In the wake and heat of Kyrie Irving getting suspended over his anti-Semitic comments, former Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash is here with his encounter with the suspended star.
According to him, Kyrie wowed a veteran scout with his defiant behavior of never heeding his play calls. According to the New York Post;
In the Nets’ Oct. 29 loss to the Pacers — one of the last games before Kyrie Irving was suspended — the All-Star guard didn’t just wave off the play called by then-coach Steve Nash. On 10 separate occasions, Nash called a specific play and the scout watched Irving do something entirely different. That wasn’t simple creativity, something to be expected from the uniquely electrifying All-Star. No, it was double-digit defiance.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” the scout told The Post. “Nash would call something, and he’d run the opposite. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
After one more game — ironically a victory over those same Pacers — the Nets parted ways with Nash. “We both felt that this was time. It was certainly trending in that way,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said at the time. “And to be quite frank, the team was not doing what it was supposed to be doing.”
Literally and figuratively. It was a double entendre from Marks, as the Nets not only were not winning, but also were not following game plans. Those problems are not unrelated.
A source close to the situation told The Post that Nash was “technically the coach,” but that no matter what game plan he gave the Nets, “they did whatever they wanted.”
Irving was not the only culprit. There were rampant busted coverages, including Ben Simmons letting a screener slip to the basket thinking Royce O’Neale would take him, though he didn’t. There was Kevin Durant fussing at Joe Harris after a made basket because he felt a pass should’ve come his way. Example after example of disarray. “They were the most dysfunctional team I’ve seen [in years],” another scout told The Post.
But the new Nets have acquitted themselves much better.
Nash was fired four games ago, and Irving was suspended three games ago. And now, this disjointed bunch is starting to look like a team. “It’s hard to win and it’s hard to get everybody on the same page. So that’s what we were — we were on the same page,” Durant said.
“Total trust,” said interim coach Jacque Vaughn, who has replaced Nash. “The group [has] trusted each other.”
Flip to the next page for more…