The Brooklyn Nets swiped Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving last summer. Jared Dudley explains why the New York Knicks couldn’t.
During a conversation with Michael Lee of The Athletic, Jared Dudley took a New York Knicks diversion. While discussing Kenny Atkinson parting ways with the Brooklyn Nets, Dudley added a quip about how Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would have gone to the Knicks under different circumstances.
“And let’s be honest, if the Knicks are run right, the Knicks get them easily. It’s not even close. If the Knicks are run halfway decent, they get KD and Kyrie,” Dudley said.
That is a brutally honest take, but not that surprising from Dudley—who has brought up this topic often in the past. Dudley has called out the organization for plenty, including the Tarrytown Training Facility in Westchester.
After spending the 2018-19 season in Brooklyn, the veteran is often asked for his opinion on the Nets. The outspoken Dudley never fails to provide his unfettered take and oftentimes, that means he’s going to be throwing the Knicks under the bus.
But with all this said, Dudley isn’t wrong.
The Knicks are the dominant force in the city. Even when the Nets are in the playoffs, the Knicks dominate the back pages of the papers. After Brooklyn shocked the NBA world and signed Durant and Irving, there was no mass exodus of Knicks fans to the Nets.
Despite the Nets moved their stomping grounds from the swamps in New Jersey to the brownstones in Brooklyn, New York City will always be a Knicks town.
As soon as the Knicks show the rest of the NBA that they have a consistent foundation in place, they’ll become an attractive destination for free agents.
