Report: Kyrie Irving opts into contract with Nets for 2022-23

Brooklyn Nets PG Kyrie Irving plans on opting into his $37 million player option for the 2022-23 season, per Shams Charania. Irving is going to fulfill his four-year deal with Brooklyn and remain with the team.

Comment aside, this is good news for the Nets. It appeared both Kyrie and KD were going to force their way out, leaving the team with Ben Simmons and bunch of question marks. If Kyrie, KD and Simmons can play a full season together, the sky remains the limit. Can all of this blow up in the Nets’ faces again? Sure. Still, it seems positive as of now. Things can change pretty quickly. The Kyrie move has to mean KD is committed for at least one more season as well.

Irving is coming off one of the more complicated seasons we’ve seen from him, as he only played 29 regular season games due to his refusal of the COVID-19 vaccination. He didn’t see the court for the Nets until January 5, and even then he wasn’t allowed to play home games at Barclays Center until March 27, when NYC Mayor Eric Adams exempted athletes and performers from the city’s vaccine mandate for the private sector. In those 29 games, Irving averaged 27.4 points, 5.8 assists, and 4.4 rebounds. Irving played in all four postseason games as the Nets were swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics.

Kyrie had a $36 million player option available with the Nets, but after negotiations and entertaining other teams, he ended up going a different direction. The 30-year-old still has plenty of years left and should bring a championship level of play to his new team. Irving was drafted in 2011 as the first overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he spent six seasons before landing with the Celtics for two years. He was sent to the Nets in 2019 where he spent three seasons before signing this new deal.