Kyrie Irving issued the Brooklyn Nets a trade demand on Friday, and Chris Haynes is reporting that his beef with the team -- at least his most recent one -- stems from a championship stipulation Brooklyn included in the contract extension it recently offered Irving.
Haynes didn't elaborate on the exact language of this championship stipulation, but it could be tied to the final year of the deal not being guaranteed -- unless perhaps the Nets were to win a title between now and then.
Either way, Haynes continued to report that Irving was so insulted by this, shall we say, conditional offering, that he now wouldn't even sign with the Nets if they offered the full, unconditional max deal for which he is eligible to sign with them
Irving, who will be a free agent this summer, was seeking a deal from Brooklyn "in the neighborhood of" four years, $198.5 million. If he can get to another team before the deadline, that team would also be acquiring Irving's Bird rights, which, if they felt so inclined, would allow them to offer him the same four-year max.
Irving wants his money, but not badly enough to accept it from the Nets. And that is good because the team is unlikely to offer to him anyway. Frankly, it would be surprising if any team did.
Kyrie Irving has again decided he wants to be traded from the Brooklyn Nets. The star guard asked Brooklyn’s front office to trade him on Friday afternoon after a breakdown in contract extension talks, according to Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski. Irving will be a free agent after this season. He also requested a trade from the Nets last summer after failing to come to terms on a contract extension, but Brooklyn called his bluff and brought back both Irving and Kevin Durant for this season.
The Nets have been among the best teams in the East all year despite an injury to Durant over the last month. Brooklyn sits at 30-21 overall on the day Irving requested his trade, and could still feasibly make the NBA Finals out of the Eastern Conference. Now Irving is telling the Nets to trade him, and threatening that he’ll walk away this summer for nothing if they don’t pull the trigger.
It’s been another controversy-filled year for Irving. After sitting out most of last season because he refused to get the Covid vaccine, Irving was suspended by the Nets this year for sharing antisemitic propaganda on social media. He was voted as an All-Star starter regardless and currently No. 11 in the NBA in scoring by averaging 27.1 points per gameWatch video