There’s more than one fashion plate in this famous family.
While appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” music and style icon Madonna revealed her son David Banda, 16, is already out-dressing her, The NY Post reported.
“He can put on any outfit and look swag as you know what,” she told Fallon on Wednesday night.
“It’s really irritating. He wears my clothes and looks better in them. He can even wear a dress and look butch.”
The “Material Girl” wasn’t joking. Back in May, the mother-son duo matched in Adidas outfits at the WBA World Lightweight Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Banda, who’s known for his gender-fluid fashion choices, stole the show in a bright red three-stripe dress from Adidas’ collaboration with Gucci. The teen paired the eye-catching look with a pair of yellow sunglasses, layered silver jewelery and black sneakers.
But David inherited more from his mother than just her fashion sense.
The “Like a Virgin” singer went on to tell Fallon that her son, whom she adopted in 2006, is working on music of his own.
“He’s going to end up being one of your guests,” the 63-year-old gushed about Banda, saying he has “everything” needed to be a star.
Fallon agreed with the Queen of Pop, saying, “He’s got ‘it.’ He’s got magic. He’s funny, he’s charming, he’s athletic, he’s a good-looking dude.” During the same interview, the hit maker revealed the moment she believed her career was “over with” after accidentally flashing the crowd during her performance of “Like a Virgin” at the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.
According to Madge, after her stiletto slipped off onstage, she dived to grab it — accidentally flipping up her dress and exposing her backside to the audience.
“Those were the days when you shouldn’t show your butt to have a career,” the singer joked. “Now it’s the opposite.”
Although her reps thought her career would crash after the incident, the superstar went on to become one of the best-selling female artists of all time.
This article was originally published by The NY Post and was reproduced here with permission.
Things got ugly for Ben Simmons in Philadelphia and if Kevin Durant is not careful, he could be heading down a similar path in Brooklyn — if he is not already.
But could that be all part of the Nets superstar’s master plan?
Well, Durant certainly got the NBA world talking earlier in the week then he issued an ultimatum that left Nets owner Joseph Tsai in a tricky situation.
Durant, who requested a trade in June, reportedly told Tsai he needs to choose between the 12-time All-Star and the pairing of head coach Steve Nash and GM Sean Marks.
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A subsequent report from The New York Post laid out Durant’s specific grievances with the team, including a lack of consultation over the Nets’ firing of assistant coach and director of player development Adam Harrington.
But not everyone in the NBA world seems to think that Durant actually wants Nash or Marks fired from the organization.
That is certainly the opinion of Fox Sports’ Nick Wright, who said on ‘The Herd’ with Colin Cowherd that Durant’s ultimatum is all about achieving one “single goal”.
“I don’t think Kevin Durant actually wants those guys fired,” Wright said.
“I think he just wants to be traded. I think if he wanted Sean Marks and Steve Nash fired, he would have gone to Joe Tsai a month ago when he did the trade demand and quietly and privately said: ‘Listen, if you don’t fire these guys, I’m going to demand a trade’.
“I read this differently than most. I read this as Kevin Durant asking for something he knew he would not get in order to make it untenable for them to bring him back because he was starting to get concerned they were actually going to bring him back.
“This was him upping the ante to a level that is pretty unprecedented. It’s why I think Durant understood Joe Tsai is not going to do it and they also, I don’t believe, can ask Steve Nash to now coach Kevin Durant. I think it was a really smart move if his single goal is to be traded and I think that is his single goal.
Could Kevin Durant be heading down a similar path to Ben Simmons? (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
You see, it is not like Durant has much leverage in this situation, as NBA front office insider John Hollinger explained in a recent article for The Athletic.
Hollinger pointed towards two numbers in particular to prove that point — 34 and four — Durant’s age and how many years he has left on his contract.
“Throwing both his coach and GM under the bus — in many cases for moves that came with a wink and nod from Durant’s camp — certainly makes it less likely the Nets will find it tenable to reunite everyone in the fall,” Hollinger wrote.
“Of course, this gambit offers no guarantees. The trade offers in front of the Nets today aren’t any different from the ones they rejected yesterday, and it’s not clear how or if Durant’s latest demand will compel action.”
What it could do though is lead to a similar situation to the one Simmons found himself in Philadelphia last year, although there are a few key differences as Hollinger also pointed out.
“Seemingly the sharpest arrow left in Durant’s quiver is pure hardball: a holdout, one that would cost him a chunk of his $44 million 2022-23 salary for every day he sat out,” he wrote.
“It would, ironically, be a near carbon-copy of the situation a year ago in Philadelphia with Durant’s occasional teammate Ben Simmons.
“Here’s the thing: The Nets are working on a different timeline than the Sixers were.”
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Hollinger is right. Philadelphia had to move relatively fast to capitalize on Joel Embiid’s prime and as such was more inclined to reach a swift resolution in the Simmons drama.
The same cannot be said for the Nets though, as Hollinger argued.
“If anything, they would seem to have the opposite motivation,” he wrote.
“Yes, Brooklyn’s first choice would be to run it back with Durant, Simmons and Kyrie Irving (or a suitable replacement). But in the absence of Durant, wouldn’t the Nets’ second choice be to tank the season and try again in 2024? And wouldn’t a Durant holdout do anything more than accelerate the Nets toward that endgame?
“Brooklyn’s best-case scenario may be waiting until midseason, when this summer’s free agents are eligible to be dealt with. It seems less likely they’d let a year of Durant’s contract wither on the vine at his age and wait until next offseason… but it ca n’t totally be ruled out either given the tanking incentive.
Durant has told Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai that he must choose between keeping Durant or head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks, The Athletic reported on August 8, 2022. (Photo by ELSA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)Source: AFP
What was consistent among a host of voices in the NBA media landscape was a sense of uncertainty, not knowing what exactly was coming next, again similar to the Simmons saga.
“The whole situation is a mess, but the kind of mess Brooklyn might happily sweep under a rug and ignore, if only it could,” The Ringers Rob Mahoney wrote.
“It’s impossible to replace Kevin Durant. Hell, it’s hard enough just to set a fair return for Durant in a trade, much less one suitors can realistically meet. Every ask sounds ridiculous because Durant is a genuinely ridiculous player.
“That might be the only reason he’s still a Net some six weeks after requesting a trade—and maybe the real reason KD is stirring the pot with this ultimatum in the first place. Does he really want Marks and Nash gone? Or is he just looking to send a shock through the Nets’ system?”
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The Athletic’s Alex Schiffer, meanwhile, pointed towards Durant’s strong endorsement of Marks after the Brooklyn’s four-game sweep at the hands of Boston as proof of just how confusing it all is.
“If Durant wanted Nash out but didn’t feel like putting him on blast to the media 10 minutes after the season ended, he could have discussed Nash’s future with an ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Now’s not the time for that’ . But he didn’t,” Schiffer wrote.
Schiffer agreed one “plausible explanation” is that this is Durant trying to force Brooklyn’s hand, to make the situation so untenable that the Nets back down.
Durant wants out of Brooklyn. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
The Heat have been heavily linked to Durant since he first requested the trade but are unlikely to have the assets to make it work, at least in a traditional two-team deal.
The Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang though Durant’s ultimatum was an important point in the drama, even if it still left “plenty of questions unanswered”.
“But in the wake of The Athletic’s report that Durant doesn’t want to work with Nash or Marks, the question is: Will this force the Nets to trade Durant prior to the start of training camp in late September to avoid any awkward tension and drama between the two parties? he wrote.
“That sort of deadline could take away some of the Nets’ leverage as the window to trade Durant before training camp shrinks as each day passes.
“The Nets could also decide to take Durant into training camp if a good enough offer doesn’t present itself, which would force Durant to decide whether to skip practices as he waits to be dealt or play through it.”
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NBA insider Brian Windhorst though was not so sure it would pay off, should Durant’s ultimatum have been a ploy to try speed up a trade out of Brooklyn.
“Doing it now is a manoeuvre, a manoeuvre that I don’t think worked because as I talk to teams out there, they don’t think this increased his trade demand. They think this hurt his trade value,” Windhorst said on ‘NBA Today’.
Windhorst brought up Tsai’s tweet earlier in the week as proof of it, in which the Nets owner claimed: “Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”
“I want to point to the second half of the Joe Tsai tweet,” Windhorst said.
“I think it’s obviously important to look at the first sentence which is that he’s not going to fire Sean Marks and Steve Nash. But the second sentence is really the sentence that the league paid attention to it. And it seems benign when he says ‘We make decisions for the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.’
“But I’m going to decode that for you. What he’s basically saying is despite what Kevin Durant is trying to do here, we’re not going to change what our expectations are for a trade and if you are not traded, we expect you to be reporting to camp to continue the four years you have left on your contract.”
At this stage though, we are no closer to either party getting what they want, with Schiffer putting it best in his summation of the drama.
“During’s ultimatum,” he wrote, “opened a chest’s worth of questions while the clock to training camp continues to tick more loudly”.
Olivia Wilde believes ex-partner Jason Sudeikis was trying to aggressively embarrass and “threaten” her when she was publicly served legal papers during a panel in April.
Wilde claims that Sudeikis used “outrageous legal tactics,” according to new court documents obtained by the DailyMail.
“Jason’s actions were clearly intended to threaten me and catch me off guard,” Wilde, 38, alleged in the filing, Page Six reports. “He could have served me discreetly, but instead he chose to serve me in the most aggressive manner possible.”
Wilde further claimed that Sudeikis, 46, was intentionally trying to air their personal matters to the public in a way that isn’t fair to their two children: Otis, 8, and Daisy, 5.
“The fact that Jason would embarrass me professionally and put our personal conflict on public display in this manner is extremely contrary to our children’s best interests,” Wilde argued. “Since Jason has made it clear that we will not be able to work this out for our children’s sake outside of the court system, I filed a petition for custody in Los Angeles.”
the ted lasso star notably served Wilde legal documents concerning child custody while she was on stage in front of nearly 4000 people at CinemaCon.
Page Six reported at the time that Wilde was mortified and confused.
“Olivia was confused when she was handed the envelope, and she was even more confused when she opened it,” the source told us, adding, “It seemed unthinkable to her, and it took a moment to set in, but as mortifying as it was, she did not want to give a reaction.”
However, a source close to Sudeikis had insisted to Page Six exclusively that he “had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered … and he would never condone [Wilde] being served in such an inappropriate manner.”
Sudeikis and Wilde had been co-parenting their kids since calling off their engagement and breaking up in 2020, but the actor decided to launch the custody battle when the pair couldn’t agree on a permanent city to raise their children.
In court documents, Wilde alleges that they agreed to send their children to school in Los Angeles for the upcoming year as Sudeikis was set to film the final season of ted lasso inLondon.
“Recently, however, Jason decided that he wanted to go to New York for the next year while he is not working, and wanted the children to be with him there during this time off,” the actress claimed. “When I did not agree, since the children have not lived in New York for several years, Jason filed these papers.”
Sudeikis fired back in a declaration to the court, saying that their Brooklyn home has always been the family’s permanent residence.
“For better or worse, I am a New Yorker,” Sudeikis said in the filing, adding that it was best for their kids to grow up in Brooklyn.
He added that he was reluctant to pursue legal action against Wilde but that he was worried she would take their kids away from him after she allegedly told him she would only let him see their children on weekends and holidays if he didn’t permanently live in LA and that she also allegedly had plans to relocate to London, where her boyfriend, Harry Styles, lives.
Sudeikis further asserted that the legal documents were supposed to be served to Wilde at an airport or at her hotel. But after several failed attempts, she was located at the event thanks to a tweet where the process server handed her the confidential envelope.
“I understand that the process server had only done her job; however, I deeply regret what happened. Olivia’s talk was an important event for Olivia, both professionally and personally, and I am very, very sorry that the incident marred her special moment, ”Sudeikis said.
Wilde has been dating Styles since January 2021. Meanwhile, Sudeikis has been romantically linked to model Keeley Hazell.
This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission
Olivia Wilde believes ex-partner Jason Sudeikis was trying to aggressively embarrass and “threaten” her when she was publicly served legal papers during a panel in April.
Wilde claims that Sudeikis used “outrageous legal tactics,” according to new court documents obtained by the DailyMail.
“Jason’s actions were clearly intended to threaten me and catch me off guard,” Wilde, 38, alleged in the filing, Page Six reports. “He could have served me discreetly, but instead he chose to serve me in the most aggressive manner possible.”
Wilde further claimed that Sudeikis, 46, was intentionally trying to air their personal matters to the public in a way that isn’t fair to their two children: Otis, 8, and Daisy, 5.
“The fact that Jason would embarrass me professionally and put our personal conflict on public display in this manner is extremely contrary to our children’s best interests,” Wilde argued. “Since Jason has made it clear that we will not be able to work this out for our children’s sake outside of the court system, I filed a petition for custody in Los Angeles.”
the ted lasso star notably served Wilde legal documents concerning child custody while she was on stage in front of nearly 4000 people at CinemaCon.
Page Six reported at the time that Wilde was mortified and confused.
“Olivia was confused when she was handed the envelope, and she was even more confused when she opened it,” the source told us, adding, “It seemed unthinkable to her, and it took a moment to set in, but as mortifying as it was, she did not want to give a reaction.”
However, a source close to Sudeikis had insisted to Page Six exclusively that he “had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered … and he would never condone [Wilde] being served in such an inappropriate manner.”
Sudeikis and Wilde had been co-parenting their kids since calling off their engagement and breaking up in 2020, but the actor decided to launch the custody battle when the pair couldn’t agree on a permanent city to raise their children.
In court documents, Wilde alleges that they agreed to send their children to school in Los Angeles for the upcoming year as Sudeikis was set to film the final season of ted lasso inLondon.
“Recently, however, Jason decided that he wanted to go to New York for the next year while he is not working, and wanted the children to be with him there during this time off,” the actress claimed. “When I did not agree, since the children have not lived in New York for several years, Jason filed these papers.”
Sudeikis fired back in a declaration to the court, saying that their Brooklyn home has always been the family’s permanent residence.
“For better or worse, I am a New Yorker,” Sudeikis said in the filing, adding that it was best for their kids to grow up in Brooklyn.
He added that he was reluctant to pursue legal action against Wilde but that he was worried she would take their kids away from him after she allegedly told him she would only let him see their children on weekends and holidays if he didn’t permanently live in LA and that she also allegedly had plans to relocate to London, where her boyfriend, Harry Styles, lives.
Sudeikis further asserted that the legal documents were supposed to be served to Wilde at an airport or at her hotel. But after several failed attempts, she was located at the event thanks to a tweet where the process server handed her the confidential envelope.
“I understand that the process server had only done her job; however, I deeply regret what happened. Olivia’s talk was an important event for Olivia, both professionally and personally, and I am very, very sorry that the incident marred her special moment, ”Sudeikis said.
Wilde has been dating Styles since January 2021. Meanwhile, Sudeikis has been romantically linked to model Keeley Hazell.
This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission
Ben Simmons isn’t naive to the rumors running rampant about his status with the Brooklyn Nets and his relationship with fiancee Maya Jama.
The Nets guard returned to Twitter on Wednesday, following a two-month hiatus, and tweeted, “slow news day”, with a crying-laughing emoji, the new york post reports.
Simmons also re-posted a tweet by Jama, in which the British TV presenter and model wrote “Stop believing ‘sources’ in papers plz”.
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Jama’s tweet came Sunday, a day after reports emerged that she had allegedly called off the couple’s engagement and that the pair were “heartbroken” over the break-up.
Simmons’ tweet could have also been a response to a report from NBA insider Ric Bucher, who claimed the Aussie NBA star left a group chat without replying to Nets teammates who asked him to play in their must-win Game 4 of their playoff series against Boston last season. Brooklyn was swept by the Celtics in the first round.
“They’re having a team chat before Game 4, thinking he’s going to play against the Boston Celtics,” Bucher said on The Herd last week. “From what I’m told, Ben just left the chat.
“They asked him, ‘Are you going to play?’ Ben left the chat. Like he did n’t even answer the question, he just left the chat. And KD (Kevin Durant) is like, ‘This is what I signed up for? This is who I’m playing with?’”
on wednesday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania denied Bucher’s report during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
“This never happened… it’s an amazing story but it didn’t happen,” said Charania.
Simmons also re-tweeted a clip of that exchange, suggesting once again he was bemused by suggestions of his text message etiquette.
A three-time All-Star, Simmons is currently training in New York and continuing recovery from back surgery he underwent in May.
“He’s looking good,” Charania said. “There are high expectations (in Brooklyn) for Simmons. He’s supposed to be ready for training camp … and he’s doing more and more on the court.”
Simmons sat out the entire 2021-22 NBA season due to mental health issues and a lingering back injury, including the first half of the season with the Sixers, and then the remainder of the season after Philadelphia traded him to the Nets for James Harden in February.
Simmons’ latest tweet also came a day after The New York Post confirmed that Durant — who requested a trade out of Brooklyn in June — wants General Manager Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash gone.
On Monday, The Post confirmed Durant issued an ultimatum to Nets owner Joe Tsai at a face-to-face meeting in London, telling Tsai to choose between him or Marks and Nash.
This story first appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
An outraged family has accused a Brooklyn funeral home of mishandling their loved one’s body so poorly that she looked like a “mud monster” the day of her wake, a lawyer representing the family told The Post.
The mother and ex-boyfriend of Regina Christophe, who died in her sleep at 37-years-old on June 24, filed a lawsuit Friday in Brooklyn Supreme Court against John J. McManus and Sons Funeral Home after her body was left unrecognizable during a July 9 memorial, attorney Kurt Robertson said in an interview.
Robertson described a nightmarish scene on the day of the wake, with “maggots crawling” from Christophe’s eye and claimed her body was partially wrapped in garbage bags. The lawyer also alleged Christophe’s dress of her was stained.
“The evidence strongly suggests she had not been embalmed, that she had been decomposing over the two weeks she had been at the funeral home,” Robertson said.
“Apart from all it was just the incredible stench of the decomposing body that permeated the funeral home,” he added.
“It doesn’t look like a person at all,” Robertson also said. “It looks like a mud monster.”
Christophe’s mother, Chantal Jean, stopped her daughter’s two children, a 16-year-old and 6-year-old, from seeing their deceased mother for the last time because she didn’t want that to be “the last image they see, Robertson said.
But Jean, who dealt with the order directly, continues to struggle since the incident, the lawyer said.
Regina Christophe’s family filed a lawsuit against John J. McManus and Sons Funeral Home for allegedly not embalming the deceased’s body.Google Earth
“She has been depressed, she has had to seek counseling, she’s had some pretty dark thoughts to put it mildly,” Robertson said. “Ella She’s been in a very dark place as a result of that.”
The day of the service, Jean couldn’t find anyone in charge to speak to about the rotting body and the funeral home didn’t make any attempt to connect with relatives prior to the lawsuit being filed, Robertson said.
Ultimately, the family could not even have a closed casket because of the putrid smell, Robertson said. Only a photo of her was put up during the service.
Jean told News 12 all she could remember was “a monster being in that coffin–not my daughter.”
“Her skin was all off, it wasn’t even connected to face anymore,” she told the television station.
A rep for the John McManus and Sons Funeral Home could not be reached for comment on Tuesday night.
But in an interview with News 12, the funeral manager blamed multiple factors for the condition of the body, including the duration the body was in the heat before it was brought to the medical examiner and the amount of time it was at the examiner’s office.
The funeral home picked up the body from the medical examiner about four days after it was ready to be collected, according to the report.
“I was devastated by this whole thing,” said manager Anthony Tenga. “By what she looked like. It was a real disappointment to me professionally and personally.”
He claims he told the family of the body’s condition the day before the wake and the day of.
“I thought I gave them fair warning,” Tenga told News 12.
Kevin Durant doesn’t seem to be the only Nets player not enamored with the leadership stylings of GM Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash.
A source close to the Nets organization indicated Kyrie Irving is none too pleased with the pair, either.
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“Kyrie Irving hates these guys,” the source told The Post’s Josh Kosman. “He feels that Nash is terrible and Marks is bad.”
On Monday, The Post confirmed The Athletic’s report that Durant told Tsai that the Nets head honcho had to choose between the 12-time All-Star or his coach and GM.
The face-to-face meeting in London came after Durant requested a trade out of Brooklyn, a year after signing a four-year, $198 million contract extension.
Durant’s backflip on Nash’s position presents a marked change from how he viewed Nash after the Game Four loss to the Boston Celtics in the playoffs.
Will Durant and Irving still be with the Nets by the time the new season starts? (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
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“Steve’s been dealt a crazy hand the last two years,” Durant said.
“He’s had to deal with so much stuff as a head coach, a first-time coach. Trades, injuries, COVID and just a lot of stuff he had to deal with.
“I’m proud of how he’s focused and his passion for us. We all continue to keep developing over the summer and see what happens.”
Despite the stars making their feelings on Marks and Nash known, Tsai appeared to give his GM and coach a vote of confidence.
“Our front office and coaching staff have my support,” he wrote on Twitter Monday evening. “We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”
The Nets effectively banned Irving from being around the team due to his COVID-19 vaccination status and local mandates until December of last season.
The mercurial guard’s murky status played a major role in derailing the season and caused James Harden to request a trade out of town.
Irving picked up his one-year, $36.5 million player option on June 29, with Durant requesting a trade a day later.
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission
The Brooklyn Nets absolutely deserve this no-ring circus, and every absurd sideshow that defines it.
They deserve to be universally mocked after Kevin Durant followed up his trade demand with a vicious put-back dunk — one call for the firing of the general manager who hired him, and another for the head coach he got hired.
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In May, Sean Marks and Steve Nash announced in a news conference that it was time to dump their culture of superstar appeasement in favor of the old one, under deposed coach Kenny Atkinson, of player development and organic team-centric growth.
Over the weekend, The Athletic reported, Durant announced in a London meeting with Nets owner Joe Tsai that it was time to dump Marks and Nash in favor of replacements capable of driving a championship-level roster to a more desirable postseason location than a first- round sweep.
Durant has reportedly made these terminations the terms of his re-engagement, his only road back to Brooklyn, and on a certain level Tsai might feel tempted — despite tweeting out his support for the front office and coaching staff — to give him what he wants .
Kevin Durant looks headed for a messy exit from the Brooklyn Nets. Al Bello/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP
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After all, KD is better at his job than Marks and Nash are at theirs, and in a cold, cold business, a question needs to be asked: Who gives you a better chance to finally win a championship, Durant with a new head coach and GM, or Marks/Nash with whatever assets the Nets acquire in a KD deal?
They call the NBA a players league for a reason.
Basketball has fewer players in the arena than football, baseball, and hockey, adding more value to the individual juggernaut who can control the ball on nearly every possession.
Durant will go down among the top dozen or so all-time NBA greats, and even with his injury history at an opening-night age of 34, there really is no replacing him.
On the other hand, Durant has proven to be a less effective GM than Marks and one who shouldn’t be making personnel decisions.
As we’ve written before, KD executed one of the worst trades in league history when he exchanged Steph Curry and Golden State’s winning DNA for Kyrie Irving and a whole lot of problems to be named later.
Things haven’t gone to plan in Brooklyn for Durant. Michelle Farsi/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP
Had Durant stayed with Curry and the Warriors, he ultimately would’ve won more rings than LeBron James’ four and climbed another step or three on the legacy ladder.
But Durant wanted to prove he could build his own winner, with Irving by his side, and what a colossal miscalculation it’s been.
Nobody blames the Nets for doing what they had to do to beat the Knicks and others in the free-agent race for Durant and Irving in the summer of 2019.
Smart people do blame them for taking on DeAndre Jordan at $40 million, for axing Atkinson, and for shipping out nearly their entire development system for 13 high-maintenance months of James Harden as part of the price of doing business with KD and Kyrie.
“The Nets should be fined by the league if they ever use the word ‘culture’ again,” said one prominent NBA source.
Of course, the Nets had already exposed their soulless core when they caved in on their initial COVID stance with the unvaccinated Irving, all in pursuit of on-court victories that wouldn’t come.
Tsai and Marks have found out the hard way that once you turn over your business to the talent, there’s no getting it back.
Durant hadn’t even started playing on his four-year extension worth nearly $200 million before he told the Nets he wanted to be somewhere else.
Right after Irving opted in, Durant opted out.
Durant reportedly wants Steve Nash gone as head coach. (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images) (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Though he pushed for his buddy Nash, a man with no coaching experience, to get the Nets job two years ago, KD now believes Nash has little idea what he’s doing. Beautiful.
After the Celtics swept his team in April, Durant was asked if he believed Nash was still “the right guy to lead this group.”
With a dose of incredulity he responded, “I mean, come on man. Like, yeah, Steve has been dealt a crazy hand the last two years, when he’s had to deal with so much stuff as a head coach, a first-time coach. He trades, injuries, COVID, just a lot of stuff he had to deal with, and I’m proud of how he just focused on his passion for us. And we’ll all continue to keep developing over the summer and see what happens.”
We all know what happened since that response.
The Warriors won another championship, beating the same team in the Finals that had embarrassed the Nets, and Durant decided to lash out.
He realized that Brooklyn was a million miles away from legitimate title contention — in large part because of deals and hires he notarized — and he wanted to get to a team that could cut off Golden State’s advance on more rings.
No, I needed to get to a team that could cut off Golden State’s advance on more rings.
Durant eventually realized the Nets’ asking price in a trade is so high, any team that lands him will be too depleted to win it all.
So in a brutally hot summer, he turned up the heat on Tsai by telling him he’d return if the owner makes Marks and Nash disappear. Durant is trying to will a trade into existence.
In the process, he has left the Nets looking like the kind of league-wide joke they often were in the bad ol’ days in Jersey.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission
NBA megastar Kevin Durant has reportedly given Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai a bombshell ultimatum, demanding coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks are fired — or he is traded.
Durant requested a trade in June but any move will require a massive package in return, none of which have eventuated, The New York Post reported.
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The Athletic reported Durant had a face-to-face meeting with Nets owner Joe Tsai in London over the weekend in which he issued an ultimatum: Trade me or fire them.
According to the report, the Nets have “direct knowledge” concerning why the 12-time All-Star has asked to be moved on a year after he signed a four-year, $198 million extension. Also according to the report, Durant “does not have faith” in the direction of the team.
A source close to the Nets organization indicated Durant is not the only Nets star unhappy with the team’s leadership.
“Kyrie Irving hates these guys,” the source said. “He feels that Nash is terrible and Marks is bad.”
“KD came to the same conclusion,” the source added.
The two-time NBA champion and 2014 MVP’s discontent reportedly stems from the fact the Nets were swept by Boston in the playoffs, after struggling to a 44-38 record last year, despite having the likes of Durant and Irving, while James Harden also played on the side for most of the year.
But the demands have fallen on deaf ears as Tsai tweeted on Tuesday: “Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”
Nash, a 48-year-old Canadian and two-time NBA MVP as a guard, got his first coaching job with the Nets in 2020 and has gone 92-62 in two seasons guiding Brooklyn.
Marks, 46, was the first player from New Zealand in the NBA and won two league titles, one as a forward with the San Antonio Spurs in 2005 and the other as an assistant coach with the Spurs in 2014.
He spent most of the next two seasons as the Spurs’ assistant general manager before being hired to oversee the rebuilding Nets.
The Nets have yet to find a trade offer that would prompt them to deal Durant, and according to the report, Tsai and the Nets have made it known they would take “every last asset from a team that trades for Durant.”
In stating the lofty hope for the trade return, perhaps the Nets believe Durant would be less motivated to leave and more likely to report to September’s training camp.
But as the ultimatum becomes publicly known, it is difficult to imagine an avenue toward Durant playing again with the Nets or showing up to pre-season action with a team put together by Marks and coached by Nash — unless Tsai chooses the player over the organization’s leaders.
The Nets are seeking a young All-Star and a collection of draft picks for Durant, but finding equal value for a 33-year-old prodigious talent signed through 2025-26 is challenging.
This story first appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission.
The “Slim Reaper” nickname might apply off the court, too.
Kevin Durant is trying to become both a coach and GM-killer.
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The Nets superstar issued an ultimatum to Joe Tsai over the weekend that the team owner needs to choose between Durant and the pairing of head coach Steve Nash and GM Sean Marks, The Athletic reported Tuesday (AEST).
Durant, who requested a trade in June and has not been moved, had a face-to-face meeting with Tsai in London in which he did not rescind his demand.
According to the report, the Nets have “direct knowledge” concerning why the 12-time All-Star has asked out a year after he signed a four-year, $198 million extension.
The Nets have not found a trade offer that could satisfy losing the all-time great, and according to the report, Tsai and the Nets have made it known they will take “every last asset from a team that trades for Durant.”
In stating the lofty hope for the trade return, perhaps the Nets think Durant would be less motivated to leave.
Will Kevin Durant stay in Brooklyn? Al Bello/Getty Images/AFP.Source: AFP
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The Nets are coming off a chaotic and wildly disappointing season in which the unvaccinated Kyrie Irving was banned until December and then primarily could only play in road games; James Harden, dealing with a heavier burden without Irving, requested a trade and was flipped for Ben Simmons, who never actually stepped foot on the court; and Brooklyn eventually was swept out of the first round by the Celtics.
In the aftermath, Marks said the team culture “isn’t what it quite was” and said it was his and Nash’s “job to pick that up.”
Durant reportedly does not want the GM and coach combination to be able to follow through.
After the Game 4 loss to Boston, Durant expressed his appreciation for Nash and said he was the right coach to lead the Nets into the future.
“Steve’s been dealt a crazy hand the last two years,” Durant said.
“He’s had to deal with so much stuff as a head coach, a first-time coach. Trades, injuries, COVID and just a lot of stuff he had to deal with.
“I’m proud of how he’s focused and his passion for us. We all continue to keep developing over the summer and see what happens.”
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission
