Disasters mark, many times more than great successes, the conclusions about a story that always has a beginning and an end. It’s the spots on a resume that are the highlight, the place where everyone looks. As much as the view can cover a more general (and generous) plane of anything, the usual thing is to focus on that point that hurts, on the worst part of what defines us, on the most punishable, prosecutable or embarrassing thing that can be part of someone It is there, says the human condition, where we begin to build our idea and that is what will prevail over everything else, always of lesser importance in comparison with what is harmful. The bad, of course, is always above the good. And no matter how accurate our steps are and follow a certain path with precision, a single stumble can take us back to the beginning of the path with a stroke of the pen.. In other words: a noble act does not redeem a man from a lifetime of misdeeds. However, a bad one may be enough to convict you.
If we turn the idea around, we find Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and their constant attempts to destroy the hypothesis. Maybe, just maybe, in some hidden hole in this world there is someone who prioritizes positive things and does not pay so much attention to negative things. But in the case of the two Nets stars, that wouldn’t matter. The feeling, for some time now, is that both are determined that we forget the extraordinary talent, historically good, that accompanies them, and we are left only with the comings and goings of two heads impossible to understand and two ways of being that absolutely tarnish all the good deeds done. A point has come where everything they have shown on the track doesn’t matter. Their questionable decisions, the way they are executed and the drift their sports careers have taken are almost the only things that matter.. And the question is no longer whether they will be able to turn public opinion around and end their careers with positive evaluations from a considerable social mass. The question is if they have any intention of fighting for it.
The Nets face the fourth year of the project that created their two stars, one designed to win rings, destroy everything, become a dynasty. One in which it is only worth winning and that has not overcome, we do not know if they will, the Conference semifinals. Two players as absolutely generational as they are are in the eye of the hurricane, in the worst moment of their careers from the point of view of reputation. They arrived with Kenny Atkinson and a solid culture that has been destroyed: without playing (During nothing, Kyrie just 20 games) in his first season they killed the coach behind the scenes. They brought in Steve Nash, little more than a puppet who hasn’t shown anything because, as he has shown, that’s not what his job is. And, in between, a farce about a James Harden who just as he came, he left (with controversy), the arrival of a Ben Simmons who has not yet played and the culmination, a few months ago, of public fights with Gerente general Sean Marks and the transfer request of both starsone with a four-year contract (Durant) and the other with a player option that he has exercised and that will keep him in the franchise for another year (Kyrie).
Neither one came out and finally, it seems, the Nets have become strong in the negotiations with their stars and have sung that “I rule here” which has left the players in the same place where they were. With Kyrie always on the lookout for what his partner would do, Durant has been the one who has tightened the rope the most, although without luck. The transfer with the Celltics, which was on the table, did not happen and in Brooklyn they made it clear that they were not going to give anything away. The forward’s threat to retire if not traded was a bluff the Nets didn’t get into. And, in the end, after many fights and numerous leaks, Durant and Kyrie are still in Brooklyn, in the Big Apple, near Manhattan, deciding if they decide to exploit their well-known talent, or continue unleashing the storm of controversy. The story is nearing its end (Kyrie will be safe in the summer of 2023) and it only remains to be seen if they can do something to avoid the most absolute catastrophe, that of not getting past the East semifinals in four years with two of the best players in all times, surrounded by shooters and veterans, minimum contracts and workers, old glories and some youngster.
It would not be strange to think that they will only achieve this mission with the championship ring, but it would be strange, at least at this point, to think that the ring could belong to the Nets in June 2023. The Nets have achieved 35, 48 (in 72-game seasons) and 44 (of 82) wins in the last three years, full of problems, injuries and movements in the quartermaster. Injuries to Kyrie and Harden kept the team from being more competitive in the 2021 playoffs, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and that Durant stomp to the three-point line prevented the Nets from prevailing in overtime and overcoming that cursed semifinal series. Conference… which they have only set foot on that occasion. The Celtics, ultimately finalists, destroyed Durant and Kyrie a few months ago: 4-0 and heading for reflection. The Nets, fed up with the situation, did not renew a Kyrie who played only 29 games last year, messes with the vaccine through, and just 15 points and 18% in triples in the last three games of the series against the Celtics. A base that they have had enough of and who stays one more year by contractual option and not because of the wishes of the fans or the board. After wanting to escape the shadow of LeBron, he left the Celtics shivering and does not raise his head in Brooklyn. At 30 years old, his reputation is in tatters. And neither the past nor the present allow him to be related to that 2016 triple over Stephen Curry who gave the ring promised by LeBron James to the Cavaliers.
Durant, who on his way to 34 years old ended last season much worse than the previous one (after his monstrous series against the Bucks) from the prism of public opinion, has been public enemy number 1 and the cause of an earthquake that has ended in nothing. And his series against the Celtics, also questionable (barely 38% in shots), together with his age, generate some uncertainty around his person, his physical level and his health, very irregular in recent years with constant injuries and marked absences . Another player who, without being at the same level as Kyrie, has caused extra-sports excesses that have made us forget what was on the track until not long ago. And that he is objectively one of the greatest players of all time … not that it matters much to anyone right now. In the end, He is the captain of a nearly sunken ship, barely navigating the tumultuous waters of disaster.. A ship with cracks too big to be able to advance in the vast sea. The intent and effort he puts into fixing the breakdowns will determine his future, attached to the Nets for the next four years if no one in the franchise decides otherwise.
That’s the way things are. In the half-day of the Nets, Durant has said he is aware of who he is and it’s no wonder the Nets didn’t want give him. Likewise, has denied his demands regarding Kyrie’s non-renewal and his anger when the Nets decided they were not going to extend his contract, something that leaked in the opposite direction just a few months ago. Kyrie, for his part, has accused the Nets of issuing him with vaccine ultimatums just days after claiming on Twitter that the vaccination process was a violation of human rights, an outrage too big even for him. Beyond showing off his usual verbiage, he has assured that he is committed to the team and has said that they are candidates for the title, leaving very famous phrases such as “I gave up four years and more than 100 million for not going to vaccinate” either “in the tie with the Celtics it was one of the first times that I left the court embarrassed”. In short, very inflated egos and the promise that you have to work and that they can opt for the title. At the moment they are just words. And the words, you know, are carried by the wind. The rest, We’ll see. Durant, Kyrie and year IV (and last, right?) of the Nets project: redemption or confirmation of disaster. There are no intermediate points. When it comes to these two stars, you can’t have them. let the party begin.
