Kyrie Irving plans to re-sign with Brooklyn Nets in free agency
Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving recently had his eligibility to participate in home games restored. With much of the focus placed on his home debut taking place on Sunday against the Charlotte Hornets, his upcoming free agency has commanded some attention, too.
With the Nets choosing to table contract extension talks with Irving before the start of the season, there was speculation raised about his future with the organization. It was only raised when the organization decided initially they were going to outright sideline him instead of allowing him to be a part-time player.
Now, there’s little doubt about what Irving plans to do in free agency. He told reporters on Saturday that he is “loving where I’m at” and there’s “no way” he can leave his superstar teammate Kevin Durant.
“I signed up for this for the long run, so I love this year,” Irving said. “I’m grateful. It has not been a prototypical year but when I look at my teammates and look at what we have as an organization, I’m looking for the long-run, and what we can do for the legacy talk. We talk again, you judge my performance, everybody else’s performance in this league. I know for me, our team sentiment is we want to build a legacy here and have something sustainable, not this put something together quickly and see what happens, but we’re going to do our best.
“It has always been about being comfortable loving where I’m at, and I love it here. Once that summertime hits, I know that we’ll have some conversations; but there’s no way I can leave my man seven anywhere.”
The main issue the Nets needed to account for with Irving’s long-term future was the New York City vaccine mandate preventing him from being a full-time player. Recent developments have eliminated that as a problem ahead of the start of the playoffs.
Kevin Durant is already committed long-term to the Nets as hasn’t even started the first year of his four-year, $194.2 million contract extension, which kicks in for the 2022-23 season. Now, they have Ben Simmons as a third star, who is signed through 2025.
Getting a deal done with Irving in the summer would help to add clarity to the future of the roster construction efforts as they seek to win a championship.
Irving has been a member of the Nets organization since 2019 but the team has faced no shortage of obstacles along the way as they seek to win a championship. He’s appeared in 20 games this season and has averaged 28.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists.
