Kyrie Irving dropped 50 points on 19 shots in a massive win for the Brooklyn Nets, as they defeated LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets Monday. But now all eyes turn to the next game on the schedule. The Nets head to Philadelphia March 10, to take on a 76ers squad with whom they just executed a blockbuster trade, one month ago to the day.
Ben Simmons is now a Net. James Harden is a Sixer. And fans have had this game circled on the calendar ever since these teams swapped disgruntled stars. Get your popcorn ready.
Sadly, Simmons will not be in the lineup for this one vs. Harden and The Beard's new running mate, MVP favorite Joel Embiid.
Ben Ten is dealing with a back issue and currently has no timetable to return, although Nets' GM Sean Marks said he hopes Simmons can rejoin team activities at the end of the week. Intriguingly, and unlike recent games in Boston and Charlotte, Simmons will be on the sidelines. And that's going to turn what would already have been a juiced Wells Fargo Center into an absolute madhouse Thursday.
Kevin Durant was asked if he will have any advice for Simmons on dealing with the chaos of a hostile arena.
“Absolutely not,” Durant said. “That's one of those things he's gonna have to experience for himself, I can't go over there-nobody's gonna hold his hand, I'm sure there's gonna be some personal attacks, gonna be some some words that may trigger you personally, but that's just how fans are they wanna get under our skin they wanna let their voices be heard.”
Durant finished his third game back from an MCL sprain with just 14 points. But he happily deferred to Irving in this one. His Nets teammate was cooking as Kyrie drained 9 of 12 triples to bury the Hornets and give Brooklyn a full game lead for that 8th seed. Every game matters so much now for a Nets team trying desperately to avoid missing the playoffs.
“A part of the experience of coming to an NBA game is to heckle,” Durant added, “some people don't even enjoy basketball, their lives are so sh–y they get to just aim it at other people so it's easy to kinda get that release at a basketball game. Ben understands that.”
KD may not have directed those words specifically at Philly fans. But it's clear he anticipates there will be some of those bad eggs in attendance looking to lash out at Simmons. He may as well have called a bunch of them losers with sh–y lives ahead of time.
No stranger to harsh comments from fans himself (KD has been famously called a cupcake in the past) the two-time Finals MVP isn't shy with a bit of armchair psychology explaining why some loser fans might go too far.
And it all comes just a day after another rather famous former teammate of KD was talking about the same theme:
“It's one of those things you just gotta experience for yourself, embrace it, all the greats have been through being called the worst names in the history of the book,” Durant said. “The good thing about it is that we get a chance to perform and shut the people up. It's a fun dynamic with fans and players because they really do love us at the end of the day. But apart of their job is to be fans, be fanatics, be radical about the game, about their team. …some of the stuff may go overboard but at the end of the day ain't nothing gonna happen to us I feel.”
The last line sounds like he's saying he doesn't expect a dangerous environment, where people would throw things, or use horrific language, etc.
Durant has his own history with this stuff. He famously left the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors. At the time it was pretty shocking. Durant led his team to a 3-1 series lead in the 2016 Western Conference Finals but Steph Curry's group came back and won. In fact, that Dubs squad won 73 games that season and although they failed to beat LeBron James and Kyrie Irving's Cavaliers in the finals, Thunder fans felt a certain way about Durant's big free agency move. And yeesh, did they let him know about it when he returned to Oklahoma.
“It's a different situation 'cause I got to play and shut the people up every time I hit a jump shot, but Ben doesn't have that opportunity right now,” Nets star Kevin Durant said, perhaps unaware of the joke he was walking into. As soon as we at ClutchPoints shared that comment, Sixers fans let absolutely Ben Simmons have it, happily noting the two-time All-Star probably wouldn't have hit many jumpers even if he was in the lineup.
But Durant took another jab at heckling fans in Philly. “He's gotta just sit there and just take of bunch of people just being childish throwing insults at his way because he didn't want to play for them no more. It's funny when you look at it in the big picture and you see what it really is but that's just the sport we play that's the profession we play, we're in, got guys making $40m dollars a year you can take that… for a couple hours. I'm sure Ben has that approach.”
After being booed by the Boston Celtics fans, Kyrie Irving compared them to a “scorned girlfriend.” Who knows what he'd call Sixer fans in that type of metaphor.
“Philly has some of the best sports fans in the world and its only good that they come and show support to their team,” Durant said, making sure to balance out his words to account for the majority of fans who will likely not go overboard. The majority of Sixer fans will probably just boo Simmons vociferously and let the Nets know they're deliriously happy with James Harden.
“Fun, you know it's fun,” Kyrie Irving said, downplaying any personal beef. “It makes for good stories. It makes for good narratives, it makes for good build up for our league. It's never too personal but we understand that as competitors we wanna win… the Philly crowd is gonna be what it is. Everybody likes to build that up. But specifically for us it's not about any individual match ups,” Irving said.
Asked what type of environment he expects from one of the most notoriously ruthless fan bases next game, Irving added simply “lovely.” Next stop for the Nets, City of Brotherly and Sisterly love, hunting for another critical win on a national stage. Simmons isn't physically ready to go. But at least Durant and Irving will be. Do not miss this one.