Kyrie Irving reflected on the past season issues and the way they affected the Brooklyn Nets on the court. Irving was unavailable to play for most of the season due to his decision to not get vaccinated.
“I think it was just really heavy emotionally this season,” Irving said after the Nets’ 116-112 defeat vs Boston. “I felt like I was letting the team down at a point where I wasn’t able to play.
We were trying to exercise every option for me to play, but I never wanted it to just be about me. And I think it became a distraction at times. And as you see we just had some drastic changes.”
Brooklyn elected to not let Irving being a part-time player at the start of the season. They reversed coursed late December amid a wide COVID-19 outbreak that left the team undermanned.
Irving returned to the floor on Jan. 5 but was able to play only in road games before New York City Mayor Eric Adams pulled back the mandate for athletes and performers in late March.
At the top of that, the Nets had to face injury drama as Kevin Durant missed six weeks with an MCL injury. They also played without sharpshooter Joe Harris, who was sidelined for all but 14 games this season.
You can put the James Harden-Ben Simmons trade in the mix, and you can see why there were a lot of distraction for a championship caliber teams like the Nets. Brooklyn could not find a stable base to build for a deep postseason run.
We lost a franchise player [in Harden] and we got a franchise player back [in Simmons],” Irving told reporters. “But we didn’t get a chance to see him on the floor. There was no pressure for [Simmons] to step on the floor with us either.
Ben’s good. We have Ben, we have his back. He’s going to be good for next year. But now we just turn the page and look forward to what we’re building as a franchise and really get tougher.”
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