Kyrie Irving lost his leverage, and the Nets called his bluff
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
Kyrie Irving once insisted the earth wasn’t round, but flat. Not many people understood his reasoning back then, which he shared heading into the NBA’s All-Star festivities in 2017. They’re having a bit of a hard time figuring him out now, too.
On Monday, Irving opted into the final year of his four-year contract with the Brooklyn Nets, ostensibly ending a protracted drama that had seemed to put the team’s potential as a possible contender — and perhaps their hold on Kevin Durant — in jeopardy.
However, as always with Irving, there is more than meets the eye. First of all, his decision doesn’t fully remove the chances of him departing Brooklyn. It doesn’t assure Durant’s contentment. It doesn’t completely squash the rumors of a link-up with LeBron James at the Los Angeles Lakers, which brewed up over the past few days.
Irving made some odd comments (reported by The Athletic) following his choice, remarks that instantly earned no small measure of ridicule.
"Normal people keep the world going, but those who dare to be different lead us to tomorrow," Irving said. "I’ve made my decision to opt in. See you in the fall."
Nice words. Except that Irving didn’t really take some transcendent step into the basketball unknown, venturing down a path that no hooper has trodden before. He didn’t separate himself from the world’s "normal" people. He just opted into a contract that he signed a few years back.
He’s not reinventing the wheel — round or otherwise. He’s done something quite straightforward, making an eminently easy choice in the absence of any other appealing ones.
And he did it because he got his bluff called.
Irving tried to bulldoze a way out of Brooklyn, found that the only realistic option open to him was a mid-level exception with the Lakers, and decided to grab the $36.9 million on offer to stay put instead of the $6-million alternative awaiting in California.
Hard to spin that one as a resounding triumph.
Signs point to the Nets tiring of Irving. Coming off a season in which he played just 29 games — mostly due to his refusal to get vaccinated — the Nets' fan base and the Big Apple media don’t much like what they’re seeing. A trade is still possible, though the word is that interested teams are few and far between.
"His one-man act of subterfuge, a precious should-I-or-shouldn’t-I bit … is just the latest in a pattern of pathetic petulance," wrote Mike Vaccaro in the New York Post.
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Irving is a superb player, a performer capable of making the difference between winning a championship or not, just like he did with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015.
But he is also his own person who walks unapologetically to his own unique tune, which is an enviable trait to have for a poet or a reality TV star — or anyone, really. Yet it is also the kind of thing to give an NBA owner whose team plays 82 times a year — on specifically allocated dates and times — cause to shiver.
Irving does what he likes and isn’t exactly fond of taking orders. When Brooklyn invited him to seek sign-and-trade possibilities over the past week, the only team that bit was the Lakers — and not with a package the Nets found in any way acceptable.
He’s good enough that he’s used to getting what he wants. The Nets said they wouldn’t accommodate a part-time player, but then they did so anyway after performances tanked with their star guard absent.
Before that, Irving wanted Deandre Jordan on the Nets, so the Nets went and got Jordan.
Irving wasn’t too fond of how former coach Kenny Atkinson was doing things. Atkinson was replaced by Steve Nash.
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Finally, when it got to negotiation time, Irving wanted a maximum salary to fit his level of ability. And, at last, the Nets balked.
The franchise, wary of his repeated absences and unpredictability, wasn’t ready to make that move. The Nets might change their mind if he turns up and balls out during the early part of the 2022-23 season. He’s on a path to free agency, but a deal could still be done.
Reports indicate owner Joe Tsai wishes more than anything to avoid the drama of last season, when the team — favored to win the title at the start — ended up getting swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
Let’s see what comes next. Now that Irving has opted in he can be traded, and he has surrendered his right to have a voice in that decision.
"I am far from convinced that Kyrie Irving finishes the season with the Brooklyn Nets," FS1’s Nick Wright said on "First Things First." "It’s not like he has a no-trade clause. They could send him anywhere. I don’t know that I can bank of Kyrie Irving being drama-free."
Kyrie Irving sticks with Nets, opts in for $36.5M
In most cases, NBA star players hold all the leverage. Given that there are a limited number of individuals truly capable of influencing a game at the highest level, that’s just how it goes.
But there is always a boundary, and Irving found it. The Nets called the bluff by refusing to be pushed around. They didn’t believe he’d take $31 million less to go somewhere else. They didn’t cave.
They didn’t give him the guaranteed money just because he wanted it, but instead said "hey, show us something."
We all know Irving has plenty to show.
We all know that when he’s around and motivated, he’s brilliant. The kind of brilliant that, combined with Durant, should theoretically lead to a much better season for Brooklyn.
Except this time, just like with any good scientific theory, it has to be proven.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. You can subscribe to the daily newsletter here.
