It was simply eight months in the past that the Nets have been getting swept out of the primary spherical of the playoffs by the Celtics. At the tip, let’s face it, it regarded as if the Celtics might have completed the job with a moist mop. Ben Simmons wasn’t enjoying, and nobody was certain he would play once more. Kyrie was Kyrie, after a season he helped sabotage within the first place, and spectacularly, by not getting vaccinated for COVID.
And even in spite of everything that, the Brooklyn Nets have been simply getting began. All of a sudden Kevin Durant, the perfect basketball participant to ever play for a New York City staff (sorry, Clyde, sorry Doc) didn’t need to play in Brooklyn anymore. He wished to depart the Nets the way in which he left the Warriors after going to them for simple rings.
Then Kyrie bought himself jammed up, and massive time, on social media due to a wingnut racist film. Then he did what he typically does and bought himself into extra hassle by speaking about all that, and earlier than he was good and suspended. Steve Nash wasn’t suspended. He was fired. And put me down as anyone who thought on the time the Nets had change into the richest and most proficient clown automobile within the NBA; that it was time for Durant and for the Nets to maneuver on from Kyrie Irving, as a lot expertise as he has, and the way in which he can typically make his recreation look ridiculously straightforward.
Now right here they’re.
Here are your Brooklyn Nets, enjoying in addition to any staff within the league, making a run on the first-place-in-the-conference Celtics. They could also be a staff that basketball followers outdoors New York City — and ceaselessly throughout the metropolis limits — like to hate. But they’ve as soon as once more made themselves a staff to look at, and maybe the staff to look at proper now in skilled basketball.
At a time when their league very a lot wants a compelling narrative, the Nets are it, prefer it or not. Hate them or not. Not solely is Durant right here, he’s as a lot of a star as he has ever been, within the thick of the MVP dialog with Luka and Jokic and Giannis and Ja. LeBron James, who turned 38 on Friday, remains to be enjoying like an enormous star himself. But he’s with the Lakers. And as a lot as a joke because the Nets had turned themselves into a few months in the past, right here is one thing that’s no joke:
You higher consider LeBron would quite be the place Durant is true now, which suggests the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y., than the place he’s.
Can the Nets maintain this for six extra months? Who is aware of? Never neglect that they’re nonetheless the Nets, and that Kyrie remains to be Kyrie, and that it might take hardly something to get them off the rails.
For now, although, they’ve shocked all of us who wrote them off. Jacque Vaughn, who changed Nash, got here into this weekend with a 21-7 file as Nets coach. Since taking up, no coach within the league has achieved a greater job than Vaughn has. He has achieved what high managers in sports activities are purported to do, particularly after they have the sort of expertise within the room that the Nets have, which suggests he has gotten them to play collectively.
And, over the din that has so typically outlined the Nets of Kevin and Kyrie, he has gotten them to hear, and purchase in. And truly be accountable.
“It is belief and that’s a huge part of the NBA,” Vaughn stated the opposite day. “Is the confidence and belief, no matter what situation you can come out on the other side.”
For now — and also you at all times need to qualify issues that approach with this explicit staff, by no means trying too far forward — he has bought the Nets to close up and simply ball.
It all begins with Durant, as a result of that’s precisely what he has achieved, after all of the drama of the summer time, all of which was self-generated. He has performed at this terribly excessive stage, because the gamers round him, Kyrie included, have raised their very own ranges. Somehow, after every little thing he has achieved within the professionals, after the Achilles damage and all the remainder of it, he’s nonetheless simply 34 years previous. He is enjoying youthful than that this season, accepting the duties that include the stage he selected when he took the Nets’ cash.
There are plenty of variations, in fact, between the Nets and the Knicks. But in the end, and even with Kyrie enjoying for the Nets and never the Knicks, the distinction between the 2 groups is Durant. He is certainly one of Those Guys. The Knicks don’t have anyone near him. They are a well-known identify nonetheless. They play in what everyone considers the world’s most well-known enviornment, the Facial Recognition Garden. They cost star costs. They simply don’t have an actual star. And don’t have one in sight. There was a degree when everyone appeared to assume that Durant would select them. He didn’t.
Now Durant has his likelihood to set his personal historic legacy as soon as and for all, as a lot as he believes he did that with the Warriors. But the Warriors already had Steph Curry when Durant bought there. And Draymond. The different Splash Brother, Klay Thompson. They had received earlier than Durant bought there, after which they received after Durant left, and that can at all times be the basketball reality of issues. He was going to come back to Brooklyn and present that he might win anyplace, the way in which LeBron already had. Somehow, after the train-wreck starting to his staff’s season, he has that likelihood now. In all the large methods, he could make himself even larger than he already is. Be certainly one of Those Guys, not only for now, however for all instances.
It is that approach even when the fourth quarter belongs to the Other Guy — Kyrie — the way in which it did the opposite night time towards Atlanta.
“It’s always fun [watching Irving get hot],” Durant stated after that one. “So many people love what Kyrie brings to the table, but in the fourth quarter that’s really his time. We sit back and let him go to work, and he made big shot after big shot. We just try to feed off his energy and make plays on the defensive end as well.”
Do I feel they will do it up, and in lights, and go all the way in which in 2023? I don’t. But guess what? I didn’t assume they may finish 2022 the way in which they’ve, both.
DON’T BLAME COHEN IF METS WALK FROM CORREA DEAL, DABOLL’S GIANT SHAKEUP & HAPPY NEW YEAR …
Good for Steve Cohen for taking a giant swing with Carlos Correa, and good for Scott Boras for calling an audible when the Giants bought wobbly after Correa’s bodily.
But now that the Mets have seen regardless of the Giants noticed, you possibly can perceive why they’ve pumped the brakes on staying with their unique supply of 12 years, and $350 million.
If you assume Cohen goes to get performed right here by the media, assume once more.
And if Boras is so fearful about shedding face that he’s nonetheless caught on the unique supply, the Mets must stroll away.
Understand one thing:
The Giants have been determined to make a giant splash, as a result of that they had simply been first runner-up with Aaron Judge.
They had a necessity for a star and so they had cash to spend.
Did I point out they have been determined?
They have been nonetheless keen to stroll away from Correa.
It is why this notion from Boras that there aren’t any medical points with Correa, none in any respect, nothing to see right here, transfer alongside to the press convention, is solely Boras being a fabulist with this a lot cash on the desk for certainly one of his purchasers.
If Boras thinks there’s a related deal on the market after the Giants did stroll away and the Mets are balking at giving Correa this a lot cash and this a few years, then he completely must go discover that deal.
It was all such an excellent, middle-of-the-night story when Cohen swooped in the way in which he did.
Now the scenario on the bottom has modified, greater than considerably.
There isn’t a Mets fan I do know who doesn’t need Correa enjoying alongside Francisco Lindor.
And that’s the way in which this nonetheless may play out.
But if it doesn’t, don’t blame Cohen.
Our personal Giants could be again within the postseason by Sunday night time, and lift a hand should you noticed that coming with Coach Daboll’s staff earlier than the season began.
Daboll got here in right here and shook every little thing up the way in which Rex Ryan as soon as did with the Jets.
My pal Barry Stanton is true when he says that Buffalo deserves no matter pleasure the Bills can convey them over the remainder of this soccer season.
The approach issues are going with this entire facial recognition factor at Jimmy Dolan’s Garden, I’m pondering they’d choose me up out entrance as quickly as I used to be out of the taxi.
You know why it’s onerous to root for the Knicks and Rangers typically?
Because an autocrat like Dolan is the large boss of the place, nonetheless working off meathead public relations.
It’s hilarious watching the TV cameras do every little thing besides go black to not present you what number of empty seats there have been at a few of these early bowl video games.
The Jets aren’t going to lose to Geno out in Seattle, are they?
If Nick Foles is the reply for the Colts, what’s the query?
Just keep in mind how shut the Nets have been to passing over Jacque Vaughn for Ime Udoka.
In case you didn’t already know, these three iconic American athletes share Dec. 30 as a birthday:
Sandy Koufax, Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Tiger Woods.
LeBron James.
Somebody please clarify to me why they play the faculty soccer semifinals on New Year’s Eve.
Anybody?
Happy New Year.
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James Patterson’s new novel with Mike Lupica, “The House of Wolves,” goes on sale Jan. 9.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com