One of the most talented teams assembled was when Steve Nash coached the Brooklyn Nets with Kevin Durant with Kyrie Irving. But it didn’t work out.
Despite coming quite close to winning a championship during their time together on the Nets, unfortunately, Nash was fired just a couple seasons later.
During a recent appearance on the Mind the Game podcast co-hosted by LeBron James and Nash, their guest was Durant. While on the episode, Durant and Nash reflected about their time together in Brooklyn when Nash was the coach.
Here is part of what Durant said when he spoke about his experience playing under Nash on the Nets:
Durant: I had just signed that deal. You had just signed a deal. But I feel like we were secure. But everything else around us was going to [expletive]. And not in a bad way. We had GMs going to other teams, we got coaches going to other teams. We had players forcing trades. We bring in Ben Simmons. His back hurt. Like it was just so much [expletive] around us. I feel like we were locked in, on the same page, understanding we trying to do something special here. But I feel like your hands were tired a lot because as a coach, you got to deal with so much.
Nash: I didn’t get to coach as much as I wanted to.
Durant: That’s what it was. I think we didn’t get the full Steve Nash like I wanted, like you probably wanted. I just felt like it was too many other distractions in a way and you know you can’t win that way. But I felt like we had great intentions, though.
Durant added that during the first year, it was a “great vibe” and that it was some of the “most fun” basketball he had played.
He said that he enjoyed playing for Brooklyn but wished more people were committed to the situation around them.
According to Durant, it was just “weird” that it didn’t work out given the circumstances.
It’s a bummer we’ll never know exactly how good this team could have been if they had just found a way to make it work, and it’s sad to hear Nash didn’t feel he got an opportunity to actually coach the way he wanted to in the NBA.
