The Brooklyn Nets named Steve Nash their head coach in early September and stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant see Nash’s role more as a coaching collaboration, rather than top-down leadership.
“I don’t really see us having a head coach,” Irving said on Durant’s new podcast, “The Etcs.” “KD could be a head coach, I could be a head coach [some days].”
Durant followed up by agreeing with Irving, calling it a “collaborative effort” and naming assistant and former interim head coach Jacque Vaughn as someone that could fill the role any given day.
Nash, who was a shock hire, said when he was named coach of the Nets he was especially excited to work with Irving, calling the star point guard a “savant with the basketball.” Irving, though, said on the podcast he doesn’t know Nash that well, but is looking forward to working with him.
“Steve is great, and I have a relationship with him that’s going to build over time, bro,” Irving said. “Steve don’t know me from anything he heard or he’s heard someone else. We’ve worked out one time in 2014, but it’s grown as just a respectful relationship from afar. I saw him at the Hall of Fame two years ago, gave him a big hug and now he’s the head coach. And I think it’s also going to change the way we see coaches.”
“I want somebody that’s gonna understand that I am a human being first, I serve my community first, and then basketball is something I do every day because I love,” Irving said. “We always heard and saw how great Nash was as a player, but also when you get to know him as a person, you understand why he can coexist with us. We don’t need someone to come in with their coaching philosophy and change everything we’re doing.”
Durant has a strong relationship with Nash, forged during his time with the Golden State Warriors where Nash was a player development coach.
“I think having Steve there and collaborating with our floor general every day is only gonna yield good results for our scorers like myself and Taurean [Prince], Caris [LaVert] and Spencer [Dinwiddie],” Durant said. “Them having that relationship I think is gonna be key for us going forward.”
Durant acknowledged the unique leadership dynamic within the Nets, specially with him, Irving and Nash.
“I think a lot of people may question our leadership, overall or just us two,” Durant said. “But when me and Ky talked about being coached every single day, I think that’s leading by example and I think a lot of our teammates are gonna follow that.”
Irving also addressed crunchtime situations and how he and Durant will play off each other and who would take the last shot. Irving said it would be about “who was hot” at the time, but explained this is the first time in his career he feels like he has a crunchtime equal on his team.
“One thing I’ve always been comfortable with, I felt like I was the best option on every team I played for down the stretch. This is the first time in my career I’ve looked down and be like ‘that motherf—– can make that shot too.’ And he’ll probably do it a lot easier,” Irving said.
“It’s not so much deferring, because in past situations where I didn’t take the last shot I felt guilty. I want this game-winning shot, but also you want to trust your teammates. Not that I didn’t trust my teammates, but I felt like I was the best option.”
Irving spent three seasons with LeBron James in Cleveland. Irving hit one of the greatest clutch shots in NBA Finals history in Game 7 of their series against the Golden State Warriors.
