Durant, Irving make Nets the talk of the town in New York

NEW YORK (AP) — Just three seasons ago, the Brooklyn Nets were the worst team in the NBA.

On Sunday, they were the story of the league.

They agreed to deals with superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as part of a sensational start to free agency, giving the longtime No. 2 team in New York top billing in the Big Apple.

They landed two of the top players available, both perennial All-Stars and NBA champions, and they weren’t finished. They also added center DeAndre Jordan, who played with Durant and Irving on the 2016 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal, and veteran swingman Garrett Temple.

It was such a powerful victory that the crosstown Knicks even put out a statement acknowledging their fans’ disappointment, just three hours after shopping season had started.

And it was even more remarkable given where the Nets were not long ago.

An ill-fated trade with Boston in 2013, when the Nets acquired Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in hopes of competing for a championship but didn’t even get out of the second round, cost them years of high draft picks and contributed to them becoming the worst team in the league.

They bottomed out at 20-62 in 2016-17, when Durant won NBA Finals MVP in his first season with Golden State after the Warriors beat Irving’s Cleveland Cavaliers for the title.

Now those players will try to win one together.