Basketball

The selection did not end with the Kyrie Irving-Nets soap opera

Tucking between Kyrie Irving and Nate, his employer won. Since Brooklyn was unwilling to give him a long-term maximum contract and Irving could not be found elsewhere, he settled down and was selected in the final year of his contract.

The Nets avoided the nuclear option of leaving Irving and persuaded Kevin Durant to do the same. But just because a team isn’t pulled on a rock doesn’t mean it’s not on the ring yet.

Although Irving and Durant are both under contract – Irving $ 36.5 million for the upcoming season, Durant is embarking on a four-year extension – the big question is: are they unhappy? Because Brooklyn learned in a hard way what Boston already knew: an unhappy Irving is a dangerous Irving.

“I’m sorry about the kids there, they had to deal with it,” a league source told the Post.

Irving could still leave next summer or sign an extension at any moment or be forced out by trade. The net, firmly held against Irving, released for the first time, will he be chastised or punished?

Since Irving arrived, Brooklyn had agreed to every previous request, from signing Diandre Jordan on his personal leave to refusing to vaccinate him to a four-year, करार 181 million maximum contract. And after Irving was told he couldn’t be a part-time player, he also surrendered about it.

“I’m not sure I would have handled it that way,” another league source told the Post. “They basically told him they didn’t believe him. What I get: He is unfaithful. But [he gets angry] by telling him he can’t be a part-time player. I won’t sign everyone he wants, but I’ll just [praise] him in public. He needs it. ”

If the net does not seem to trust him from the outside, the appearance is not deceptive. After seeing him miss 130 games (including playoffs and play-ins), GM Shawn Marks and owner Joe Tsai refused to give him the full maximum extension he asked for.

Brooklyn and Irving’s agent / stepmother, Shetelia Riley Irving, exchanged proposals that included language previously reported in the post: based on games played with the last two, including a four-year contract and incentives, starting with the last two seasons. According to The Athletic, Irving’s camp made a short-term counter-offer that the Nets turned down.

Irving threatened to bolt without doing anything, taking advantage of Durant’s ghost to demand a trade if he did so. But after the Nets called his bluff and allowed him to get sign-and-trade, Irving felt his market was the best.

In the end, Irving won the L.A. Instead of cutting a 30 million salary to reunite with LeBron James in, he reunited with Durant in Brooklyn.

Enough for now.

According to Irving’s contract, the Nets can still move him. It does not require sign-and-trade, which will make it difficult for any team to get it.

Irving is not in high demand and moving him for a role player would be paradoxical. Although Durant never told Brooklyn that he would ask if Irving would leave, it would be foolish to oppose him at this point. Durant still has serious discussions with Marx and Tsai about how to build this team.

An unhappy irving can be counterproductive in that direction.

He can agree to the extension at any moment between now and 30 June 2023, they just have to wait until 6 July to sign it.

The All-Star posted a video from North Dakota on Tuesday, his first comments since the selection.

“It’s a great moment in my spiritual path, to be present enough to understand that I’m not doing all this. I’m being pushed in some direction at the moment,” Irving said. You have to learn from them. ”

He did not know what he was talking about. But one thing he learned was that he would have to get the maximum deal he wanted – be it in Brooklyn or elsewhere.