There's no doubt that the recent firing of Kenny Atkinson as Brooklyn Nets head coach has emerged as one of the biggest surprises of the season. The 52-year-old was given a ton of credit for Brooklyn's remarkable offseason coup of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and many believed he was the man destined to lead the charge for a full-strength Nets side next season.

This obviously isn't the case now, and a recent report has emerged that both Durant and Irving did not have much interest in playing for Atkinson next year. This is via Shams Charania and Alex Schiffer of The Athletic:

Durant and Irving never connected with Atkinson and there was a growing belief that they did not have interest in playing for him when this team is whole again next season, sources told The Athletic.

This same report points out, however, that neither Durant nor Irving were directly involved in the decision to part ways with Atkinson. There was already some growing concern with regards to Atkinson's tenure, and due to recent developments, the team's brass could no longer delay their decision regarding his future until the end of the current season:

However, enough information had been gathered prior to that, and even Atkinson, sources said, started to understand he had lost his most critical players. As a result, the Nets’ front office had to take all of the information it had at its disposal to make a difficult decision.

With the star players apparently not on board with Atkinson and his coaching methods, including his “equal opportunity” offense, the Nets made the decision to move on.

This midseason coaching change will undoubtedly have some impact on Brooklyn's outlook for the rest of the season, with interim head coach Jacque Vaughn already moving DeAndre Jordan to the starting lineup. The Nets are still well within the playoff picture in the East, currently ranking seventh in the conference with a 29-34 record. Some instability is to be expected amidst this recent turn of events, and whether or not it will have a positive or negative impact on the squad moving forward remains to be seen.