Why The Brooklyn Nets Won’t Win The NBA Championship in 2021

On paper the Brooklyn Nets are the best team in the NBA, and the bookmakers have them favored to win the Championship. While the odds may be in their favor, history is not necessarily on their side. Today’s NBA has been dominated by so called Super Teams, where star players have teamed up to form a “Big Three”. We saw LeBron take his talents to South Beach, and while the Heat won back to back titles in 2012 and 2013, that came after losing in the Finals to Dallas in their first season together. Prior to that we saw Kobe & Shaq team up with The Glove and The Mailman in 2004, only to end up on the wrong side of the biggest upset in NBA Finals history.

Having the best players is only an advantage if they can stay healthy, and that’s asking a lot for a group that has only managed to play eight games together this season. KD is returning from an Achilles injury, Kyrie has been injury prone the majority of his career, and Harden is dealing with a lingering hamstring issue. All three players have a reputation for creating drama in a locker room. KD had his issues with Draymond, Harden burned all his bridges in Houston on his way out the door, and there was no love lost between LeBron and Kyrie in the final days in Cleveland. The folks in Boston don’t speak highly of Kyrie either.

Irving had some interesting comments for the media just days before the start of the playoffs. “I’m not going to lie to you guys, a lot of stuff is going on in this world, and basketball is just not the most important thing to me right now,” Irving said. This isn’t exactly what you want to hear from a guy who signed a contract for $141 Million to play professional basketball.

The bookmakers don’t show a lot of respect for the Sixers who finished first in the East, or the Bucks who have been favored to win the East for the last several years. History tells us it would be a mistake to count these teams out. While the Nets have the star power, Philly and Milwaukee have the chemistry, the depth, and the experience required to pull off an upset.

If Brooklyn does make it to the Finals, they will either face the Lakers or the Clippers, or a team that had eliminated one or both of those teams. The NBA Champions have come from the Western Conference in 14 of the last 20 seasons, and that trend is likely to continue here in 2021.

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