However whether or not Irving will probably be a part of any of that’s unclear now.

Irving’s agent and stepmother, Shetellia Irving, informed Bleacher Report final week that she had reached out to the Nets relating to an extension. Kyrie Irving — whose present take care of the Nets expires after this season — is eligible for a four-year contract price as a lot as $200 million.

“I’ve reached out to the Nets relating to this,” was what Shetellia Irving informed Bleacher Report. “Now we have had no vital conversations to this point. The need is to make Brooklyn dwelling, with the correct kind of extension, which suggests the ball is within the Nets’ court docket to speak now if their need is identical.”

A tweet was posted to Irving’s account shortly earlier than the primary experiences of the commerce request got here out; as typically is the case with Irving on the subject of social-media posts, it was not sure what precisely he was referring to in that publish.

“To my Friends: JUST BE YOURSelf and GROW! Preserve individuals round who CELEBRATE YOU unconditionally and appreciates all the exhausting work that will get put in. Distance your self from the parents who manipulate, hate, and harm,” learn the tweet.

Brooklyn is 31-20 this season, fourth within the Japanese Convention standings coming into Friday, and has gone 4-7 since fellow All-Star Kevin Durant harm his knee in a recreation at Miami on Jan. 8. Durant may return throughout this homestand, since he’s on report saying he needs to play within the All-Star Recreation on Feb. 19 — so, presumably, he’ll be again with the Nets earlier than then.

Durant additionally had requested the Nets for a commerce this previous summer time, earlier than cooler heads prevailed. And it was presently final yr that Brooklyn traded James Harden — who was a part of what the Nets thought could be a Huge Three of him, Durant and Irving — to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that introduced Ben Simmons to Brooklyn.

No matter occurs between now and Thursday, that is formally the beginning of yet one more new saga surrounding Irving.

He was suspended by the Nets for what grew to become eight video games earlier this season after the group stated it was dismayed by his repeated failure to “unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs.” That got here shortly after Irving refused to challenge the apology that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver looked for posting a hyperlink to an antisemitic work on his Twitter feed. Irving additionally wound up shedding his lengthy relationship with Nike as a part of the huge fallout from what he tweeted and the reactions that adopted.

“I don’t stand for something near hate speech or antisemitism or something that’s going in opposition to the human race,” Irving stated on the day the Nets reinstated him in November.

Irving additionally missed a lot of the 2021-22 season due to his refusal to get vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19, which left him basically ineligible to play in Brooklyn’s dwelling video games for a lot of the season due to New York Metropolis guidelines put in place in response to the pandemic.

He has additionally expressed no scarcity of controversial opinions throughout his profession — together with repeated questioning whether or not the Earth was spherical earlier than ultimately apologising to science lecturers.

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