Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving requests trade ahead of Feb. 9 deadline and has informed the team he will not re-sign with it over the summer.
Kyrie Irving requests trade from Nets before deadline
Kyrie Irving has asked the Nets to trade him before the N.B.A.’s trading deadline on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the request who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
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
Irving’s request comes three months after the Nets suspended him for refusing to disavow antisemitism after posting a link on Twitter to a film featuring antisemitic tropes.
Irving missed eight games because of the suspension and returned after apologizing.
He has averaged 27.2 points per game since his return, and the Nets have gone 22-10 with him in the lineup since then. The Nets are fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Irving’s agent and stepmother, Shetellia Irving, told Bleacher Report last week that she had reached out to the Nets regarding an extension. Kyrie Irving – whose current deal with the Nets expires after this season – is eligible for a four-year contract worth as much as $200m.
“I have reached out to the Nets regarding this,” was what Shetellia Irving told Bleacher Report. “We have had no significant conversations to date. The desire is to make Brooklyn home, with the right type of extension, which means the ball is in the Nets’ court to communicate now if their desire is the same.”
A tweet was posted to Irving’s account shortly before the first reports of the trade request came out; as often is the case with Irving when it comes to social-media posts, it was not certain what exactly he was referring to in that post.
To my Peers: JUST BE YOURSelf and GROW!
— Hélà (@KyrieIrving) February 3, 2023
Keep people around who CELEBRATE YOU unconditionally and appreciates all of the hard work that gets put in.
Distance yourself from the folks who manipulate, hate, and hurt.
Hélà
🤞🏾♾
Brooklyn are 31-20 this season, fourth in the Eastern Conference standings entering Friday, and have gone 4-7 since fellow All-Star Kevin Durant hurt his knee in a game at Miami on 8 January. Durant could return during this homestand, since he’s on record saying he wants to play in the All-Star Game on 19 February – so, presumably, he’ll be back with the Nets before then.
Durant also had asked the Nets for a trade this past summer, before cooler heads prevailed. And it was at this time last year that Brooklyn traded James Harden – who was part of what the Nets thought would be a Big Three of him, Durant and Irving – to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that brought Ben Simmons to Brooklyn.
Whatever happens between now and Thursday, this is officially the start of yet another new saga surrounding Irving.
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