The Brooklyn Nets were expected to become NBA champions one day the moment they signed both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in free agency, but for a multitude of reasons, that did not happen. Former Nets player Patty Mills explained why he feels the team did not win during the time Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were there.
“I think there were obviously a lot of things other than basketball,” Mills said, via Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “And it's hard to be in a place where you're competing for a championship, and I've been there before where you've gotta try to limit the distractions as much as you can, no matter if you're competing for a championship, if you've got an X on your back, there are gonna be distractions. It's just how you deal with them. And we didn't do the best of jobs with being able to deal with distractions, so that's what it is at the end of the day.”
A lot went down in the time that Durant and Irving were in Brooklyn, with James Harden joining them later. James Harden was the first to leave and end up with the Philadelphia 76ers. Irving went to the Dallas Mavericks, while Durant ended up with the Phoenix Suns.
Mills was hoping to win a second NBA championship with the Nets. He won before with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, and spent 10 years there. The goal was not reached with the Nets, and the 2021 season was likely the best chance they had, when they lost in Game 7 to the Milwaukee Bucks.
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