Nets star Kyrie Irving holds a player option worth $36.5MM for next season, but the 30-year-old says he plans to re-sign with Brooklyn if he declines the option, as relayed by Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com. Turning down the option would allow Irving to become an unrestricted free agent.
“For me, it has always been about being comfortable and loving where I’m at. I love it here,” Irving said. “Once that summertime hits, I know we’ll have some conversations but there’s no way I could leave my man 7 [Kevin Durant] anywhere.”
Irving and Durant signed with the Nets in 2019, joining forces for the first time in their careers. Irving has only played in 20 games this season due to New York City’s vaccine mandates, but he’s averaged a career-high 28.5 points on 49% shooting from the floor.
The mandates have since been lifted, allowing Irving to play at home against Charlotte on Sunday. The seven-time All-Star will be seeking his second NBA championship this season. Should Irving return next season, Brooklyn will have most its core under contract, including Durant, Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Joe Harris.
Of course, Irving also publicly committed to re-signing with Boston back in 2018, then reversed course by the time he eventually reached free agency in 2019, opting instead to join Brooklyn. He seems focused on taking a long-term approach with the team though, which should be viewed as good news for Nets fans.
“To be honest, I signed up for this for the long run,” Irving explained. “I love this year. I’m grateful. It has not been the prototypical year. But when I look at my teammates and I look at what we have as an organization. I’m looking for the long run and what we can do, legacy talk.”
Nets need someone like Beal. they should trade Simmons and a pick and a guy like Claxton
They have someone like Beal. His name is Kyrie Irving
As a sign and trade they probably would do a Simmons and 1 or 2 firsts. Esp if he can walk and sign somewhere else.
Glad Simmons is now a Nets problem. They’ll probably at least do some DD and look into trading him in the off-season. But if he finds out they are… mental shutdown 2.0 so idk. Pacers, Kings, Wolves still probably would be interested tho.
Better than Beal.
Celtics fans have heard this before….
I’m just here looking for this comment. Thank you
Who should the Knicks aggressively pursue?
LaVine, Beal, Irving or Ayton?
Maybe Harden?
Start with salary dump trade on June draft day.
Lakers have enough salary to make a good trade too.
Lakers have decided to trade Westbrook but not buyout or stretch.
You’re out of your robot mind if you think any of those guys are leaving their current franchises. Maybe I’ll give you Beal but he has actively dismissed the idea of him wanting to leave Washington and beyond that, even if he did have a desire to leave the Wiz it would be for a contender. Knicks are not that.
I could see LaVine or Beal leaving.
Depends on their offers. No supermax for LaVine and he probably explores his options. Ayton is the only one I’d say leaves for sure. Detroit has been mentioned tho. He wants a bag.
NYK have to find someone willing to take their salaries tho and appease their coach with whomever they bring in. Kyrie ain’t a Thibs guy. Thibs already dealt LaVine. Beal is another no D guard. Ayton is the best match but you’ve got Mitchell and he’ll cost a fraction and you’ve gotta make the post a focal point of your offense to make Ayton worth a max deal.
The Lakers have no draft picks this year, or the foreseeable future. The Lakers would be a great place to dump all your worst contacts for picks in 2050. The team is just a group of has beens. The All-AARP Team.
They can trade 27 and 29 on draft night
No one wants to go to the Knicks. Same way it’s been for 10 years plus.
His legacy is cemented, a selfish, overrated ball handler.
And “Gilbert Lee” will go down in history for curing cancer!
Lol
And DurtCObain will go down in history as another failed attempt at Alias creativity. You have had 50 years to try and get this right. Be original. Use your name. Can you come up with something that is not so boring.
And an nba champion, nba all star, potential HOFer in his prime who’s earned almost 200 million in his career.
Kids in the future pretending to be kyrie at pg on the playground wont remember anything you said.
Kids in the future will learn it is far easier to be successful if you know someone that is far more talented than yourself. If Kyrie didn’t know LeBron or KD, you really believe anybody would be talking about him. He hasn’t carried a team.
What kind of weird kid pretends to be Kyrie? Last I checked, kids still pretend to be Kobe and Jordan because they’re Kobe and Jordan.
As great as Kyrie is, he is a major risk. How do I give this guy $200m extension and then he doesnt play for personal reasons. Last year he took off so many games which arguably cost the Nets the title. As for this year, vaccine mandate mght have been blessing in disguise. He would have take many games off anyway. Now, he’s motivated to earn the extension.
Kyrie is not motivated at all. He got paid for doing nothing. The Nets have already started a rebuild.
Get ready for the salty Celtic fans to flood the comments
Too true, too true my friend!
I mean of course Kyrie left BOS, it was a total shambles & he wanted no part of it!
He had a so-so first year in BOS, just like he was in CLE… but his 2nd season in Beantown he played for the first time at stellar level & the fans turned on him in an incomprehensible way, since then just like that year he has been absolutely stellar in BRK, guy is just sooo good it can be scary!
But yeah, BOS fans instead of blaming their team or themselves just go through the easy way & blame the victim, talk about saltiness!
Someone’s just salty because their Nuggets got whooped by the Celtics last week
Wrong, I’m not a homer. The nugs lose to most good teams and they have zero shot at getting out of the 2nd round even WITH Murray and Porter without a major roster overhaul ;)
Kyrie to the Knicks confirmed.
So what happens when the next variant appears and NYC goes right back into lockdown?
Ahahahahahahahaha
But do the Nets want him and all the drama? Stay tuned.
Seeing as they traded for Ben Simmons I don’t think they’re worried about “drama” lol
The fight between the 2 Drama queens would be epic, But I think that would be too much drama, Even for a NY Team.
Coming from a guy with ZERO integrity, I wouldn’t believe a word he says and I don’t
Kyrie Irving’s going to resign with Brooklyn? Ha, ha! Aren’t the Nets just the lucky ones? A player who decides how & how much he plays? A few games a year; terrific! Lucky fans. Keeps fresh legs. Makes the grand PR announcement. Grand, beautiful. Lucky Nets!
Only thing that makes sense. The Pandemic is going away. Kyrie must be playing in Bklyn. So why wouldn’t he stay. I believe it, when he says. He’s not leaving KD.
Ben is the Nets future. He’s 25 yrs old. Not going anywhere either.
This team is really just getting started. They have a better combination of players. Than they did with Harden. After beating Heat. They are telling NBA to “watch out”. They are a dangerous 1st rd opponent. Don’t think they can come out of East. But they will contend with Kyrie for yrs.