Kyrie says the Nets could've won multiple titles with him, Durant and Harden had some things go a different way: "It's sad to say it was a failure without a proper context"

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Kyrie says the Nets could've won multiple titles with him, Durant and Harden had some things go a different way: "It's sad to say it was a failure without a proper context" originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Now, in 2025, it's obvious that the Brooklyn Nets' construction of a Big Three back in 2021 wasn't a good move.
On paper, the trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden seemed unstoppable, but in reality, they were nowhere near the ultimate goal to win the NBA championship.
However, people forgot how many positive moments the team had, too. And maybe, had the few dominos fallen a different way, today, we would've talked about them in a different way.
A special first year
That's at least what Kyrie thinks when he spoke about the Nets during his recent stream. In fact, he says he'll always remember that first season they had together when Brooklyn played like a frontrunner to win the championship.
"That first year that we were all together was really special. We had veterans, we had young guys, we literally breezed through a regular season. It was so easy. And I gotta give everybody their flowers that were in that locker room because we really came together at the right time," Kyrie explained before continuing about what-ifs of the situation.
"You know, I get injured, James [Harden] gets injured in those playoffs, we don't know what could've happened. We only played a few games together and we were 13-3, I believe. It's sad when we look at this time to say it was a failure without a proper context for how all of this ended up happening...Those playoffs, if KD's foot doesn't hit the line, or things work out differently, maybe we're sitting here multi-time champions, a few of us got MVPs. We can go into hypotheticals, but it was a tough environment for all of us," Kyrie stated.Closer to a championship than it seemed
The 2021 Nets were a second seed in the Eastern Conference with a 48-24 record, in a season that was shortened to 72 regular-season games due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In the playoffs, they dominated the Boston Celtics in five games before facing off against the future champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, where KD's foot on the line that Irving mentioned happened.
It transpired in Game 7, when Durant hit what appeared to be a crazy turnaround three over P.J. Tucker to give the Nets the lead with one second remaining, just to have the replays show his foot was on the line.
The game went into overtime, where the Nets lost. Also, as Kyrie mentioned, most of that series KD played without an injured Irving and Harden and Durant averaged a ridiculous 35.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game without them. In Game 7 alone, he had 48 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Nobody scored more points in the history of Game 7s.
The bad thing is, the Nets failed to build on the positives from that season. They were never close to the top of the Eastern Conference again, which Harden apparently already sensed by requesting a trade less than a year after that series vs. Milwaukee, as he ended up with the Philadelphia 76ers. Kyrie did the same shortly after and he went to Dallas Mavericks and Durant was the last to leave for the Phoenix Suns.
Since the split up, Irving is still with Dallas, Harden has left Philly for the Los Angeles Clippers and Durant was traded this offseason to the Houston Rockets.
None of them won the championship after the split and Kyrie was the closes to do it in 2024, losing the Finals to the Boston Celtics in five games.This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 25, 2025, where it first appeared.