The upcoming NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors will be an interesting watch for Nets superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, who have seen their former clubs reach the final playoff round without them.
Durant led the Warriors to three consecutive Finals berths, winning two titles and two Finals MVP awards before rupturing his Achilles in the 2019 Finals. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has argued that Durant could be remembered as “the guy who left Steph Curry” should the Warriors go on to win the 2022 title.
Irving was in Boston as the young core led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown took the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals, and even promised Celtics fans that he’d be staying with the franchise before he bolted for Brooklyn.
According to JJ Redick, though, neither player should be criticized just because their former teams have succeeded without them.
“If we’re talking about them leaving their teams, I think the answer to that is neither looks bad and neither should look bad. We’re talking about something that happened three years ago. And in a vacuum, yes – Golden State Warriors are back in the finals, Boston Celtics are back in the finals, I get that. But so many things have to happen to get to that point.
…. When you are presented with a chance to explore free agency and you decide as a max player [that] you want to team up with another max guy, you want to team up with your buddy, you should have that right and that choice to do that and basically live without regret after that.”
[mm-video type=video id=01g40p9wm4qpp6ka6t5r playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g40p9wm4qpp6ka6t5r/01g40p9wm4qpp6ka6t5r-bf39b2c7b4b78a331ba733359f63f362.jpg]
[listicle id=44724]