Old Nets think Durant, Irving can succeed where they didn’t
NEW YORK >> Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving gave the Brooklyn Nets two big victories in one night.
“They hit the Mega Millions and the Powerball,” former NBA star Charles Oakley said.
In the first hours of free agency, the Nets added two of the best players available to a young roster that made the playoffs, giving them hope of not only contention for an NBA title, but to be the biggest basketball team in New York.
The Nets have gone after both before and gotten neither.
There was the 2012 acquisition of Joe Johnson to play with point guard Deron Williams, a pairing that was touted as “Brooklyn’s Backcourt.”
Then there was the trade the next year for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, a megadeal that landed the Nets the cover of “Sports Illustrated.”
It didn’t get them anywhere close to a title, though.
So it would be easy to mix caution in with optimism, but former Nets who were back at Barclays Center on Sunday to play in the BIG3 think things can be different this time.
“I think they’re going to be great,” Johnson said. “I think it’s a lot different now.”
In his mind, the key change is the Nets’ practice facility in Brooklyn that the team was just starting to move into when he accepted a buyout during the 2015-16 season. Before then, the Nets were still practicing in East Rutherford, New Jersey, even though they had been playing their games in Brooklyn since 2012.
“A lot of guys were staying in Jersey so the commute over here was tough, man,” Johnson said. “Riding in a car for two, 2 1/2 hours and then get out and have to warm up and play. That was tough.”
Johnson said he would leave his home in Cresskill, New Jersey on game days a little before 3 p.m. to arrive at Barclays Center by 5:30. The current practice home, rising high above the Brooklyn streets and with a fancy view looking over the river toward Manhattan, will allow Durant and Irving a life he never lived as a Net.
“Oh, they’ll have it made in the shade,” Johnson said.
Johnson and Williams, along with Brook Lopez, led the Nets to a 49-33 record in the first season in Brooklyn, before the Nets lost to Chicago in seven games in the first round of the playoffs. The trade with Boston came a couple months later and brought outsized expectations, but the Nets actually had a worse record the following season, going 44-38, though they did reach the second round.