Kyrie Irving is staying in Brooklyn. At least for now.
The Nets star is picking up his $36.5 million player option for the upcoming season, after a tense — and at times acrimonious — negotiation that had many across the league expecting his exit. It even sparked speculation that Irving’s good friend Kevin Durant would follow him out the Barclays Center door.
But now the Nets will keep their contender together, and put the Irving drama behind them — at least for one more year.
The news was first reported by The Athletic, and confirmed by The Post.
“Normal people keep the world going, but those who dare to be different lead us into tomorrow,” Irving told The Athletic. “I’ve made my decision to opt in. See you in the fall. A11even.”
Irving — who has missed 130 games since arriving in 2019, including the play-in and playoffs — had wanted a full five-year, $245 million max contract from Brooklyn. Nets owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks had been apprehensive about giving Irving that long a deal due to his lack of availability.
The Nets are believed to have made an offer that was firmly in that gray area to meet in the middle, but Irving had been disinclined to take less than the max.
Irving held over the Nets’ heads not only the hammer of leaving for nothing and signing with the Lakers for the $6 million taxpayer mid-level exception — which would’ve meant a huge $30 million pay cut for him — but the possibility that his departure would cause Durant to demand a trade himself.
In the end, Tsai and Marks — who had capitulated to Irving at just about every turn since his arrival — held fast and called his bluff.
Brooklyn signed DeAndre Jordan at Irving’s behest, and moved on from former coach Kenny Atkinson partly because the coach played Jarrett Allen over Jordan. After Marks said the organization wouldn’t allow any part-time players — when Irving’s refusal to adhere to New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates left him barred from playing at home and at the Garden — the Nets did an about-face and allowed Irving to be just that.
But this time, there would be no heel turn from the Nets.
Irving had already given Marks a list of a half-dozen teams that he would prefer to be traded to should they fail to reach an extension: the Clippers, Heat, Knicks, Mavericks, Lakers and 76ers. But after the seven-time All-Star had been granted permission to seek out sign-and-trade options throughout the league, Irving couldn’t find one that satisfied both himself and the Nets.
While opting in makes Irving eligible to be traded, he expressed a commitment to play out the final season of his initial four-year commitment to Brooklyn and Durant. He can still ink an extension up until Thursday, or he can go back out onto the market next summer as an unrestricted free agent.
It should be noted that Irving willingly sacrificed almost $17 million by his refusal to get vaccinated, and lost millions more after he ripped his signature shoe designed by Nike and had his sneaker contract ended. He has proven that money isn’t the end-all, be-all force driving his decisions. But whether a $30 million pay cut to join the Lakers was too much to take or he simply wanted one healthy shot at a title with the Nets, the end result is Irving will be back in Brooklyn.
After his decision Irving shared a gif reading “I know who I am.”
Now the Nets going forward know who they are.
And now they’ll prepare to run it back for at least another year — one presumably with a healthy Durant, Ben Simmons and Joe Harris — that should see them be a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference.