Kevin Durant knows why his Nets experiment failed as Brooklyn picks up the pieces
NY Post
It was Kevin Durant’s trade request that officially ended the Nets’ most recent window of contention.
Now that they’ve finally started a rebuild two years later, Durant has watched from afar and said he can see it heading in the right direction.
Durant brought his Suns to Barclays Center on Wednesday, where he’d combined with Kyrie Irving and James Harden to form one of the most potent Big 3’s in NBA history.
But they spectacularly flamed out, winning just a single playoff series in the parts of four seasons Durant and Irving were together.
“You see so many fans who still remember those times and appreciate it — even though we went through a lot of dysfunction, I guess you could call it, for lack of a better term. But regardless of that, a lot of people still supported and still came out, cheered loud as hell for the game of basketball and for the Nets,” Durant said. “It was here in this borough of Brooklyn, the little brother. It was always fun being a little brother and representing the little brother in the city.”
Durant famously spurned the big brother, rejected the Knicks to come to Brooklyn as a package deal with Irving in 2019.
Former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson departed for the division rival Chicago Bears on Monday, and while Detroit will miss its offensive coordinator dearly, that won’t stop star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown from competing with him.
NFL officials were heavily scrutinized for some of the flags they threw in the four divisional-round games that saw the Chiefs, Bills, Eagles and Commanders advance to next weekend’s conference championships.
It is a classy class. It was already a classy class because Dave Parker and Dick Allen were a part of it, after the veterans committee righted a few decades of wrongs by welcoming them to Cooperstown back in December.
Other than Karl-Anthony Towns around the paint and Josh Hart’s big rebound, there wasn’t much impressive about the way the Knicks performed Tuesday.
First in a three-part series on the Giants quarterback issue. Coming tomorrow: Examining Sam Darnold and other proven or semi-proven requests.
I’d never quite seen anything like the 19-game stretch bridging November and December in which the Rangers won four and lost 15 in regulation.
In a different time, in a season to come, we may be inclined to wax poetic about the way this one played out. In a different time, in a season to come, the Nets will be seeking to stack wins and not losses, will be fighting for playoff seeding and not for a few extra ping-pong balls in the draft lottery this spring.
The Jets spent Tuesday huddling with their top choices for their head coach and general manager openings but still had not closed a deal with them as of Tuesday night.
Entrenched in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, the Rangers are making their push.
It was a long time coming, but Billy Wagner finally closed it out.
The NBA has an All-Star Game problem. Despite Adam Silver’s efforts to inject juice into the February showcase — including a format alteration to the 2025 game that is too confusing to attempt to understand before it’s inevitably changed again — there’s little interest in watching teams eschew defense for a series of layup line highlights. That also means the most entertaining part of the NBA All-Star Game is just like the Pro Bowl — debating over who should get a spot.
Boomer Esiason sees the Jets doing the same thing and expecting different results.
Four Chilean nationals have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the burglary of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s Ohio home last month, according to WLWT in Cincinnati.
Which came first: stability within the lineup or stability on the ice?
The Jets have never exactly been masters of great timing.
Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere were the most productive line at five-on-five in the NHL last season.
Intangibles are great, sure, but what’s his WAR?