12:05 AM IST
Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash has yet to coach an NBA game, and his star players -- Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving -- have yet to play a game together. But that didn't stop him from embracing the team's sky-high expectations during a virtual town hall with season-ticket holders Tuesday afternoon.
"We're playing for a championship," Nash said during the event, which aired on the YES Network. "I don't want to say that anything less than a championship is not a success because you never know what happens in life, you never know the way the ball bounces. Fortune is a big part of winning an NBA championship.
"But we are playing for a championship and we're going to build accordingly. We're going to frame everything we do in the lens of, 'Is this a championship characteristic?' or 'Is this worth championship quality?'"
While last season was always seen as a consolidation year while Durant recovered from a torn Achilles tendon -- and later officially became one when Irving missed most of the season with shoulder issues -- that won't be the case next season, when both are expected to be healthy. Accordingly, the Nets are expected to be active in trying to upgrade the roster around them.
"We are playing for a championship and we're going to build accordingly," new Nets coach Steve Nash said. Jennifer Stewart/USA TODAY SportsThat puts a lot of pressure on Nash, who was a surprise hire by the Nets last month after never having publicly signaled an interest in coaching previously. And, as he and the Nets learn about each other on the job, he laid out a few things he will be checking to see how things are going.
"Are we growing?" Nash asked. "Are we striving? Are we pressure-tested? Are we continually asking of each other and ourselves that individual collective growth every day and creating an environment that is fun but challenging and collaborative?
"If those tenets are being met, there's a lot of success and reward in that. But we are playing for a championship."
Part of that learning process will be Nash adjusting to what his two superstars are looking for from their coach. Durant and Irving recently discussed that topic on Durant's podcast, "The Etcs."
"I don't really see us having a head coach," Irving said. "KD could be a head coach, I could be a head coach [some days].
"Steve is great, and I have a relationship with him that's going to build over time, bro," Irving added later in the podcast. "Steve don't know me from anything he heard or he's heard someone else. We've worked out one time in 2014, but it's grown as just a respectful relationship from afar. I saw him at the Hall of Fame two years ago, gave him a big hug and now he's the head coach. And I think it's also going to change the way we see coaches.
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