In two days, the NBA will experience one of the highlights of its regular season with the always eagerly awaited Christmas games. But this year, no Nets or Kevin Durant on the Christmas Day program. How come? KD has a very simple explanation.
Kevin Durant is one of the top five basketball players in the world. He is accompanied by another star named Kyrie Irving. The Nets — booming with 11 wins in 12 games — are one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn is inside the very large New York market. And the BK team has been in the NBA Christmas Day papers for the past two years.
So yes, we can indeed wondering about the Nets’ absence at Christmas this year, they who, like us, will watch the five posters from their sofa. It’s going to be especially weird for Durant, used to playing under the spotlights on Christmas Day when he’s not injured. But KD takes full responsibility for this absence.
“It’s probably my fault the Nets don’t play on Christmas. With what happened this summer. But it’s like that. We will play on the 26th, it’s not very far.
“Knicks-Nets would’ve been a perfect matchup on Christmas, hopefully we can get that going forward. I probably am responsible for us not playing on Christmas because of what went on this summer.”
Kevin Durant on the Nets not having a Christmas Day game this year: pic.twitter.com/8w1EJq57wu
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) December 22, 2022
Ah yes that’s right, summer 2022.
A few months ago when Kevin Durant had requested his transfer from the Nets and that the Brooklyn franchise seemed on the verge of imploding, no one could imagine the latter chaining victories while leaving the controversies aside. Especially not the NBA people in charge of setting up the schedule for the 2022-23 season.
With this big uncertainty surrounding the Nets, the League would have taken a very big risk by putting Brooklyn on the Christmas Day schedule. Christmas matches represent a big showcase for the Great League each season, which wants to offer the best possible posters for its fans. It’s become a tradition in the NBA, with Christmas Day considered by many to be the unofficial start of the season with five big games on the national airwaves. And this will once again be the case this year despite the competition from the NFL (whose games are played on Sundays) which should, as often, take up a good part of the light. Suddenly, a potential scenario in which the Nets come back to Christmas with Cam Thomas and Kessler Edwards as leaders, it was not too much to the taste of Adam Silver.
So obviously, today and given the level practiced by Brooklyn, we can regret the absence of Kevin Durant and his Nets, but we will find them tonight and December 26 for two XXL matches against Milwaukee and Cleveland.
That’s more than enough to compensate.
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Source texte : SNY Nets