When the Brooklyn Nets signed Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant, the whole basketball world went into shock. The idea of these three stars together seemed unfair. For the first time ever, the Nets seemed as if they were going to be a great team in the NBA. This team was considered a superteam, which ended up being an utter disgrace. The dream of what this potential three-headed monster could be was nothing but a dream. Despite regressing in terms of basketball skills, all three of these superstars became drama queens, turning the originally scary Nets team into a mediocre team at best.
The issue with the Nets starts with Kyrie Irving. Most famously known for thinking the earth is flat, Kyrie is the epitome of a dramatizer. After he left Cleveland in 2017 because he thought he was too cool to share the spotlight with his teammate Lebron James, Kyrie signed with the Celtics, hoping to have the spotlight all to himself. To no one's surprise, Kyrie was unable to single-handedly bring the city of Boston a championship. Instead of trying to stick it out in Boston, Kyrie decided to go play with the “superteam” in Brooklyn. Despite being on the team for 3 years, Kyrie only actually played 103 games with the Nets because of theatrics off the court. Because of New York’s Covid guidelines, Kyrie was unable to play in his home games this past season since he was not vaccinated. This led to the Nets becoming the first basketball team ever to become significantly better when they would play away rather than at home. Kyrie gave the Nets half of the energy he was capable of giving and started all of the issues that happened in Brooklyn.
When you already have someone like Kyrie Irving on your team, there's not much room for other players that want to be selfish. This reason exactly is why it was a terrible decision for the Nets to go out and add James Harden to their roster. Although James Harden was a great fit in Houston’s isolation-based offense, he became substantially worse when his new offense in Brooklyn revolved around a concept unknown to Harden, passing.
Throughout the 9 years that Harden spent in Houston, I’m pretty sure he did not pass the ball once. Harden was known to be one of the best scorers in the league when he signed with the Nets, but in such a powerful Brooklyn offense, one of the superstars had to regress. Harden ended up being the one who flagged. In the 2020-2021 playoffs, Harden played like an average player and the Nets couldn’t get past the 2nd round. Instead of working on his skills in the offseason, Harden decided to blame the Nets for his recent lackluster performances. Harden was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers during the 2021-2022 season after he had complained enough to the Nets front office.
The last of the three-headed monsters created in Brooklyn was Kevin Durant. After starting his career in Oklahoma City, Durant continued to lose in the late rounds of the playoffs. After losing to the Warriors in the Western Conference Championship in 2016, Durant decided to suck up all of his pride and sign with the Warriors over that summer. He wanted an NBA championship so badly, and what a better way to win one than to join the best team in the league. He won 2 championships with the Warriors and decided to join the Nets. When Kevin Durant signed with the Nets, he was considered the best player in the NBA by many people. This title given to him proved to be a joke in the 2020-2021 playoffs though when Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks steamrolled over the Nets in the second round.
Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving are probably one of the most talented trios to ever exist in the NBA. However, with that talent comes each of their egos. Since each of them loves to stir up drama wherever they go, the combination of all three of them led to the downfall of the organization. It is impossible to keep all of those princesses happy at the same time. Winning did not come naturally to the Nets, but the drama did. The 2019-2022 Brooklyn Nets are one of the biggest letdowns of an organization in all of sports history.