Amid reports of “an impasse” between the Brooklyn Nets and Kyrie Irving, the seven-time NBA All-Star will exercise the $36.9 million option on his contract for the 2022-23 season, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Irving can now sign an extension with the Nets or if the two sides cannot agree on the long-term deal Irving was seeking, he can become an unrestricted free agent next summer. The Nets could still trade him this season.
Irving, an otherworldly talent and enigmatic personality, signed a four-year, $136.5 million contract with the Nets in 2019, seemingly linking the prime of his career to friend and fellow All-NBA performer Kevin Durant.
Following his return from a career-threatening Achilles’ tendon injury, Durant signed a four-year, $198 million extension last August, when Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks said the franchise was “very confident” extensions for Irving and James Harden would also be “signed, sealed, delivered” before this past season.
Neither Irving nor Harden committed last summer, and both of their relationships with the team fractured in the months that followed. Irving refused to meet New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and missed 53 games during the regular season as a result. Uncertain of the team’s direction, as Durant rested another leg injury and Irving was absent on principle, Harden forced a trade to the Philadelphia 76ers in February.
The Nets allowed Irving to begin playing road games in January, and the city gave him clearance to play in Brooklyn prior to the playoffs. He scored 39 points in a brilliant performance during a buzzer-beating loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their first-round series, and then combined to score just 46 points on 37% shooting over the remainder of a sweep. The Nets entered the season as title favorites and left in shambles.
Irving said afterward, “I don’t really plan on going anywhere,” reassurance that might have carried more weight had he not abruptly left contending teams in Cleveland and Boston over the previous five seasons.
The vaccine mandate has been lifted, but injury and availability concerns still surround Irving, who has played in 116 of Brooklyn’s 246 regular season and playoff games over the last three seasons. Shoulder, hamstring, knee, finger, back, groin, ankle and facial injuries have cost him games since he…