That's interesting.
A few years ago, the Nets took on a cold-blooded mission to build a team specifically designed to compete for a championship. Forget how it ended. Remember how it started when they boldly signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving? They did this knowing that Durant would not play for them in the first year they signed him.
It didn't matter. The Nets were aiming for that. Then they added James Harden, a basketball version that doubled down on that method. Along the way they oddly fell out with Ken Atkinson – check out the standings to see how he's doing – but they also looked as good as a team could on a given night. I showed you.
On the night of Jan. 12, 2022, when the entire program seemed to be going well, they defeated the Bulls 138-112 in Chicago. The Durant/Harden/Irving tandem combined for 61 points and 22 assists, nearly winning the game. The perfect basketball machine recognized by law. That was six months after Durant's toes alone kept the Nets out of the Eastern Conference Finals and a chance at a title.
