Kevin Durant, in turn, is getting a surprisingly warm reception from Nets fans
When is it Brooklyn Nets formed a trio of Kevin DurantKyrie Irving and James Harden, the prevailing thought was that they were a contender for the championship. What followed was one of the most disappointing stretches in recent Nets history, with all three eventually traded. Kevin Durant returned to the Nets Arena on Wednesday along with the Phoenix Suns and welcome back by the fans.
Despite that Durant at one point demanded a trade from the Netsthere seems to be no ill will from the Brooklyn faithful toward the future Hall of Famer.
The The Nets ended up trading Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Sunsafter completing another blockbuster trade that sent Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks. Irving recently had a humorous take on the trade as the anniversary of the move approaches.
The Nets originally acquired Durant through free agency in the 2019 offseason. Due to an Achilles injury, Durant was sidelined for the entire 2019-2020 season. He made his Nets debut during the 2020-21 season, the same year the team traded for James Harden.
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That first season of the trio was promising, but the Nets lost Irving in the playoffs to injury and were eliminated in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks.
Instead of continuing with a healthy roster, it all went downhill from there. The following year, the Nets were without Irving for most of the season due to his unwillingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and was therefore unable to play in the team’s home games under the city’s vaccination mandate.
At the end of that season, Harden was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons, who didn’t suit the Nets at all that year. The team was eventually swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The following year, the Nets traded both Durant and Irving at the trade deadline to speed up their current rebuild.
2025-01-23 03:05:00
