On Media Day, the Brooklyn Nets draw big; Durant casually describes easy decision to choose Brooklyn

It really is remarkable, how the Brooklyn Nets put themselves in a position to go to the next level, and the coveted players took that in hand.

Check out (rehabbing) Kevin Durant at 7:46 in this video, before a huge audience on Media Day yesterday,when asked how seriously he took the other teams with sufficient cap space--Los Angeles Clippers, his own Golden State Warriors, and the New York Knicks--before deciding on Brooklyn.

"I thought about it for a couple of seconds, to see how my life would look in all of those places for a minute," he said, "but ultimately I wanted to be here." The biggest reason was Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, with whom Durant had not spoken, but rather watched, on YouTube interviews.

He wanted to be closer to his family, and presumably in the nation's media capital. And with his friends, as Tom Dowd of BrooklynNets.com explained it, 9/27/19, KYRIE IRVING, KEVIN DURANT, DEANDRE JORDAN TAKE THE STAGE AT BROOKLYN NETS MEDIA DAY:

In the middle of the night, the first hours of a soon-to-be Sunday morning — Kyrie Irving called it 4:16, but it was earlier for DeAndre Jordan out on the West Coast — the agreement that would spill out later that afternoon was reached.
“I mean, we were like, ‘Are you ready to do it?’ And everybody was like, ‘Yeah,’” said Kevin Durant. “I could try to think of something deeper, but it really wasn’t.”

Nets "culture"

The other players cited the Nets' young core and organizational culture, as well as staff they knew. Mike Mazzeo of Yahoo Sports cited the role of Atkinson and GM Sean Marks:

Everything the “Markinson” Nets had done to this point — preaching culture, family, continuity and player development ad nauseam — ended up paying off in the biggest way possible.
They turned late first-round picks Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen into core pieces. They got to the playoffs with a team that many thought had no chance of getting there heading into last season. And they got their books in order.

At NetsDaily, Anthony Puccio elaborated on that:

The Nets take pride in the family-first identity they’ve established. When they sign a new player, they immediately send an arrangement of flowers to the family of the player as a welcoming gift. When they draft a young player out of college or from overseas, oftentimes they’ll bring the parents in and reassure them in terms of plans for their future and getting acquainted with the city.
This isn’t something that formed overnight. From the moment Sean Marks took over, the first thing he mentioned was family values. The Nets’ rise has been centered around the cohesive identity they’ve built – and something they’ll have to continue building having lost eight players from last year’s roster.
“They reached out to my family as soon as I committed and it felt like they were very inclusive with everything that they had going on here and it was just a step away from being at home and they made me feel as comfortable as I could as well as reaching out to KD and DJ and all those other guys on the team to make sure that they know what’s going on, that this is for the future. We’re here to build,” said Irving.

NetsDaily's Bob Windrem (aka Net Income) raved, in MEDIA DAY: When your reality exceeds your dreams...:

You simply can’t compare this year’s Media Day to those in the past —and we’ve been to more than a decade’s worth. The reporters and camera crews were more plentiful and the scene was more like a festival than a promotional event. All smiles all around.
And as a fan, we say, Good for us! This was a special day in the history of the franchise. Sure, no games have been played, won or lost. Sure, Durant may be out the year. Sure, Wilson Chandler and Rodions Kurucs have “issues.” But Kevin Durant is a Net, god dammit, Kyrie Irving is a Nets, god dammit, and that is just great ... and now we know, very, very real.

Words of caution

James Hebert of CBS Sports offered a word of caution, having to involve new players:

This is the time of year, however, when everybody raves about their teammates. "Spencer [Dinwiddie], Caris [LeVert] and Kyrie, it's like art the way they play," forward Wilson Chandler said, extolling the virtues of having multiple playmakers, but a skeptic could argue that it will be difficult for the three of them to play together. A skeptic could also scoff at [DeAndre] Jordan's assertion that he and [Jarrett] Allen, who will compete for the starting center spot, will be fine with however it shakes out.

And for those who wonder about Irving's disappointing performance last year for the Boston Celtics, he acknowledged, as ESPN reported, that he lost focus on basketball after his grandfather died, and he didn't grapple with it psychologically.

Irving did tell Nets' brass he planned to come to the Nets as a package.