Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are two of the greatest talents that the modern era of basketball has seen. Both are NBA champions and electric players to watch. However, their tenure together on the Brooklyn Nets hasn’t resulted in the success they had hoped. The pair have won 1 playoff series in 3 years together, and it looks to all be headed to an end this offseason.
Both Durant and Irving have requested trades away from the team, with the team refusing to offer Irving a long-term max contract extension. Durant requested a trade after Irving’s contract talks had been in the news for a while, requesting a trade after Irving accepted his player option because of the lack of a new contract.
Vince Goodwill of Yahoo Sports has said that he believes the lack of a contract extension for Irving is what pushed KD to request a trade.
“I believe he looked at Kyrie Irving not getting his full max extension as a sign that this (Brooklyn) isn’t a serious organization. You don’t jerk a player like Kyrie Irving around like that. Because that’s my (Durant’s) boy, I want the best for him. But sometimes you know that your boy isn’t the best for you either. So it was like, ‘you know what? This ain’t it.’ Even if I wouldn’t have given him the extension, they should have, and because they didn’t ‘get me outta here.” (h/t Heavy)
While the Nets made the best move for their franchise by not extending the unreliable Irving, this is a mess that they created for themselves when they signed Durant and Irving in 2019, knowing their temperaments and what they will need to be happy on the team.
They are trying to get a clean break from this situation and not extend Irving, but because KD is under contract, the Nets are going to drag his trade situation out as long as they feel they are getting good value in return for KD. This is going to be a long summer for the Nets, but nothing compared to the long 4 years it would have been if they gave a max contract extension to Irving.
