Nets Were Warned About Irving

[Ed Monix]

The Brooklyn Nets were reportedly warned about the negatives that came with Kyrie Irving before signing the point guard in 2019, as ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz explained:

"League sources say executives, coaches and players who were present during Irving's time in Cleveland and Boston shared with the Nets negative intel—his unresponsiveness and truculence with coaches, his lack of self-awareness with teammates, his constant defiance of offensive game plans, his disinterest in playing off the ball."

Irving has only appeared in 103 total games across three seasons with the team.

[Moranis]

No Irving then no Durant and 30 out of 30 teams would sign up for Irving if it meant Durant.

[action781]

I don't believe this.  Why would executives and coaches of Boston share legitimate intel with the front office of Brooklyn? 

[Vermont Green]

It is not like everyone in the league didn't know what they were getting with Irving by this time.  I think the Celtics underestimated the negative impact of all that back then but this was all no secret by the time the Nets were talking to him.

I think they felt Durant would be able to help manage him.  That there was enough respect and that Irving wanted to be with Durant so that things would not be as bad as it was on other teams.  If it wasn't for this vaccine thing, I am not sure things would be all that bad.  There have been injuries that have hurt them more than anything else.

So yeah, if the Nets knew that there was going to be a pandemic and that Irving would refuse to get vaccinated, yeah, maybe they don't sign him.  Hard to blame the Nets for not seeing that coming.  Other than that though, have things really been all that bad with Irving?

[Donoghus]

Proverbial case of the juice not being worth the squeeze.

[Goldstar88]

The Nets didn’t have to be warned, he literally quit on the C’s against the Bucks in the playoffs the season before. I’ve never seen a player so blatantly sabotage his own team. Better question is… Was Boston warned before trading for him and giving up a first round pick.

[ETNCeltics]

$100 million for Kyrie to play ~100 games, and he and Durant could both walk away this offseason.

[Big333223]

I don't believe this.  Why would executives and coaches of Boston share legitimate intel with the front office of Brooklyn?

This doesn't surprise me. For all the competitiveness and money involved in sports, there are only 30 teams in the league and a lot of employee movement from franchise to franchise. Teams talk all the time about all kinds of things.

[Celtics2021]

$100 million for Kyrie to play ~100 games, and he and Durant could both walk away this offseason.

Durant signed a 4-year extension last off-season — he’s there until July 2026 barring a trade.

[Sophomore]

The Nets didn’t have to be warned, he literally quit on the C’s against the Bucks in the playoffs the season before. I’ve never seen a player so blatantly sabotage his own team. Better question is… Was Boston warned before trading for him and giving up a first round pick.

Agree with that bolded part 100%. Never seen anything like it and never hope to again.