Well, it's the end of an “era” in Brooklyn. Just days after trading Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks, the Nets traded Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns in a blockbuster deal. With Durant gone, this marks the official and unceremonious end to the Big 3 era with him, Irving and James Harden.

Let's be honest, though, calling this an “era” is being extremely generous. When the Nets acquired Harden from the Houston Rockets, many saw it as the final piece to make Brooklyn a surefire championship winner. Instead, the three barely played together and have now left the Nets with nothing but disappointment.

With this Big 3 now officially over, it's time to look back at the entire situation and how it all went wrong. Here is why the Durant-Irving-Harden Big 3 experiment is the worst in NBA history.

Why Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving-James Harden is the worst Big 3 experiment in NBA history

2019-20

To tell this story, let's first go back all the way to 2019. Durant and Irving were two of the biggest names on the free agent market, and the Nets didn't just get one, they got both. This began a new era for the Nets, but it would take a bit to get going.

Durant would end up missing the entire season after suffering a major injury in the 2019 NBA Finals with the Golden State Warriors. That wasn't a surprise, but Irving missing the majority of the season with a shoulder injury was. The star point guard only played in 20 games in the 2019-20 season, averaging 26.9 points per game while shooting 50.6 % from the field.

Additionally, the Nets paid a big price just to put this duo together, and not just the contracts. To acquire Durant from Golden State, Brooklyn had to make a sign-and-trade that sent D'Angelo Russell to the Warriors. Russell had just been an All-Star the previous season, helping the Nets snap a three-year playoff drought. This move marked the beginning of the Nets dismantling their previous core in an effort to go all in.

As for the season itself, it wasn't horrible, but not good either. The Nets finished with a record of 35-37 before losing to the Toronto Raptors in a first-round sweep without their two stars. That wasn't a huge deal, though, as the contending window would truly open when both Durant and Irving came back.

2020-21

Besides Durant and Irving returning, another major change came in the form of coaching. Kenny Atkinson resigned shortly before the NBA suspended the season due to COVID, leaving Jacque Vaughn as the interim coach. Later, the Nets hired Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash to be the team's new head coach.

Brooklyn had a sluggish start to the 2020-21 season, with a 7-6 record through the middle of January. The Nets sought another star to put them over the top, and on January 14, they found one. In a four-team blockbuster, the Nets acquired former MVP guard James Harden from the Houston Rockets.

In retrospect, it's important to look at what Brooklyn gave up to make this deal work. The Nets traded three unprotected first round picks (2022, 2024 and 2026) and four pick swaps (2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027) to Houston in this deal. They also traded Jarrett Allen to Cleveland and Caris LeVert to Indiana, two young pieces of the previous core.

To the Nets credit, they were great this season. Brooklyn finished with a 48-24 record, good for the second seed in the Eastern Conference. They then made short work of the Boston Celtics, Irving's former team, with a five-game win in the first round.

In the next round, Brooklyn matched up with Giannis Antetokoumpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. In this series, both Harden and Irving suffered injuries, causing both to miss time during it. The Bucks ended up winning Game 7 in overtime after Durant's supposed game-winning bucket in regulation turned out to be a game-tying score instead. Milwaukee would go on to win the NBA title, but maybe it could've been Brooklyn if just one more bounce went differently.

2021-22

Brooklyn's roster underwent minimal changes during the offseason. The biggest loss was another piece of the former core in Spencer Dinwiddie, who went to Washington as part of the Russell Westbrook trade to the Lakers. Despite the lack of change, there was no shortage of drama to start the season.

Due to New York's COVID mandates, Irving was ineligible to play as he was not vaccinated. Irving would not play until January, when the Nets began using him as a part-time player for road games. At the end of March, New York relaxed its mandate and Irving could finally play in home games again. Irving only played in 29 games this season largely due to this.

As the season went on, Harden's name also constantly appeared in trade rumors. On February 10, those rumors became reality as the Nets sent Harden (and Paul Millsap) to the Philadelphia 76ers. In return, they received Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first-round picks in 2022 and 2027.

Later on, Harden cited a lack of organizational structure as the reason why he wanted to leave Brooklyn. He also reportedly had a poor relationship with Durant, and Irving's fiasco this season certainly didn't help either.

With Harden now gone, the Nets' trio played a grand total of 16 games together. That's less than a full NFL season, and nowhere near enough time to build chemistry. One can only wonder how different the NBA might be today if this group stuck together a bit longer.

Brooklyn as a whole struggled this season, finishing seventh in the East with a 44-38 record. The Nets defeated the Cavaliers in the play-in game to officially make the playoffs, matching up against the Celtics once again. While Brooklyn dominated Boston the previous season, the shoe was on the other foot this time.

The Celtics beat the Nets in a four-game sweep, with all four games ending within 10 points. Durant and Irving didn't look like themselves, Irving received a fine for his altercation with Celtics fans, and Simmons didn't even play at all. Even worse, Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown and Marcus Smart, three players the Celtics acquired with the picks they got from Brooklyn in the infamous trade all those years ago, served as a reminder of what could've been.

The postseason continued to get worse for Brooklyn as it went on. Boston made it all the way to the NBA Finals, only to fall to Durant's former team in Golden State. Not only did the Warriors prove they can win a title without Durant, but they landed a key part of their team because of the deal that sent him to Brooklyn. The Warriors packaged Russell in a trade with Minnesota that landed them Andrew Wiggins, who played a key part in their 2022 championship.

2022-23

This time around, the Nets' drama started just weeks after the season ended. Shortly after Irving picked up his player option to remain in Brooklyn for one more year, Durant requested a trade out. He eventually walked back on that request, but it set an ominous tone for the season to come.

Sure enough, Brooklyn got out to a poor start with just a 2-5 record through October. On November 1, the Nets fired Nash and later promoted Vaughn to head coach. Around the same time, the NBA suspended Irving after controversy surrounding his anti-semitic remarks. For a team full of drama, this was likely the low point of the Durant-Irving era in Brooklyn.

However, the Nets began to turn it around soon after. Brooklyn had an amazing 16-1 stretch between late November and early January, and looked like they were realizing their potential. As always, though, that peace did not last long.

During a January 8 win over Miami, Durant suffered a knee injury that has kept him out ever since. The Nets have struggled without Durant, posting just a 5-9 record since his injury. As it turns out, this would accelerate the end of this era in Nets history.

On Sunday, Brooklyn traded Irving and Markieff Morris to Dallas for Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first-round pick and two second-round picks. Then on Thursday morning, Brooklyn traded Durant to Phoenix for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks and a 2028 pick swap. In the blink of the eye, the Big 3 era in Brooklyn is over.

The silver lining to this situation is that, unlike the Nets' last Big 3, they actually have pieces to rebuild. While they lost that Big 3 for next to nothing, they were able to get a good amount of assets this time. Although much of their draft capital still belongs to the Rockets, they do have a good amount of future picks from other teams.

However, the sky-high expectations, and failure to meet them, make this Big 3 far more painful. Not to mention the seemingly never-ending drama, both on the court and off of it. With how much this situation spiraled, it's reasonable to call this the worst Big 3 experiment in NBA history.