Kyrie Irving asks the Nets to trade him before the deadline, according to reports.
The All-Star guard is said to have told the team that he wants to be traded before the deadline on February 9.
(AP) — NEW YORK Kyrie Irving wants to move because he hasn't been able to get a new contract.
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| Kyrie Irving urges the Nets to move him before the deadline |
ESPN and The Athletic both say that the All-Star guard has asked the Brooklyn Nets to trade him. News outlets said Friday that Irving made the request after talks about a new contract didn't go the way he wanted.
The request comes less than a week before the deadline for trades, and it could mean that his time with the team is coming to an end, either then or at the end of this season.
Irving could have gotten a contract extension, but the Nets said no last summer. Shetellia Irving, who is also Irving's agent and stepmother, told Bleacher Report last week that she had talked to the Nets about a new deal. Kyrie Irving's current contract with the Nets ends at the end of this season. He could get a four-year deal worth up to $200 million.
There were some talks on a new deal for Irving, but no deal was reached and a trade request was delivered to the organization today, sources tell ESPN. Irving can leave the franchise this summer as a free agent. https://t.co/vnNWbUW56S
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 3, 2023
Breaking: Brooklyn Nets All-Star Kyrie Irving has requested a trade, league sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The franchise has been informed that Irving prefers to move on ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline – or will leave in free agency in July.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 3, 2023
Shetellia Irving told Bleacher Report, "I have reached out to the Nets about this." "We haven't talked about anything important yet. With the right kind of extension, they want to make Brooklyn their home. This means that the Nets need to talk now to see if they want the same thing.
When Kevin Durant signed a long-term contract in 2021, it was thought that Irving and the Nets would soon follow suit. Instead, Irving showed that he wasn't reliable by missing games for reasons that had nothing to do with basketball. This made the Nets change their minds about signing the point guard to a long-term deal.
The Nets lost by 43 points at Boston on Wednesday. They start a five-game home stand against Washington on Saturday. Irving is not on their list of injured players, so he is free to play. Six of their last seven games before the All-Star break are at home. Their only game away from home is against the New York Knicks.
But right now, it's not clear if Irving will be a part of any of that.
Shortly before the first reports about the trade request came out, Irving sent out a tweet. As is often the case with Irving's social media posts, it was not clear what he was talking about in that tweet.
"To my friends: JUST BE YOURSELF and GROW! Keep people around you who CELEBRATE YOU no matter what and value all the hard work you do. "Stay away from people who use you, hate you, and hurt you," the tweet said.
Brooklyn is 31-20 this season and fourth in the Eastern Conference as of Friday. Since fellow All-Star Kevin Durant hurt his knee on Jan. 8 in a game against Miami, the Nets have gone 4-7. Since Durant has said publicly that he wants to play in the All-Star Game on February 19, it's likely that he'll be back with the Nets before then.
Last summer, Durant also asked the Nets to trade him, but cooler heads won out. Last year at this time, Brooklyn sent James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that brought Ben Simmons to Brooklyn. Harden was part of what the Nets thought would be a "Big Three" with Durant and Irving.
No matter what happens between now and Thursday, this is the start of yet another new story about Irving, who is averaging 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game this season.
Reference on the Kyrie Irving situation. https://t.co/uhIvhuNK7J
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 3, 2023
Earlier this season, he was suspended by the Nets for what turned out to be eight games. The team said it was upset by how many times he didn't "clearly say he doesn't have antisemitic beliefs." This happened soon after Irving didn't apologize to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for putting a link to an anti-Semitic work on his Twitter feed, as Silver had asked. Irving also lost his long-term relationship with Nike as a result of what he tweeted and how people responded to it.
"I don't stand for anything close to hate speech, anti-Semitism, or anything that hurts the human race," Irving said when the Nets brought him back in November.
Irving also missed a lot of the 2021-22 season because he didn't get vaccinated against COVID-19. Because of rules put in place by New York City in response to the pandemic, he couldn't play in Brooklyn's home games for most of the season.
During his career, he has also said a lot of controversial things. For example, he asked over and over again if the Earth was round before he apologized to science teachers.
Irving also took a leave of absence during the 2020–21 season, and the team's general manager, Sean Marks, said this past summer that the team would think about Irving's ability to play when deciding whether to give him an extension.