The Brooklyn Nets were 13 and 3 in the 16 games Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant shared the court. Nonetheless, a 16-game sample over nearly two seasons is pretty much non-existent.
The Nets’ dysfunctional dynamic with Kyrie, Durant’s constant injuries, and the clock ticking towards the end of his prime eventually led Harden to force his way out of Brooklyn in one of the biggest moves in recent history.
And now that the Philadelphia 76ers will host his former team for the most-awaited regular-season matchup of the campaign, Durant was quite empathetic as to why Harden wanted to leave.
Kevin Durant Understands Why James Harden Left The Nets
“You can try to look at it from his perspective,” Durant explained. “Kai’s not playing, and I’m injured. He hasn’t won a championship before.”
Harden Says He’s Not Nervous About The Game
When asked about the upcoming matchup, both Harden and Joel Embiid were quite unfazed. For them, it’ll be nothing more than just a regular-season game between two very good teams trying to make the playoffs:
“No. I’m not nervous,” Harden said, per Sixers Wire. “It’s basketball. I put the work in to go out there and just play my game and live with the results. Honestly, every game is a big game for us. We’re fairly new. We got championship aspirations so every game is a learning process for us no matter who we’re playing.”
“Just a regular matchup,” Embiid said. “The season series is 2-1, so we need to win this game. It’s nothing, it’s a regular matchup for me, a regular-season game, so we’ve just got to come in with the same mindset that we’ve had and have better starts than we’ve been having lately. Focus on defense. They’ve got a lot of great players and offensively, just do what we did tonight (Monday).”
That game will also mark Ben Simmons’ first appearance at Wells Fargo Center since last year’s playoffs, so things could get pretty interesting. Regardless of what they say, we know it’ll be an epic battle.