The Nets on Wednesday added one of the NBA’s best players via a four-team, blockbuster trade.
It remains to be seen when — or if — we’ll see Brooklyn’s new “big three” on the court together, though.
The Nets remain without Kyrie Irving, who hasn’t played since Jan. 5. The star point guard’s ongoing absence has been due to “personal reasons,” though it’s unclear what exactly kept Irving from playing in Brooklyn’s last five games.
Nets general manager Sean Marks on Thursday held a Zoom call with media members to announce the team’s trade for James Harden. Marks within the conference also weighed in on Irving not being with the team.
“Without a doubt, I’m not going to shy away from it, without a doubt the organization is disappointed with not having any one of our players, in this particular case Kyrie, not amongst us, not in the trenches with us and so forth,” Marks said, as transcribed by Forbes. “And so I don’t want to speculate and say why he’s out and so forth. I’ve had conversations with him and I’ll continue to have conversations and I look forward to him being back in the gym and he will address this and we’ll sit down with him.
“He’s part of our family and we’ll continue to build with the group that’s here.”
Brooklyn head coach Steve Nash on Wednesday sounded like he knows very little about what’s going on with Irving. There’s also a report out there indicating the six-time All-Star is willing to sit out the remainder of the 2020-21 season.
The Nets surely must be thrilled with the Harden acquisition, but it’s being met with a truly bizarre (and probably quite frustrating) matter that’s showing no signs of being resolved soon.
