Photo by Meng Yongmin | Xinhua via Getty Images
Kyrie Irving had become a hot commodity in last year’s offseason, particularly because of his contract situation with the Brooklyn Nets. Reports suggested that Irving could likely find a new team after talks about his future with the Nets have gone stagnant.
Then, out of nowhere, Irving shocked everybody when he exercised his $36.9M option with the Brooklyn Nets for the 22-23 season, after all.
Kyrie reportedly even shocked his team because he never informed the Nets of his decision before it was reported. Kyrie opting in however eventually didn’t change the fact that his Nets future is unclear at best.
While after that, most of the Nets drama has made its way over to Kevin Durant, who requested a trade this past offseason, before eventually retracting said request, we were back in Irving’s corner last week, when Irving, who actually seemed happy and thriving this year, requested a trade out of Brooklyn before the deadline, leading to him eventually getting traded to the Mavericks.
This obviously is not the end of the story, as earlier today, Kevin Durant was traded to the Phoenix Suns. The Nets traded the superstar and TJ Warren for Cam Johnson, Mikael Bridges, Jae Crowder and four first-round draft picks. As you can imagine this late night trade sent fellow NBA players, fans and media into a frenzy.
Now that the dust has settled a bit, Durant’s new teammate, Devin Booker spoke about Durant joining the team and had some high praise for him.
“I think it’s just him and the rim out there. I don’t think he sees anybody around him. He’s a special talent that I don’t think this game has ever seen and will ever see before. Just the tangibles that he has, at the size that he has, how fluid it is. I’m excited to see behind the scenes and see it day-to-day and get some competition with him. Maybe some 1-on-1s and keep perfecting our craft.”
