Kevin Durant gets surprisingly warm reception from Nets fans in return
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When the Brooklyn Nets formed the trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, the prevailing thought was they were a championship contender. What followed was one of the most disappointing stretches in recent Nets history, with all three ultimately being traded. Kevin Durant made his return to the Nets arena on Wednesday along with the Phoenix Suns, and he was welcomed back by the fans.
Despite Durant at one point asking for a trade from the Nets, it appears as if there's no ill will from the Brooklyn faithful towards the future Hall of Famer.
The Nets ultimately did trade Kevin Durant, to the Phoenix Suns, after completing another blockbuster trade that sent Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks. Irving recently had a humorous take on the trade as the anniversary of the move draws near.
The Nets originally acquired Durant via free agency in the 2019 offseason. Due to an Achilles injury, Durant was sidelined for the entirety of the 2019-2020 season. He made his Nets debut during the 2020-21 season, the same year that the team traded for James Harden.
That first season of the trio was promising, but the Nets lost Irving in the playoffs due to injury and were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals by the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks.
Instead of building on that run with a healthy roster, everything went downhill from there. The following year, the Nets were without Irving for most of the season due to his unwillingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine and thus being unable to play in the team's home games as per the city's vaccine mandate.
Harden was eventually traded that season, to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons who did not suit up for the Nets at all that year. The team was ultimately swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The following year, the Nets traded both Durant and Irving by the trade deadline, to jump-start their current rebuild.
The post Kevin Durant gets surprisingly warm reception from Nets fans in return appeared first on ClutchPoints.
