The Brooklyn Nets had a lot going on in 2022.
What was supposed to be a star-studded contender led by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden fell flat.
Harden privately requested a trade to the 76ers in the middle of the season before getting dealt at the deadline that February and Irving missed time because of his refusal to get the coronavirus vaccine, which was required for him to play at home games according to a New York City mandate at the time.
The team still found a way to earn the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but ultimately fell apart against the Celtics, eventually getting swept.
Making matters worse, as Irving recently said on a livestream, Boston had one of Brooklyn’s former coaches, Ime Udoka, on the sideline.
“Can you imagine going against the coach that literally saw all our strengths and weaknesses and now we are playing against them?” Irving said. “You know what I’m saying? Boston was ready for us. Ime had them ready.”
Udoka was an assistant coach with the Nets in 2020 and 2021 before jumping over to the Celtics in June of 2021, replacing Brad Stevens.
Irving didn’t blame Udoka for taking the job, saying it “wasn’t anybody’s fault” and that it was an opportunity for Udoka.
But he did go on to indicate that he had some issues with Udoka taking a job with a team that was in the same division as the Nets.
“It’’s just opportunity, but we’re in the same division,” Irving said. “When we played them in the 2022 playoffs, (expletive) got wild. (Expletive) got wild. For sure, (expletive) got wild. We had a lot going on.”
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