Kyrie Irving’s trade demand leaves NBA teams ‘clamoring for KEVIN DURANT’

Kyrie Irving’s trade suit to the Brooklyn Nets has reportedly sparked a wave of interest among rival teams…for Kevin Durant.

While Irving appears to be on his way out after four tumultuous seasons in Brooklyn, his reported request is not being met with an outcry in demand. Instead, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports, teams are asking about Durant, a former MVP who comes without the perceived baggage of Irving.

“Amongst opposing teams, there is much more interest in asking about Kevin Durant’s reaction to the Kyrie Irving trade request and how that may affect KD’s future with the Nets,” Wojnarowski read in a tweet.

Irving has been an inconsistent presence for the Nets over the past two seasons, scoring 27-plus points per game when playing while missing stretches of time for a variety of reasons. He sat out most of the Nets’ home games and a few road games last season when he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine, as was required at the time in New York City. This season, Irving was suspended eight games after posting a link to a movie deemed anti-Semitic and for initially refusing to apologize for the controversy.

Durant, meanwhile, is still recovering from a sprained knee, but injuries aside, the 34-year-old has been reliable on the court, racking up 29.7 points per game and making a remarkable 55.9 percent of his goal attempts. field. Although he signed in Brooklyn through the 2025-26 season, Durant could find himself on the trade block if the Nets decide to rebuild after the latest Irving fiasco.

Kyrie Irving’s trade suit to the Brooklyn Nets has reportedly sparked a wave of interest among rival teams…for Kevin Durant.

Irving has drawn interest from the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns, according to multiple reports.

Unable to get a new contract, Irving requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets, a person with knowledge of the details said Friday.

The request comes less than a week before the trade deadline and possibly signals the end of his tenure with the franchise, either then or after this season ends.

Irving made the request after talks about a new contract were not to his liking, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the talks were to remain private. He was first reported by ESPN and The Athletic.

Irving is eligible for a contract extension, but the Nets refused to give it to him last summer. Irving’s agent and stepmother, Shetellia Irving, told Bleacher Report last week that she had reached out to the Nets regarding a new deal. Kyrie Irving, whose current contract with the Nets expires after this season, is eligible for a four-year contract worth up to $200 million.

“I’ve reached out to the Nets regarding this,” Shetellia Irving told Bleacher Report. ‘We have not had meaningful conversations to date. The desire is to make Brooklyn their home, with the right kind of stretch, which means the ball is in the Nets’ court to communicate now if their desire is the same.

Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving (11) and forward Kevin Durant (7) react after being announced as 2013 All Stars during the second quarter against the Detroit Pistons at Barclays Center.

Irving and the Nets were thought to be moving toward a long-term extension in 2021 when Kevin Durant signed one. Instead, Irving proved unreliable, missing games for non-basketball reasons, and the Nets changed their minds about securing a long future with the point guard.

The Nets, coming off a 43-point loss at Boston on Wednesday, open a five-game homestand on Saturday against Washington. Irving is not listed on his injury report, which means he is available to play. They play six of their last seven games before the All-Star break at home; the only ‘visit’ game in that stretch is at the New York Knicks.

But whether Irving will be a part of any of that is unclear right now.

A tweet was posted on Irving’s account shortly before the first reports of the trade request came out; as is often the case with Irving when it comes to social media posts, he wasn’t sure what exactly he was referring to in that post.

‘To my colleagues: BE YOURSELF and GROW! Keep people around who wholeheartedly CELEBRATE YOU and appreciate all the hard work that goes into it. Distance yourself from people who manipulate, hate and hurt,” the tweet read.

Brooklyn is 31-20 this season, fourth in the Eastern Conference standings entering Friday, and is 4-7 since fellow All-Star Durant hurt his knee in a game in Miami on June 8. January. Durant could return during this homestand, as he’s on record saying he wants to play in the All-Star Game on February 19, so presumably he’ll be back with the Nets before then.

Irving is playing well in Durant’s absence, averaging 30.3 points in the last 10 games. That might interest teams that were reluctant to make a deal for Irving last summer, when he acknowledged he didn’t find much of a market because of his apparent unreliability.

The 30-year-old sparked controversy by tweeting a link to the Amazon page for the 2018 film ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America’.

Durant had also asked the Nets for a trade last summer, before a cool head took hold. And it was at this time last year that Brooklyn traded James Harden, who was part of what the Nets thought would be a Big Three of him, Durant and Irving, to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that brought Ben Simmons to Brooklyn. .

Whatever happens between now and Thursday, this is officially the start of another new saga surrounding Irving, who signed with his hometown team along with Durant in the summer of 2019.

He was suspended by the Nets for what became eight games earlier this season after the team said it was dismayed by his repeated failure to “say unequivocally that he doesn’t have anti-Semitic beliefs.”

That came shortly after Irving refused to issue the apology that NBA commissioner Adam Silver sought for posting a link to an anti-Semitic piece of work on his Twitter account. Irving also ended up losing his longstanding relationship with Nike as part of the massive fallout from what he tweeted and the backlash that followed.

“I don’t stand for anything like hate speech or anti-Semitism or anything that goes against the human race,” Irving said the day he was reinstated by the Nets in November.

Irving also missed much of the 2021-22 season due to his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, essentially leaving him ineligible to play in Brooklyn home games for much of the season due to league rules. New York City established in response to the pandemic

He has also expressed many controversial opinions during his career, including repeatedly questioning whether the Earth was round before apologizing to science teachers.

Irving also sat out during the 20-21 season, and general manager Sean Marks said last summer that being available to play would be something the organization would consider as it weighed an extension for Irving.