Big Three to Big Failure

Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe

Brooklyn, NY (PSF) - The summer of 2019 had many memorable moments. For Brooklyn Nets fans though, nothing was a bigger day than June 30, 2019. The NBA free agency in 2019 was loaded with players like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. As days went on, these two seemed like a package deal. If Durant signed somewhere, Kyrie was going there and vice versa. Luckily for the Nets organization and their fans, Durant and Irving ended up choosing Brooklyn. 

The first year after the signing was without Kevin Durant as he was coming off a torn achilles but when he came back at the end of 2020, everyone knew the Nets were contenders to win it all. Then on January 14, 2021 the Brooklyn Nets signed former MVP, James Harden. Who was beating this team? The Nets had two former MVPs both playing at high levels in Durant and Harden and a top-five point guard in Irving. It seemed like the Nets were a lock to win it all. The 2020-2021 season ended sooner rather than later for this team though. With Kevin Durant's foot on the line, the Nets ended up losing game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual champions, Milwaukee Bucks.

Now we are onto the 2021-2022 season. This is when the collapse begins as the Nets trade Harden to the 76ers for Ben Simmons. Simmons didn’t end up playing a single game for the Nets in this season. Fast forward to the playoffs and the Nets get swept against the Celtics in the first round, ending their season.

Going into the current season, people still had very high expectations for the Nets, which makes sense since they still had Durant and Irving. Come February of 2023, Irving asked to be traded and got his wish going to the Dallas Mavericks and days later, Durant gets traded to the Phoenix Suns. While the Nets did get a lot of draft picks and players back, they lost three top players in the span of a year.

This downfall can be seen as one of the biggest failures in NBA history. Instead of having a big three, they now have a big failure.

Photo by ClutchPoints