In a wide-ranging podcast appearance with fellow former Net Theo Pinson, Spencer Dinwiddie had a whole lot to say about his time(s) as a Brooklyn Net
Spencer Dinwiddie will not be coming back to Brooklyn for a jersey retirement.
Despite his two stints with the Nets, including the first one that both launched his NBA career in earnest and helped Brooklyn assemble the most talented roster in franchise history (a story for another time), Dinwiddie says his experiences in Brooklyn filled him with an “extreme sadness” due to the actions of the organization.
Dinwiddie made these comments in a wide-ranging appearance on Run Your Race, a podcast hosted by fellow ex-Net Theo Pinson. Dinwiddie spoke on the entirety of his basketball career for the hour-and-45 minute episode, and of course, touched on each of his tenures in Brooklyn.
The first, which lasted five seasons from 2016 to 2021, kickstarted Dinwiddie’s NBA career in earnest, after he had torn an ACL and lingered in the G League with the Detroit Pistons. The 6’5” guard was a key member of that forever-nostalgic 2018-19 team, which made a surprise run to the playoffs under Kenny Atkinson.
“A team like that is not supposed to be good,” said Pinson.
“We didn’t know the business enough to know that we were supposed to be bad, or that we were supposed to be bad,” explained Dinwiddie, referencing the fact that many of those Nets were due for their first real payday after that season.
“A lot of good people.”
The two also discussed the short-lived Clean Sweep Era, of which Dinwiddie played three games in before tearing an ACL again. (And he played those games prior to the addition of James Harden.)
Still, that doesn’t stop Dinwiddie from reflecting on what could have been: “If any one of us don’t get hurt — because of the level KD was playing at at that time, he needed a half-step of a boost. He don’t even need a full Kyrie, or a full James, or a full Spence. He probably could’ve taken half-a-Spence and still won.”
Unfortunately, the fun times ended there, both for that iteration of the Brooklyn Nets as well as Pinson and Dinwiddie when discussing the latter’s journey. When the topic of Dinwiddie’s second stint in the borough rolled around, starting at the 2023 trade deadline, he caught a blank stare as Pinson started laughing. Dinwiddie collected himself: “There’s a lot I would like to say.”
Hard feelings indeed.
Eventually, the 32-year-old elaborated: “To go back to a team that you spent like five years at, had a lot of success at, basically lead the league in assists because they asked you to help feature their trade pieces and whatnot, and then basically kicked out the door — and for them to re-bring up the ‘cancer’ label because of what happened in [Washington] D.C., if another team doubles down on that, it effectively kills your career.”
There’s a lot to unpack there, starting with the implication that Brooklyn was planning on boosting the value of Mikal Bridges and other supporting players long before they chose the rebuild direction over a season later.
There’s also the implication that Brooklyn bad-mouthed him around the league, though we haven’t heard any such public comments from Brooklyn’s front-office, and Brian Lewis of the New York Post reports that the Nets declined to comment on this situation.
“There was already things that were taking place while I was in Brooklyn the first time that you rise above, you get past, you’re learning the NBA, you’re a kid, you chalk it up as a learning experience,” said Dinwiddie. “But now you’re on the other side of that, and all the apologies and things for everything that happened the first time … I said, ‘Guys, listen, you remember what happened the first time. It was it was rocky the first time. Just, you know, please. Please, don’t, don’t do that.’”
Well, according to the current Dallas Maverick, the Nets did it again. That something happened between the two parties before his departure at the next trade deadline is unsurprising, given the lack of verve he was playing with in his final months in Brooklyn.
“You asked me to do a very specific task, and I did it. ‘We need to stay in the playoffs. You need to help feature our trade pieces.’ ‘Okay, I will do what you ask of me.’ And then the reward that they gave me was, ‘we’re going to kick you out the door.’”
The Nets have already lost Dinwiddie’s replacement, Dennis Schröder, in a recent trade to the Golden State Warriors. They also traded one of those pieces Dinwiddie was undoubtedly referencing, Mikal Bridges, to the New York Knicks this past offseason, signaling an overhaul in organizational direction, a true embrace of the rebuild.
Dinwiddie was the first of all these pieces to go, as Brooklyn shipped him to the Toronto Raptors this past February, when Toronto immediately waived him. Thus, all this drama feels relevant to a different lifetime for the Brooklyn Nets and their fans, though the once-beloved point guard does not feel the same way.
Though all of his comments cannot be fit in one article, Spencer Dinwiddie did drop more disdain for the Nets organization throughout this podcast appearance, including laughing about the “dog days” he spent in Brooklyn with Dorian Finney-Smith, a fellow Dallas teammate.
Below is the full clip of Dinwiddie discussing his second, more troublesome Nets stint on Run Your Race with Theo Pinson.