The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the teams that hope to compete for a championship in the 2022-23 season and for good reason. They have two stars in the form of Joel Embiid and James Harden and they hope to build around those two cornerstones.
Soon after the Sixers had their season end by the Miami Heat in the semifinals, Philadelphia was looking to add a third star to Embiid and Harden in order to form a Big 3. It appeared recently that Kyrie Irving might have been that guy as he was looking to get away from the Brooklyn Nets.
At the end of the day, after a tough couple of weeks for the Nets, Irving decided to opt in and stay with Brooklyn for the 2022-23 season. However, the Sixers were trying to acquire Irving in some way, shape, or form.
Per The Athletic and The Stadium’s Shams Charania on The Pat McAfee Show:
There were a couple of other teams that were poking around at him in an opt in and trade scenario. Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, but at the end of the day, he made a move where he said, ‘I’m gonna commit. I’m gonna go back to Brooklyn. I’m gonna opt in’.
"Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia & Los Angeles were all poking around on Kyrie Irving.. he chose to finish out his deal with Kevin Durant" ~@ShamsCharania#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/TwTDIvCwJR
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 28, 2022
In order for the Sixers to acquire Irving, they would have had to likely give up rising star Tyrese Maxey in order to make it work. Tobias Harris would certainly head to Brooklyn to make the money work, but the Sixers would have to give up some value in order to bring him here.
Irving is a supremely talented player, there is no question about that, but he is also pretty unreliable. He has played only 103 games over the past three seasons in Brooklyn due to injuries as well as his controversial decision to not get vaccinated which held him to only 29 games in the 2021-22 season. Going after Irving would have been a tough decision to make.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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