Kyrie Irving Says He Never Wanted Steve Nash as Nets Head Coach

Since 2020, the Brooklyn Nets have cycled through five head coaches.

They hired Steve Nash after Kenny Atkinson stepped down. When Nash didn't work out, Brooklyn turned to Jacque Vaughn. He was eventually let go. Then, Kevin Ollie got a shot as an interim. He didn't stick. Now, the Nets are led by second-year man Jordi Fernandez.

It's been a tumultuous journey to find a sideline leader with staying power. But it could've been avoided if the franchise had listened to one of its stars, at least from his perspective.

Amid his moment of delving into the past, Kyrie Irving touched on Nash's hiring while livestreaming. Irving's talked about multiple subjects recently about the Nets' failed superteam, and offered his view of why Nash never should've been tabbed "the guy" in Brooklyn.

"I already had my own thoughts on how the coaching situation was gonna go. I felt like there were other candidates out there that could have definitely been our head coach that had championship experience," Irving said while streaming on Twitch. "I think Steve had championship experience in his own way in his role that he played at Golden State, but as far as being head coach, I had my own thoughts."

But according to Irving, this wasn't a one-sided issue. Nash allegedly wasn't all that excited about coaching the nine-time All-Star.

"He even admitted to me that he had his own reserves on coaching me, and I had my reserves on being coached by him. We had already hashed that out, but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like yeah, it was all easy around everything in Brooklyn," Irving continued.

Irving has now delved into his opinion that the Nets never wanted him and merely signed him to lure Kevin Durant, a backstory of how he found out James Harden had requested a trade out of Brooklyn and now his lack of confidence in Nash as a head coach.

As more information and insight releases, that era of Nets basketball just gets more and more chaotic. For those who still wonder: "What if?" the antecdotes Irving shares may help provide further clarity as to why things worked out the way they did. anecdotes