NBA

It can’t get much worse for Kyrie Irving and the Nets

Part 8 of a series analyzing the Brooklyn Nets 

Growing up in New Jersey as a suffering Nets fan, Kyrie Irving vowed he’d make it to the NBA but never imagined the circuitous route he’d have to take to get to his childhood team.

Now that he’s finally a Net, he never pictured this would be how his first season in Brooklyn would go. There was enough drama for a telenovela, and that was long before the coronavirus suspended the season.

From scurrilous rumors to facial fractures, sore knees to shoulder surgeries, Irving had a tumultuous season. And when the Nets parted ways with Kenny Atkinson this month, he was accused of being ambivalent at best, a proverbial coach-killer at worst.

“You can’t deny the fact he won a championship in Cleveland and did enough to help a team get all the way to the end and was a huge part of it — and the last two places it just didn’t work out,” ex-Knicks coach David Fizdale said.

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“I wasn’t in the building to know exactly what was going on, but it can be one of two things: He’s either that guy who doesn’t adapt and kills culture, or he’s a Jimmy Butler who needs to find a right fit.”

The Nets are banking on the latter.

Kyrie Irving
Kyrie IrvingGetty Images

Irving is deeply rooted in the community, underscored by his charitable work during this pandemic. And his emotional attachment to the team is palpable every time he reminisces about growing up in West Orange, N.J., as a suffering Nets fan, the latest on Friday’s Instagram chat with high school teammate Jeremiah Green.

“Being a struggling Nets fan at one point, oh my goodness bro, all my Jersey people know before the Nets went to Brooklyn, trying to fill that Continental Airlines Arena up, they were selling three-game packages for like $90,” Irving recalled. “They had the Milwaukee Bucks, the Pacers and the Raptors; you could get them for $99 and my dad would buy the package of games.

“I still had the waving white towel from when they were in the Finals. We were up in the nosebleeds. God bless my dad. That dude, he really sacrificed a lot. And when he got those tickets and we got to see them play, I went home and wrote it down in the sheetrock in my closet: I’m going to the NBA. … Kind of predestined at this point I believe. Did I know it would take me to Cleveland, Boston and then to Brooklyn? No. But it did. The beauty of the journey.”

That Boston leg of the journey ended badly, with Irving either a divisive force or a scapegoat, depending on your point of view. And this season hasn’t lacked for drama.

Despite averaging a career-high 27.4 points, Irving dealt with irresponsible rumor mongering over his mental health and subpar physical health. He played just 20 games before having shoulder surgery this month.

The surgery was ostensibly season-ending, but the season’s suspension begs the question of whether Irving could come back if play resumes this summer. Nets broadcaster Ian Eagle pointed out as much.

“Look at the timing on Kyrie,” Eagle said on YES. “He got the shoulder surgery done at a time where, if you look at a four-to-six week period, it would be right around [June].”

The Nets fall between the CIA and old KGB when it comes to secrecy, but that timeline fits arthroscopic surgery.

Still, even if Irving doesn’t play this season — or the league doesn’t finish it — it’s hard to imagine Year 2 in Brooklyn possibly being as tumultuous as Year 1.