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The Brooklyn Nets ended 2022 on a major high note.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and company rung in the New Year by blowing out the Charlotte Hornets, notching their 11th straight victory. Brooklyn is now at 24-12, just two games back of the Boston Celtics for top spot in the Eastern Conference and basketball's best record.
It's been a wild turnaround for the Nets, who as recently as six weeks ago were still reeling from Irving engaging in anti-Semitic tropes. Brooklyn only parted ways with head coach Steve Nash on November 1st, honoring half of Kevin Durant's summer demand that the team make changes on the sidelines and in the front office before rescinding his trade request.
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It wasn't even a calendar year ago that the Nets finally bit the bullet on trading James Harden, sending him to the Philadelphia 76er in exchange for Ben Simmons—who didn't take the floor with his new team until this season.
Needless to say, 2022 didn't exactly go as planned for Brooklyn. Behind Durant's singular brilliance, stellar contributions from role players across a rebuilt roster and Jacque Vaughn's steady hand as head coach, the Nets have re-cemented themselves as legitimate contenders this season.
“It was one of those years you reflect on and you see the turning points in the organization,” Durant said after Saturday's game, per ESPN's Nick Friedell. “We've seen different moments that brought us together as a group. You see, at this point now towards the end of the year, you start to see us come together and perform what we've been looking to do these last couple of years, which was a solid team that plays hard every night. So we went through a lot in this calendar year, but we're looking for bigger and better things in 2023.”
Could those bigger and better things include a championship? Against all odds, certainly don't count the Nets out of the title picture.
