Irving: “I’m glad Durant left the Nets”

The Suns dropped the bombshell with the acquisition of Kevin Durant from the Nets and entered the trade deadline with a right hand. You gave Kyrie Irving another reason to throw his…nails at Brooklyn, according to his first testimony after being traded to the Mavericks.

Shortly after making his debut with the Mavericks (a 110-104 win over the Clippers), Irving was – understandably – asked to give his opinion on his friend and former teammate’s trading. And – as always – not particularly well maintained.

“I just pray for his happiness and well (ss Durant). We’ve had a lot of discussions about our future over the year, there has been uncertainty but we care about each other.” Irving initially explained, only to add: “Whether we were together or apart, I never felt like he was upset with my choices, and I wasn’t upset with his choices. We’re just trying to understand each other as people and grow as brothers.”

Irving then admitted that both had considered leaving the Nets since their freshman year with the team, regardless of the fact that Durant didn’t even play due to injury: “We’ve been talking about this since year one. I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in Brooklyn for years because of what was happening behind the scenes. I did my best, I put my head down and worked.

There were some unfortunate situations that I couldn’t control, from the mandatory vaccination to missing matches to my miscarriage or small things that made our trip bad. Now I will see him often, we will also play against Phoenix. I am happy. I’m glad he left the Nets.”

Finally, he also referred to the famous Big-3 with Harden, which never reached their ceiling: “We also had Harden and we were supposed to be a great team. I want to say something about this team that didn’t make it. We played very little time together, there were injuries and things that happened. I’d love to see if this would work over time, but there are no bugs and no coincidences. We have to move on. I’m glad I can look back and see what I get out of being in Brooklyn.”