Brooklyn Nets look championship-bound with addition of James Harden

The rule of thumb for the NBA when something major develops goes like this: don’t overthink it. The Brooklyn Nets added James Harden to a team that already has Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

We all know how this story is going to end. The team with the most talent almost always goes all the way. That’s what absolutely stinks about this whole stupid “player-empowerment/super-team” era that LeBron James started when he went to Miami. It robs us all of the suspense as to who will make it to the end.

Instead, what we are left with are superstars who use their enormous leverage to shortcut the challenge of winning a championship.

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In any case, the Brooklyn Nets are going to the NBA Finals this season. Though there is certainly reason for skepticism.

Did a terrible defense just get worse?

Yep.

Are James Harden and Kyrie Irving two of the biggest divas in the league?

You better believe it.

Is there a leader on-site for this club?

Um, first-year head coach Steve Nash perhaps.

Did the trade rob Brooklyn of nearly all its depth?

Indeed. Though if you’re searching for depth, might I recommend following Kyrie Irving on social media. None of this stuff matters. Well, let me rephrase that. It doesn’t matter nearly as much as the fact that three un-guardable players now play on the same team.

Almost as important by the way is that this trade just took place at the beginning of the season. The Nets have the next five months to work out the kinks and build some chemistry between these three.

Never mind the fact that Harden and Durant have already played together back in their Oklahoma City days so there is some familiarity built-in. This development is both good and bad for the league.

It’s bad because superstars are going to continue to follow the script drawn up by Harden this season and Anthony Davis last year by forcing their way out of town and to a preferred destination.

It’s a horrible look for the NBA, which is, by all accounts, a league driven by its stars. Forget trying to overcome adversity. Forget trying to build team chemistry and continuity.Any time a star player feels like he is not getting his way, he will just demand a trade and pout and moan his way out of town.

The good part about this trade is that before Harden was New York-bound, the only thing that was threatening the Los Angeles Lakers‘ chances of repeating as championships were COVID-19. Now a legitimate championship contender is knocking on its door.

This all is beginning to feel like a karmic masterpiece.

The league hasn’t had a real All-Star game in years because players started focusing more on their brand than the fans. Now, we have a De-facto All-Star game in the NBA Finals and it is at least four games long.

LeBron James and his camp created this whole narrative about players deciding their own fate in justifying the cowardly way that he began forming super-teams across all four of his stops. And now a super-team will probably keep him from matching Jordan’s six titles before his career ends.

Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City a long time ago because he wanted to play on an unselfish team. And now he finds himself playing with two of the most selfish players in the league in James Harden and Kyrie Irving.

Speaking of Irving, he is the big question mark in all of this. He disappeared a few games ago without giving the Nets a heads up. No one really knows what’s going on with him other than he (allegedly) attended a birthday party mask-less.

All that is known about Kyrie Irving is that he’s a drama queen. He caused problems when he was in Cleveland. He demanded a trade at the risk of getting surgery if the Cavaliers didn’t abide by his demand.

When he was in Boston, he told a crowd of Celtics faithful he wanted to re-sign with the team and then completely changed his tune and got out of town by the end of the year.

And now we are seeing him create another distraction in Brooklyn. At the end of the day though, Irving isn’t misguided enough to continue his absence at the risk of getting his wealthy contract voided. Ultimately, he will come back into the fold.

We have seen these kinds of circus acts before. There is probably a no better example of one than Dennis Rodman. But the 90’s Bulls still kept winning.

What ends up being the difference-maker is talent and just a little bit of sacrifice by that talent to make things work. For the first time in a long time, New York is back in the center of the basketball world. Soap operas and all.

dark. Next. Houston Rockets: The big winners of the James Harden trade

And no one is going to slow them down. Not even the defending champions, I would guess.

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