrooklynNets
It is not a role that any of the Nets’ three high-profile stars has played before, at least not with great success. But as the NBA playoffs are set to begin in earnest this weekend, it is a role they’ll all have to learn to accept if not embrace.
It’s the role of the villain, and it has descended upon the Nets rather quickly. Just five years ago, the Nets were a classically woebegone franchise, but built into an up-and-comer under young coach Kenny Atkinson. But, in dumping Atkinson, signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, then bringing in malcontent Houston star James Harden via trade in January, the Nets now are seen as an Eastern Conference bully.
“When you form a superteam like that, teams are gonna root against you,” ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins told reporters Monday, per the New York Post, adding later, “That’s why people look at them as the villains.”
The Nets finished the season 48-24, second in the Eastern Conference, and will now face the Celtics, who downed the Wizards in the play-in tournament to earn the No. 7 seed. The Celtics, who have been in the East finals in three of the past four postseasons, are severe underdogs against the Nets, a team capable of playing like an offensive juggernaut.
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“It’s one of the best offensive perimeter units we have ever seen in the NBA in terms of having that type of firepower out on the perimeter and being able to play that efficiently,” Hall of Fame guard Isiah Thomas said on NBATV.
Nets Stars Have Not Faced High-Level Hatred (Yet)
But Perkins noted that it could be a challenge for the Nets, the level of vitriol they’ll face in the coming weeks. Irving has felt it to an extent in his career, but never at the postseason level—his Cavaliers were the underdogs in the NBA Finals from 2015-17, and if there was hate to absorb, it mostly went to LeBron James.
Kyrie Irving is the 9th player in NBA history with a 50/40/90 season.
Larry Bird (2x)
Mark Price
Reggie Miller
Steve Nash
Dirk Nowitzki
Steve Nash (4x)
Kevin Durant
Stephen Curry
Malcolm Brogdon
Kyrie Irving
He finished the season shooting 50.6 FG%, 40.2 3P%, 92.2 FT%.
Durant had to cope with it during his stint at Golden State, which had a superteam of its own when Durant signed there in 2016. Though he won two championships, the pressure wore on Durant and he bolted the Warriors as soon as he hit free agency.
“A lot of people are not fans of Kyrie because of some of the things he says off the court in the media,” Perkins said. “When he gets in between those lines, he’s a magician with the pill, right? He’s a musician with the rock. Then you look at KD, a guy who’s not afraid to go back-and-forth with people on Twitter. He already has a history from when he joined the Golden State Warriors, a lot of people didn’t agree with that.
“And now he’s with Kyrie, they’re already kind of the villains.”
James Harden Left Rockets on Bad Footing
There is Harden, too, who made no friends early on in this season. Harden was ticked off with the Rockets after the team cleaned house following its postseason loss to the Lakers in the second round last year, parting ways with GM Daryl Morey and replacing coach Mike D’Antoni with rookie coach Stephen Silas. He showed up for the 2020-21 season late and out of shape, and was mostly disengaged when the team did play.
He forced the Rockets to trade him by openly complaining about the team’s dim fortunes.
“And then the way that James Harden left Houston, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it, right?” Perkins said. “The way that he treated [Stephen] Silas, African American coach that’d been in the game for 20-plus years and finally got an opportunity, the way he handled the situation and forced his way out.”
It was not pretty. Harden was always going to be cast as a villain after leaving Houston. But he happened to go to a team that was already stocked with a pair of villain stars. Let’s see if they can handle that role.