Kevin Durant unsuccessfully tried to get Steve Nash fired this summer, and the Nets finally parted ways with the beleaguered coach Tuesday — though they claimed they didn’t need any input from their star player to do it.
It was that obvious.
“That was probably the unique thing with Steve and I. We talked daily, if not hourly,” said Nets general manager Sean Marks, who has been friends with Nash for more than 20 years.
“When we’re having these conversations, he’s aware of, ‘They’re not responding to me right now’ or, ‘That was not the performance I needed to see out there.’ We were open with that dialogue always happening. And so over the course of the last week, 10 days, we’ve just been talking and talking and I think it came to a head.”
The Nets were just 2-5 heading into their game Tuesday against the Bulls — and Nash had been booed by fans at everything from pregame introductions to community events with his children present — so the franchise finally performed a coup de grace and brought his tenure to a merciful end.
Jacque Vaughn stepped in as the Nets’ interim coach for a second time.
Team owner Joe Tsai had rebuffed Durant’s attempt in August to get both Marks and Nash fired, and brought both back to start the season. But after just seven games, Marks fired Nash — and claimed he didn’t solicit Durant’s opinion.
“Zero. There was zero input from any of the players on this,” Marks said. “This was a decision that we didn’t need that. Steve and I didn’t need that. Obviously I’ve talked to Joe [Tsai] about this, but the players were not consulted. They were told ahead of time that this was the direction we were going to [Tuesday], but I don’t think we needed that input right now.”
Marks insisted Nash and the coaches had done a good job through the summer, and claimed the players were putting in the work. But with the Nets just a game clear of last place in the East, Marks had no choice but to concede: “It just wasn’t panning out on the court. And whether it was a voice in the locker room, a change needed, I can list the distractions.”
Oh, the distractions have been legion.
Kyrie Irving missed two-thirds of last season due to his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. He had a testy contract standoff this past summer. And now, he’s embroiled in controversy after promoting a movie with anti-Semitic messages.
Durant first requested a trade, then tried to get both Marks and Nash fired before a sit-down with Tsai in Los Angeles convinced him to give it a try. That try is over now that Nash finally has been sent packing.
Whether Nash was not up to the task tactically and in over his inexperienced head, or he was scapegoated because a pair of stars tuned him out, he’s gone. And everybody shares some culpability.
“[Nash] has certainly not had an even playing field over two years here. And for that, I certainly feel definitely some responsibility because this does not all fall on him,” Marks said. “I take a great deal of responsibility in creating the roster, hiring staff, bringing people in, whether that’s free agency or draft. So it’s completely unfair to state the fact of where we are as a team as an organization purely on Steve.”
Nash ended his tenure with a 94-67 regular-season mark after some complained he shouldn’t have been hired in the first place given that the former MVP point guard had never been even an assistant coach. But between James Harden forcing a trade, Ben Simmons missing last season and a host of other issues, it was a tough task.
“Unbelievable person, human being, father, coach, player, friend,” said Vaughn, who also replaced fired head coach Kenny Atkinson in 2020.
Marks said the latest Irving drama had no impact on Nash wanting out or the Nets wanting him gone.
“No. We try and separate the two things,” Marks said. “It’s easy to lump it all in with where we’re at. We’re trying to separate the basketball side of things and what’s best for this team moving on.”