Kyrie Irving just had his third 50-point game as a member of the Brooklyn Nets.

KYRIE IRVING 60 POINTS

The all time record for points scored by a Nets player in a single game

I love nets fam but s*** aint looking good mandate not lifting and simmons can barely move nash says this season looking over

he’s back

playoff bound

Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden spoke Saturday about his time with the Brooklyn Nets, saying in part that there was “just a lot of dysfunction” related to his former team. Here’s what you need to know:

Harden spent the 2021 season with the Nets, joining the team via a four-team trade in January 2021. He left for Philadelphia in February 2022 when the Nets sent him and
Paul Millsap to the 76ers in return for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and a pair of first-round picks.
After Philadelphia defeated Brooklyn 101-98 on Saturday and following a slew of deadline trades, including former Nets players Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, Harden was asked whether there was anything the team could have done to keep him in Brooklyn.

He responded: “Yeah, there was, like, a lot of things. But it was just a lot of dysfunction. Clearly. But it was a lot of internal things that I’m not going to ever just say, put in the media or anything. And that was one of the reasons why I chose to make my decision. But now, fast forward to date, I don’t look like the crazy one.”

What else Harden said:

Continuing his response Harden added, “I don’t look like the guy or the quitter or whatever the media want to call me. I knew what was going on and I just decided to … Hey, I’m not built for this. I don’t want to deal with that. I want to play basketball and have fun and enjoy doing it. And fast forward to today, they’ve got a whole new roster.”

“It was wrong,” Harden said about his time with the Nets. “It definitely … It was wrong. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t right … So something good wasn’t coming out of this.”

Harden declined to answer a question about whether his decision to leave was related to Irving, saying, “The reason I made that decision to get out of my comfort zone, which was leave Houston and do everything that I did to get out of there, was to come in and play with KD and Kyrie. And with that being said, that didn’t happen as much as I would like to or probably the organization wanted to. It was just something where I knew it wasn’t going to change. So, for me, I just had to make an individual decision for the betterment of my family and my career and what I wanted. And that’s what happened.”

“It was a lot,” Harden said. “But I enjoyed my time obviously playing with KD and Kyrie for those games. There’s a lot of possibilities of what could’ve happened. But it’s part of life. Move on, and I’m sure having everybody’s in a better place, a good place. And here we are.”

What to make of Harden’s comments
While Harden may be looked at as a quitter in the eyes of Nets fans for years to come (and for some good reasons), his decision to leave first has aged well. At Summer League, a league source with knowledge of the Nets’ inner workings said, “James Harden looks very smart right now.” This was shortly after Durant’s original trade request and the Irving contract situation. Recent events have proven him right as the situation never really improved after he left.

Harden has his own contributions to the Nets’ mediocrity, including his inability to stay healthy and early exit, but he’s looked to have gained a step of his game back in Philadelphia this season. While he declined to go into the specifics of his departure, it’s worth wondering how much Irving’s decision to not get vaccinated factored in compared to others in the organization. — Schiffer

Yeah, playing for a racist probably not the wave

Mikal

a new era