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As the playoffs approach for the Brooklyn Nets, with only 20 games left before the start of the postseason, head coach Kenny Atkinson admits to the uneasy nature of this job when the pressure is on to reach a goal of such magnitude.
“I don’t enjoy one second of this,” Atkinson said Tuesday after practice, according to Greg Joyce of The New York Post. “I really don’t.”
“I love the game, I love the organization, I love the players, but you just have this constant pit in your stomach. I told my wife [Monday] night, I said, ‘The anxiety only leaves after a win.’ That moment from the win [until] you have your dinner or whatever, and then this morning you wake up and you’re worried about Washington, and, ‘Man, we gotta get that one, what an important game.’ It’s just a little window where the anxiety disappears.”
The Nets have won two games in a row, but only four of their last 10, somehow still surviving in the sixth spot and half a game ahead of the Detroit Pistons, who trail them closely.
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Brooklyn is 5.5 games behind the Boston Celtics for fifth place, and while moving past them could be rather unlikely, despite their recent struggles, it is still a goal in the eyes of Atkinson. This is by no means a “playoff-mode” Atkinson, but rather just his natural self.
“His fiery competitive self, that’s enjoyment for him,” forward Caris LeVert said.
“How he looks when he’s coaching during the games is how he is in practice, how he is when he’s doing film,” marksman Joe Harris said.
Kenny Atkinson's demanding style has changed the culture in Brooklyn into one that is paying off for all the years of talent development and sneaky-good acquisitions from the front office. Over time, Atkinson will have to replace that pit on his stomach for another of more daunting nature, getting past the first round as a potential lower seed.
