Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and DeAndre Jordan all came together this past summer and joined the Brooklyn Nets.
The Kyrie-KD-DJ team-up idea apparently first was broached when Irving suggested they do so during the 2016 Olympics. ESPN's Jackie MacMullan detailed how Irving planted the seeds over three years ago in Rio de Janeiro:
One of the final nights on the Silver Cloud, as Ky, KD and DJ clinked glasses, Jordan recalls Irving saying, “Hey, this would be cool to do for real.”
“I asked him, ‘What you mean by that?'” Jordan says, “and Ky said, ‘Let's all get on the same team and play together.'”
It's no secret that these three are very close with each other. Jordan and Durant go way back to their college days when KD tried to recruit DJ to come play with him. at Texas.
Durant and Irving have been bros since they spent a lot of time with each other during the 2016 Olympics. In fact, Durant considers Irving his best friend in the league.
With all three hitting free agency together this past offseason, it was the perfect opportunity for them to fulfill the promise they had set for themselves that very fateful night in Brazil.
While the pieces are already in place, they will have to wait another season to actually play together. Durant is still recovering from surgery this past summer to repair a torn Achilles injury he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals.
In the meantime, Irving, along with Jordan, will have to steer the ship for a Nets team that looks to stay afloat while its superstar forward recovers. They aren't off to a good start, however, as Brooklyn dropped two of its first three contests in the opening week.
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