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The Brooklyn Nets are rebuilding after the downfall of the Big 3 of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving beginning with the 2021-22 season when Harden requested to be traded. Most of Brooklyn’s recent history is filled with what-ifs about what could have been if the superstar era lasted just long enough to win a title.
As many Nets fans remember, the closest that Brooklyn came to winning a title was the 2020-21 season when the Nets made it to the second round of the playoffs only to lose to the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games. The Bucks won on to the Eastern Conference Finals and beat the Atlanta Hawks, a team that benefitted from a controversial play by current Net Ben Simmons, before defeating the Phoenix Suns, Durant’s current team, in the Finals.
Dallas Mavericks forward Markieff Morris is already on record saying that he believes that the Nets would have won the title that season if Irving did not hurt his ankle in Game 3 of that series. Also, Harden was dealing with a hamstring injury during the best-of-7 matchup so the fact that the series came down to a Game 7 shows that Brooklyn had enough to at least make it to the Conference Finals.
Ultimately, Nets fans remember that Durant made a clutch shot following an inbounds pass from Jeff Green with mere seconds remaining on the clock after getting a step on PJ Tucker. Brooklyn was trailing 109-107 with 6.0 seconds left in the fourth quarter and many hoped that Durant made a three-pointer, but his foot was on the line.
The rest is history as the Nets went on to lose in overtime mostly due to the fact that Durant had used all of his energy to try to win the game in regulation and the Bucks had more depth on their side for this series. Who knows what could have happened if Brooklyn made it to the Eastern Conference Finals that season?