The Brooklyn Nets struggled to cope without Kyrie Irving who was out for most of the season due to various reasons
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While he may be one of the most gifted and skilled basketball players of all time, Kyrie Irving always finds himself in the middle of some controversy or the other. His life off the hardwood gets spoken about way more than his ability to score and dribble the basketball.
At the start of the 2021-22 season, Irving was ineligible to play for the team due to an executive order that required New York City-area professional athletes to be vaccinated.
On December 17th, 2021, the Nets would announce that Irving would join the team as a ‘part-time player’ and would be able to play in games outside of the New York area and Toronto despite being unvaccinated.
‘Uncle Drew’ would make his season debut on the 6th of January, 2022 against the Indiana Pacers and immediately created an impact with his presence on the floor.
Just a month after Irving’s debut, James Harden was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers
The Brooklyn Nets had championship aspirations at the beginning of the season and were hoping that their ‘Big 3’ of Irving, Harden, and Kevin Durant would lead them in that direction.
Unfortunately, things would not play out in their favor due to Irving’s unavailability and Durant’s injuries which lead the team to fall out of the playoff picture.
Harden reportedly grew frustrated with all the drama surrounding the Nets.
Harden and Paul Milsap were eventually traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and Ben Simmons and two first-round draft picks.
Irving would finally get some relief after Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would be relaxing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate
This would allow Irving to play home games, a welcome sign for Brooklyn who could now focus on finishing the season strong and try and make it to the playoffs.
The Nets would finish as the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Play-In tournament.
They would face the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, a series they were expected to win but to everyone’s surprise, the Celtics would go on to sweep the Nets 4-0.
“I just think it was really heavy emotionally this season. We all felt it. I felt like I was letting the team down at a point where I wasn’t able to play. We were trying to exercise every option for me to play but I never wanted it to just be about me. And it became a distraction at times”, said Irving in a press conference after game 4.
Irving plans on going nowhere next season and hopes to build a great future with the Nets. The only question is, can he be trusted?
