Kenny Atkinson’s path has been shaped by the kind of detour that sticks with a coach. Brooklyn was supposed to be the big breakthrough, the place where everything clicked. Instead, it became the chapter that got away.
NBA insider Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson said that unfinished business still sits with Atkinson, and it could matter again if LeBron James ends up in Cleveland. On a recent episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast with host Ethan Sands, Robinson framed Atkinson’s story as one built around missed opportunity, growth, and a possible second shot at the kind of roster that once slipped through his hands.
“That whole situation in Brooklyn to this day bothers Kenny Atkinson to the notion of him not being able to coach that team that they put together with James Harden eventually, but Kyrie [Irving], Kevin Durant and DeAndre Jordan,” Robinson said. “And now he gets a chance potentially to coach another Big Three.”
That Brooklyn era still looms large because Atkinson had already done the hard part. He turned the Nets into a real playoff team, developed young players, and earned respect around the league. Then Durant and Irving arrived, the balance of power changed fast, and Atkinson was gone before he ever got the chance to guide the star-heavy group he helped set the stage for.
He didn’t vanish from the league after that. Instead, he went to Golden State and worked as an assistant under Steve Kerr, where he got a close look at how a championship operation functions.
He saw Kerr manage Draymond Green, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant. He saw the day-to-day demands of winning at the highest level.
That experience followed him to Cleveland, where he got another chance to run his own team.
Robinson laid out that full arc in one long stretch, connecting Atkinson’s past stops to the current moment in Cleveland.
“I want to see how all the years of Kenny Atkinson coaching Kevin Durant, winning an NBA Finals with the Warriors and dealing with personalities with Draymond Green and Steph Curry and Jordan Poole and then coming to Cleveland and managing personalities with James [Harden] and managing personalities with Donovan [Mitchell] and then the controversy with the analytical wins and how all that comes together,” Robinson told Sands.
Atkinson’s résumé now carries the kind of seasoning that only comes from being through a few different basketball worlds. He’s worked with elite players, lived inside a championship environment, and taken the hit of being pushed out before he could finish the job in Brooklyn.
If LeBron James joins the Cavaliers, that history suddenly matters in a different way. Atkinson would be staring at another opportunity to coach a high-powered group, only this time with the chance to see it through.
The question, as Robinson put it, is whether he can handle that kind of room and turn it into something bigger.
“He knows how to hobnob with people. He knows how to get on hold the good old boys club.
And that’s not a bad thing. But you gotta complete what you start.”
Robinson also pointed to the irony of how Brooklyn played out after Atkinson left. Kyrie wanted Phil Handy.
Durant wanted Ty Lue. Neither got their preferred coach, and Steve Nash ended up in the job.
The Nets never won a championship.
For Cleveland, the bigger picture now includes more than just LeBron’s decision. It also includes a coach with a history that still feels unfinished, and a chance to finally close the loop on the story that started in Brooklyn.
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