After facing the Nets for the first time as a head coach, Kenny Atkinson admitted he was extra motivated to beat the team that fired him.
Now in his first return to Barclays Center as a head coach, his players want to win one for their coach.
Atkinson, canned by Brooklyn back in 2020, has Cleveland off to the best start in the entire NBA, 22-4 entering Monday’s 7:30 p.m. tilt at Barclays Center.
It’ll be a triumphant return not just for Atkinson, but a huge swath of Cavaliers.
Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen were drafted by Brooklyn and first groomed in the NBA under Atkinson. Current Cavs assistant coaches Jordan Ott, Trevor Hendry and DeMarre Carroll were all also former Nets.
And both on and off the record, they know how fired up Atkinson will be for Monday’s return.
“It’s been fun so far. And I know he’d love (a win),” one Cavalier told The Post.
“Yeah. I think as competitors, you always think about those things,” LeVert told The Post of getting a victory for Atkinson. “You know, myself, JA [Allen,] Kenny, DeMarre — DeMarre wasn’t really traded away, but Trevor Hendry who was also on staff as well, JO, Jordan Ott, we got a lot of guys who were here. So as competitors I think that just naturally comes to mind. So for sure. Definitely.”
Atkinson coached the Nets from 2016-20, and is still third all-time in franchise history in games coached and fourth in wins.
But when superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant — the latter of whom actually spent 2019-20 rehabbing a ruptured Achilles — wanted him gone, he was gone.
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After spending time as an assistant under Ty Lue with the Clippers and Steve Kerr with Golden State, Atkinson turned down the Charlotte Hornets job to wait for the right opportunity.
It came this summer in Cleveland, and he guided them to a Nov. 9 victory over the Nets to improve to 11-0.
“Yeah. I mean, it’s always…it’s unique,” Atkinson said after that first win over the Nets. “You’re a competitor, right? And even (against the Warriors), I was like, ‘Man, I wanted that game,’ because you had such great experience with the team you were with, but you also want to beat them. And it’s the same with the Nets.
“Wonderful experience I had, but there’s always something, a little something extra when you’ve been with a team before. A little more awareness, a little more tension, a little more … you want it a little more.”
Allen understood, and said the Cavs players were aiming to get Atkinson another victory Monday over the Brooklyn team that let him go.
“Probably. You know we respect Kenny. Kenny has our backs. He fights for us every single day on and off the court,” Allen told The Post. “I think we want to get this one for him.”
