Vaccination refusal and trade disaster
The ruinous chaos of the Brooklyn star troupe
4/27/2022, 6:31 p.m
Vaccination opponent Kyrie Irving is just a spectator for a long time, new signing Ben Simmons does not play, and at the end there is a sweep against the Boston Celtics – the first for superstar Kevin Durant. The Brooklyn Nets have had an NBA season to forget.
Kevin Durant went to great lengths to classify the quick exit as an industrial accident. “Shit happens,” said the NBA superstar succinctly, even though Durant had just lost a playoff series 4-0 for the first time in his career. The Brooklyn Nets conceded the so-called sweep against the Boston Celtics, they were freely translated, cleaned away – the fitting end to a basketball season with far too many side shows.
“Lack of continuity” was a main problem, said coach Steve Nash, Durant had to carry “too heavy a burden”. Among other things, this was because the Nets vaccination opponent Kyrie Irving was not available at all because of the missing syringe and then only away. Late, probably too late, the superstar and seven-time Allstar became a full-time employee.
“Never wanted it to be just about me”
“There was a point where I had the feeling that I was letting the team down,” said Irving, unusually self-critical after the decisive 112:116 in the fourth round of 16 against Boston: “We tried to use every option so that I can play, but I never wanted it to be just about me,” said Irving. The matter was certainly “sometimes a distraction”.
Durant was out for six weeks with a knee injury, and then there was the Ben Simmons saga. The 25-year-old left the Philadelphia 76ers in February after smashing china and receiving record fines (reportedly more than $10 million) there. In the course of the mega deal, none other than James Harden left the Nets, new signing Simmons did not play for the new club after a herniated disc.
“It can only get better”
“He’ll do us good next season,” Irving said of Simmons. It’s about “turning the tide”, you have to draw motivation from the failure against the Celtics. “Everyone at the club knows what we’ve been through,” Durant said. “There’s no time to regret or be pissed off. It’s about how we can find solutions to get better.”
Head coach Nash, once a teammate of basketball idol Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, wishes for more peace. “All the things off the pitch play a role in what happens on the pitch and there’s no question that that has an impact,” said the coach. As seventh in the Eastern Conference, Brooklyn had only qualified for the championship round via the play-in tournament. The New Yorkers couldn’t get anything against record champion Boston with German national player Daniel Theis. In fact, it can only get better.