Ben Simmons’ rocky NBA career has taken another turn after the Brooklyn Nets guard reportedly left a players group chat before a decisive playoff game last season.
Simmons was drafted first overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2016 NBA Draft but found himself locked in a standoff with the franchise after demanding a trade.
The Australian was eventually dealt to the Nets as part of a package for All-Star guard James Harden, and was expected to don his new colors for the first time in the playoffs.
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The Athletic reported in April that Simmons was set to debut for Brooklyn in Game Four, during the first round of the playoffs.
Brooklyn were already down 3-0 to the eventual Eastern Conference champions Boston Celtics when he pulled out with back soreness.
But renowned NBA analyst Ric Bucher has made a stunning revelation about Simmons, saying that he left a players group chat without saying a word before Game Four.
“They’re having a team chat before Game four, thinking he’s going to play against the Celtics, and from what I’m told, Ben just left the chat,” Bucher told Colin Cowherd on The Herd.
“They asked him, ‘Are you going to play?’ Ben left the chat. Like he didn’t even answer the question. He just left the chat.”
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The 26-year-old required surgery in March on his lower back after withdrawing from that crucial playoff clash with the Celtics.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Simmons needed back surgery after experiencing “pain soreness” the day before the Nets were eventually eliminated.
“Brooklyn Nets swingman Ben Simmons will require three to four months of rehabilitation after undergoing back surgery, but is expected to be fully recovered to return to the court well ahead of pre-season training camp in September, sources told ESPN on Wednesday,” Wojnarowski wrote.
“The decision to undergo the surgery was reached after ‘consultation with multiple back specialists,’ the team said Wednesday.”
Simmons said that mental health was the reason behind his ugly exit from Philadelphia, as he opened up on his “dark times.”
However, sports radio host Ben Maller believed that it was just an excuse for the Melbourne-born talent to leave the Sixers.
“Ben Simmons in Philadelphia was a charlatan, a fake, a phony and a fraud,” Maller said on Fox Sports Radio in February
“This guy has been hiding behind the mental health card playing it from the bottom of the deck, knowing that it makes you untouchable in a polite society.
“The establishment media are afraid of even slightly criticizing someone who makes this claim, like Ben Simmons.”
We’ve all been that person on the end of the UNO battering ram.
No matter what you do, the cards just won’t line up, leaving you as the poor sod forced to pick up half the deck in shame.
And there’s always someone at the table explaining how their rule “makes the game better”.
But now, the company behind the iconic card game has revealed a cheeky rule that is sure to spark debate.
UNO says players can avoid the dreaded “Draw 2” cards by plonking a “Skip” card on the pile, but only if they’re the same color.
“Skipping never felt so good,” wrote the official UNO Twitter account. “If someone plays a Draw 2 on you and you have a Skip card of the SAME COLOR in your hand, you can play it and ‘bounce’ the penalty to the next player!”
UNO also said if the next player has a Skip card of any colour, they can play it and kick the penalty down to the next player.
“The next player must draw the two cards, unless they have a Skip card (of any colour) they can play, in which case they pass the penalty to the next player and so on until no one has a Skip card and must draw two cards.”
UNO reminded players that they can’t stack cards on top of one another.
“You can only play one card per turn – stacking is not allowed!”
But some fans weren’t too pleased with the update.
“Absolutely not,” one person replied. “I’ve lost enough friendships over fighting this exact rule. I can’t find this in the rule book — surely this is fake!”
But others admitted it was in their personalized rule book all along.
“This is standard — why are so many people shocked?” one fan said. “The UNO video game uses this rule as well, it’s legit.”
In 2019, Mattel launched a new version of UNO to add some extra spice to the mix.
UNO Flip is a more competitive and rage-inducing version of the classic game.
The entire deck is double-sided, featuring a “light side” resembling the original game and a “dark side”, where penalties are far tougher.
If you score a “Flip” card the game is entirely in your hands and you gain the power of revealing a new set of numbers and colors on the other side.
And as always, never forget to shout “UNO” when you’re down to your last card.
American model Chrissy Teigen called out a fan who didn’t “recognize” her in a new photo posted to Instagram.
“I’ve had these teeth for like 10 years,” the cookbook author responded on Sunday, referencing her veneers.
In a follow-up comment, Teigen added, “You guys are somethin” when a separate fan asked why she is always “changing” her face, Page Six reports.
The comments came alongside an adorable photo of Teigen, 36, enjoying a boat ride with her son Miles lying on top of her.
“Keeping up with this one somehow,” she captioned the snap.
Despite the critical commentary from her followers, the Cravings founder glowed in the image, likely because she is pregnant again after suffering a tragic loss nearly two years ago.
“The last few years have been a blur of emotions to say the least, but joy has filled our home and hearts again,” Teigen began the lengthy caption that announced the news last week.
“1 billion shots later (in the leg lately, as you can see!) we have another on the way. Every appointment I’ve said to myself, ‘Ok if it’s healthy today I’ll announce’, but then I breathe a sigh of relief to hear a heartbeat and decide I’m just too nervous still.”
Teigen shared how nervous she was to announce the news publicly after her and her husband, John Legend’s, third child, Jack, was stillborn in October 2020, but she explained how she is pushing through those emotions.
“I don’t think I’ll ever walk out of an appointment with more excitement than nerves but so far, everything is perfect and beautiful and I’m feeling hopeful and amazing,” she wrote. “Ok phew it’s been very hard keeping this in for so long!”
This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission
A four-year-old child has captured hearts – and sparked a heated online debate – after announcing he was a boy via a rainbow-fueled gender reveal at the Vancouver Pride Parade in Canada.
Charlie Danger Lloyd was assigned female at birth – but from a young age expressed he was a boy, his mum said, as reported by the new york post.
Now-viral footage and photos captured the moment young Charlie – with his grandmother by his side – released a confetti cannon that filled the area with blue smoke.
“Once they closed the road, Charlie strutted out with Grammy and they faced the sidelines and after a short struggle, the cannon exploded with blue smoke and biodegradable confetti,” his mum, 27-year-old Alaina Bourrel, told South West News Service after her little boy ran into her arms.
“Charlie jumped with joy as the crowd cheered him on. He couldn’t believe the love and support he was shown from the bystanders.”
Despite Charlie’s happiness, his mum said she has come under attack by vicious trolls online, calling her a “paedophile, groomer and rapist” for her son’s transition.
However, Ms Bourrel said that her child started expressing different gender needs at the age of two, telling her family he was “growing to look just like daddy” and “I’m a boy” all day, every day.
The proud mum said the parade moment was dreamt up after they told Charlie the family held a previous gender reveal before he was born – where the smoke didn’t work properly.
“When we told him the story, he asked for a re-do with his granny at the Vancouver Pride Parade – so we bought him a smoke cannon and tucked it away for this day,” she said.
“He wasn’t your typical little girl. He would play with other boys and the parents would say he was more of a boy than their own children,” Ms Bourrel recalled, saying the family didn’t think anything of it until the end of 2021, when he didn’t want to shop in the girl’s section and wanted his hair cut short.
“He refused to shop in the girl’s section, but was too nervous to shop in the boy’s. After lots of expressing his feelings and emotions with me, he decided that he wanted a new wardrobe so we set out to find our new style.”
About a month after buying his new wardrobe, Charlie was ready to get his hair cut.
“We made an appointment with Lia at Big Bros Barbershop, a trans-owned and operated salon in East Vancouver,” his mum said.
“After leaving the salon that afternoon, Charlie was a completely new child.”
After changes to his wardrobe and his appearance, his confidence went through the roof.
“We are four months since he began his social transition now,” Ms Bourrel said.
“He is still a normal kid that does completely normal little kid things like play with Lego, uses his creativity and learns to ride his bike.”
Despite online haters who criticize her parenting choices, she said Charlie’s family and friends have been nothing but supportive of the preschooler.
“His choices were not questioned and he was congratulated and everyone began using new pronouns,” she said, adding it is no different to raising any other child and she appreciates the support from those in their inner circle.
“We are so lucky to have the circle that we do.”
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
Anne Heche is fighting for life after her horror car crash.
The US actress’ representative told foxnewsthat she is “in an extreme critical condition” following the fiery collision on Friday, local time.
“She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention,” the rep said.
“She is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.”
thenew york postreported that the Los Angeles Police Department had received a warrant to test the vanished actress’ blood to determine whether she was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the accident.
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Officers believe Heche, 53, may have been intoxicated when she ploughed her blue Mini Cooper into an LA home, igniting a massive fire that torched her and her car.
“The info we received this morning was a warrant that was obtained the same day as the traffic collision, which was August 5. The warrant was to draw blood, and an investigation is ongoing pending the blood test results,” a rep for the LAPD said.
“If found intoxicated, [Heche] could be charged with misdemeanor DUI hit and run. No arrests have been made so far.”
A red-capped bottle could be seen in Heche’s car’s cupholder in a photo TMZ reports was taken before the accident.
According to eyewitnesses, the actress first crashed into the garage of a nearby apartment complex but backed up and sped off before residents could help her.
Officials with the LAPD West Traffic Division have confirmed she hit another vehicle before slamming into the house that went up in flames.
Photos from the scene captured Heche being put on a stretcher and showed serious injuries to her back, while aerial shots documented smoke billowing out of the house into which she drove as well as numerous fire trucks surrounding the area.
Heche, also known for a high-profile romance with Ellen DeGeneres in the 1990s, has been open about her struggles with substance abuse.
“I drink. I smoked. I did drugs. I had sex with people. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life, ”she told ABC News in 2020, explaining that she spent much of her childhood getting sexually abused by her father.
“I’m not crazy,” the Six Days Seven Nights star said at the time.
“But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family. And it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me.”
This article originally appeared on The New York Post and was reproduced with permission
Cameron Percy has lifted the lid on Cameron Smith’s intentions, revealing the Open champion is “gone” and will join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series.
Smith, 28, was irate when he was asked about his future in the moments following his extraordinary one-shot victory at St Andrew’s last month.
“I just won the British Open and you’re asking about that? I think that’s pretty- not that good,” Smith said.
Pressed on the matter, the Australian was coy.
“I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff, I’m here to win golf tournaments,” he said.
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But Percy, a top-10 finisher at the Wyndham Championship, said his Australian compatriots Smith and Marc Leishman were “gone” and had signed with the financially lucrative LIV Golf Series.
The extraordinary revelation comes ahead of this week’s FedEx Cup playoff opener, which is expected to see Smith take to the tee amid a court’s hearing into whether three LIV golfers should be permitted to play after defecting to the rebel league.
Percy said the PGA Tour had known for years that a rebel tour was being formed.
“I had a long conversation with (2013 Masters champion) Adam Scott and he was very interesting talking to about it, just where it is,” he said.
“He said he met with these guys (LIV) in 2017 (and) they were ready (to) do all this. So, the tour has known for a long time that this stuff’s in the works.”
Scott has previously been on the record speaking about LIV Golf, saying in April “the schedule that they’re proposing is very appealing to probably most golfers” and he would “consider” making a move too.
Percy, meanwhile, delivered a not-so-subtle dig at those taking the money and defecting, raising the ethical questions around where the money is coming from.
“The more and more you look into it, some people don’t care, some people have got a conscience and do care,’ he said.
“It really comes down to, you know, ‘they just executed 80 people this week, just chopped their heads off’. They’re not the nicest people in the world.
“Do you just look past that and go, ‘Oh well, I’m rich I don’t really care’. It’s a tough one, it really is.”
Smith, the world No.2, was reportedly offered more than $100 million to join the LIV Golf Series.
Should he indeed accept the offer, he will be the highest ranked player to defect.
Former major winner Ian Baker-Finch last month to ignore the offers and create a legacy in the game by staying in the PGA Tour – something currently he would struggle to achieve in LIV Golf, where tournaments are 54 holes and don’t contain the player strength nor history.
“I know that they are talking to him and many others,” Baker-Finch, who won the Claret Jug in 1991, told SEN radio.
“I hope he doesn’t because I think he can leave a great legacy by winning major championships and becoming the best player in the world.
“I don’t think I need the money. I don’t think it is going to be something that he should do.
“He will be a $100m guy or more now. Does he want to win more majors or does he want the money? I am hoping he stays and leaves a great legacy like a Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy … which he could do. I think Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy and a lot of those guys that still compete and play well in majors, and want to leave a legacy, they’re the guys I would be following.”
Originally published as ‘They’re gone’: Bombshell revelation as Aussie golfer says Smith, Leishman have joined LIV
Nick Kyrgios’ career-best run of form has prompted an inevitable debate around one big question — is he a legitimate contender to win the US Open?
The 27-year-old Australian made history by winning both the singles and doubles titles at the ATP event in Washington, a month after he reached his first grand slam final at Wimbledon.
Kyrgios’ ranking has jumped to 37 and a strong performance at next week’s Montreal Masters could clinch him an all-important seeding at the year’s final grand slam in New York, starting later this month.
The enigmatic Aussie caught many by surprise with his run at the All England Club and how he’s since backed up that performance has prompted discussion about whether Kyrgios may now be emerging as the grand slam force many have always thought he could become.
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Kyrgios wins hearts with gift for fan | 00:37
Former world No.1 Andy Roddick is among those who believe the hype is real when it comes to Kyrgios’ prospects at Flushing Meadows, where Wimbledon champion Nick Kyrgios and injury-riddle Rafael Nadal may be absent.
“It’s a big, big deal to me that he goes into Washington, which is a pretty big event in the lead-up to the US Open,” Roddick told Steve Weissman of Tennis Channel on The Rich Eisen Show.
“Brutal conditions….To go through singles and doubles and not to tap out mentally or physically is a big, big sign.
“I think it puts him into the top two, maybe three, favorites for the US Open.”
Stuart Fraser, writing for The Times, said many of Kyrgios’ rivals will be relieved he is on course to be seeded at the US Open — removing him as a nightmare early round potential opponent — and agreed Kyrgios was up as a legitimate force in the singles.
“Whether Kyrgios is seeded or not at the US Open, he will be considered a contender after showing at Wimbledon that he has what it takes to come through several consecutive matches in the extended best-of-five-set format,” Fraser said.
“A potential second-round meeting with Medvedev in Montreal this week would help to determine where exactly he will sit on the bookmakers’ list.”
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Tennis Podcast co-host Matt Roberts said Kyrgios’ Washington performance showed he was likely to build on his success at Wimbledon, rather than it being a flash in the pan.
“I know it’s the first time he’s won a title this season but he has been playing very well whenever he’s played and I do think, I go back a lot to that quote he gave, kind of jokingly, straight after Wimbledon but it was serious at the same time, where he said that if he’d won Wimbledon he might have lost his motivation,” Roberts said.
“I actually think that losing that final, in a way, is probably the best thing in terms of prolonging his career. I think he’s got a little bit of a taste for it now in terms of wanting to see what happens when he properly dedicates himself and really does put his mind to it.
“I think he wants to find out how good he can get. A week like this, he played players that were kind of comfortable for him I think. He’s still only beaten Tsitisapas as a top 10 player in this run. We haven’t really seen him play those absolute top players I suppose.
“I’m interested to see next week when he plays potentially Daniil Medvedev in potentially his second match in Canada.
“That would be a fantastic test for both of them. it’s kind of tough to judge just exactly where Kyrgios’ level is but — an unmotivated Kyrgios is a dangerous player. A motivated Kyrgios is a different thing altogether.”
Co-host David Law warned, however, that history was not on Kyrgios’ side when it came to going all the way at slams.
“I think he is playing the most professional, consistent tennis of his career. Whether that means anything we’ll have to wait and see,” Law said.
“… I still think, best of five sets where you don’t have the help of the surface, he is going to malfunction.
“He is going to get in his own way. Somebody is going to hang on in a match, players peak at grand slams. He’s going to play against players who are playing their best stuff at that tournament and he is going to come apart at the seams, most likely, because that is the history.
RAGE aplenty as Kyrgios wins tie-break | 02:07
James Gray, writing for iSport, agreed despite acknolwedging the Kyrgios hype train “might never have had such a head of steam up as it currently does”.
“Entertainment has never been Kyrgios’s problem: attainment has,” Gray wrote.
“Have you finally got over that hump? There are certainly results in his 2022 record to suggest he might have done, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas (twice), Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev, but his record against the top 20 in 2022 remains six wins and seven losses. For that kind of form to equal victory in New York, Kyrgios will need some help from the draw.
“He is likely to get some as well, since his world ranking will now almost certainly earn him a seeded spot, protecting him from the world’s top 30 players in the opening two rounds. And circumstance – injury to Alexander Zverev and the unvaccinated status of Novak Djokovic – will protect him from two of the top 10 for the duration of the tournament.”
Coleman Medalist Harry McKay believes Carlton’s 2022 has been a successful campaign – even if it ultimately misses finals after being in the top eight since Round 1.
The Blues have been one of the stories of the AFL season, placing inside the top eight at the end of every round so far. After eight consecutive bottom-eight finishes, Michael Voss’ team now needs one more win to cement a finals berth for the first time since 2013.
But the Blues are now clinging to seventh spot on the ladder after a 33-point loss to Brisbane on Sunday – their fourth loss from their past six games.
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With two tough games against top-four sides Melbourne and Collingwood to finish their home and away season, the Blues are now in danger of missing finals, with St Kilda and, particularly, Richmond and the Western Bulldogs well placed to squeeze into the top eight .
The last team to be in finals places every round except the last was Carlton in 1977.
Asked on Fox Footy’s On The Couch if the Blues would still consider the 2022 season a success, even if they missed finals, McKay said: “Short answer yes.
“I think I judge success in terms of our environment that we’ve created. The last couple of years we’ve probably struggled in that space in terms of culture, environment, building a really solid gameplan.
“Whatever happens for the rest of the year, I guess that’s outcome-based. But for me as a player that’s been there seven or eight years, this 12 months have been a success. Whether that comes with finals or whatever it is, I think we’ve taken a really big step in the right direction.
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“’Vossy’ talked about the other day ‘hopefully it’s a long book and this is just Chapter 1’. We want to finish off the chapter really well, but it’s definitely still a success I reckon.”
While many Blues fans would struggle to comprehend missing the finals after so many victories in 2022, triple premiership Bomber Tim Watson said Carlton’s “trajectory is going in the right direction”.
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“Success can be measured in a whole different lot of ways, but they are still improving and their graph is going in the right direction,” Watson told SEN Breakfast after hearing McKay’s comments.
“They built up a level of expectation, based on their performances earlier in the season, and I remember seeing them and thinking ‘yeah, they’re capable of actually winning the flag’.
“They’ve got some problems at the moment though – and partly to do with injury.”
McKay claimed last year’s Coleman Medal with a haul of 58 goals, but said he’d enjoyed this year more considering the team’s success to date.
“This year has been very enjoyable and a different place,” he said.
Carlton needs one more win to qualify for finals. Picture: Russell FreemanSource: Getty Images
“Although we did a lot right over the last couple of years, this year it’s just started to click. Some key changes to some key personnel have been really refreshing and really nice.
“The last few weeks have been challenging after a pretty solid first 16 to 18 rounds. It’s been a little bit disappointing we haven’t been able to play our best football, but we’re still in a really good and exciting position. Two big games at the MCG to finish the year and a chance to do something we haven’t been able to do in 10 or so years.
“Even post-game (Sunday afternoon), there was initial disappointment and frustration and we touched on a few things that didn’t go right. But before we walked out the door it was ‘what an amazing opportunity we’ve got’.
McKay said the Blues needed to improve their contested ball work, which had been “a little bit off” in the past fortnight, while they wanted to move the footy with more “dare”.
Director Kevin Smith has slammed Warner Bros for its decision to ax the upcoming comic book film Batgirl.
The cult filmmaker criticized the cancellation during the latest episode of his YouTube series, Hollywood Babble-On.
“It’s an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina batgirl movie,” the 52-year-old said.
“I don’t give a sh*t if the movie was absolute f***ing dogs**t. I guarantee you that it wasn’t.
“The two directors [Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi] who directed that movie did a couple of episodes of mrs marveland it was a wonderful f***ing show.
“They had more money to do batgirl than they had to do an episode of mrs marvel and stuff.”
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Initial reports suggested the film’s quality was so bad that it had been declared “irredeemable”.
Some reports also stated that since the film was a made-for-TV movie it looked “too cheap” upon release in theaters.
But the Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back star said he was skeptical of the rumour.
They said batgirl it looked too cheap because it was a $90 million movie,” he said.
“How do you make a cheap-looking $90 million movie?
“If it looked slightly better than an episode of Arrow then why couldn’t we see that?”
Smith went on to call the decision “baffling”, while he and co-host Ralph Garman questioned why the studio was still going ahead with Flashwhich stars controversial actor Ezra Miller.
the Fantastic Beasts star has been embroiled in multiple scandals in the past few months.
The 29-year-old, who uses they/them pronouns, was most recently charged with felony burglary in Vermont, US, over an incident at a residence on May 1 where bottles of alcohol were allegedly stolen while the homeowners weren’t home. The actor is due for arraignment on September 26.
In June, Miller was also accused by the parents of an 18-year-old of allegedly grooming their child with “cult-like” and “psychologically manipulative” behaviors, though the teen denied the accusations against the actor.
On top of that, Miller was arrested multiple times in Hawaii – first for disorderly conduct and harassment and then for second-degree assault – in March and April, respectively.
Miller also landed in hot water in 2020 after a video surfaced that appeared to show them choking a fan at a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland.
“That’s the baffling thing,” Smith said.
“I don’t give a sh*t how bad the batgirl movie is, nobody in that movie is complicated or has anything in their real life you have to market around.
“In Flash movie, we all know there’s a big problem! Flash is the Reverse-Flash in real life.”
Last week, a Hollywood insider disclosed that the batgirl cast were blindsided by Warner Bros’ decision to cancel the movie.
“They had no idea the movie was being shelved,” a film industry source told the new york post.
“That’s a giant problem.”
The insider added that the actors had told their teams that the situation had been “humiliating” and “disappointing” as they found out about the news in the media alongside fans.
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
