Kyrie Irving opens up on doomed Nets era after Kevin Durant questioned his commitment

After Kevin Durant and Steve Nash sat down to discuss what went wrong in Brooklyn, fellow ex-Net Kyrie Irving promised a response.

Tuesday night he gave one. Or make that many.

The Nets’ Big 3 imploded with the stars getting Nash fired and then forcing their way out.

On a recent “Mind the Game” podcast, Durant suggested it was largely due to Irving and James Harden not being as committed to making the superteam work.

But Irving pushed back, saying that the Nets never really wanted him at all.

“Brooklyn, I wish that we got a chance to get to know them beforehand, because they wasn’t f–king with me like that,” Irving said Tuesday night on his Twitch stream. “And that’s just me; that’s my perspective. Now, did they want me on the team? Sure, you could say that. But Kenny Atkinson wasn’t f–king with me like that, bro. They didn’t want me like that. They wanted K. And that’s my vantage point, right? This is the information that I gathered after I left.”

The Post had reported as much before Irving even arrived, that the Nets were all in on Durant but had concerns about turning their franchise over to Irving if the former MVP wasn’t part of the package.

A star revolt got Atkinson fired in 2019, and Brooklyn replaced him with Nash.

The former Suns great had been longtime friends with Nets general manager Sean Marks and turned down several earlier job offers.

He’d also trained with Durant in the summers and formed a bond as a Golden State consultant.

Durant gave Nash his blessing. Irving’s wasn’t needed.

“This is your man. So, I gotta support that. You want him. Cool. You like Steve, I love Steve. As a younger brother, I’m like, OK, I don’t care,” Irving said.

In hindsight, Irving lamented his immaturity, not in terms of his repeated absences or promoting an antisemitic movie or refusal to adhere to the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but in vetting the Nets brass.

“I wish I would’ve handled the business better and got a chance to know them first, ask them questions, ‘Hey, what’s the future like?’ Instead of just committing blindly,” Irving said. “I didn’t have much power going in there. I couldn’t say who we could get and who we could not get. I couldn’t hire the coach. You guys knew my opinion on the head coach at the time.

“It wasn’t perfect, but it was very immature. I was very immature at that point; 27, 28 … when I was in Brooklyn, I just look back at the businesses like, yo, get to know the front office before you make any decision.”

Irving was a star on the court in Brooklyn, but will also be remembered for drama off the floor, suspended to start 2021-22 for refusing to adhere to the city’s vaccine mandates.

The guard got suspended again the next season after promoting an antisemitic film called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.”

He eventually forced a trade to Dallas in February 2023 — but tried to get waived in 2021.

“Even the people that I was in business with were pro-vaccine,” Irving said. “I’m like, OK, look, that’s fine, but just leave me the f–k out of this and let me go somewhere. I even told the Nets to release me. I said, ‘Yo, can you please just release me?’ And, obviously, the money situation — different situation, I’m f–king Kyrie. I say that very aware of my position, but they weren’t just going to let me rock out.”

Irving stressed he wasn’t “beefing” with Durant, or Nash.

Warning: Graphic language

Kyrie Irving speaks about his relationship with the Nets:

"I wish that we got a chance to get to know them beforehand because they wasn't f***ing with me like that… Kenny Atkinson wasn't f***ing with me like that. The Nets didn't want me like that. They wanted KD."

He just disagreed with the commitment premise.

“This was the part where I honestly looked at and I was like, when he said this, emotionally I was like, OK, we’re all committed to the goal at the end of the day, but sometimes, not everybody is gonna follow what you want them to do,” Irving said. “Not everybody’s gonna be committed the way you want them to be committed.”