Whew boy. Here the Brooklyn Nets are, again, with yet another star player who seems to want to separate himself from the team.
This time, it’s Kyrie Irving — er, well, again — after the two sides reportedly failed to negotiate a contract extension over the last week, per Bleacher Reports’ Chris Haynes.
News of Irving’s trade request surfaced on Friday afternoon and it seemed to come out of nowhere. NBA fans everywhere seemed sort of surprised by it. But, when you dig through Irving’s Twitter account, you see that we actually may have gotten a hint that this was coming.
Around 1 p.m. on Friday, before the news broke an hour later, Irving tweeted this:
To my Peers: JUST BE YOURSelf and GROW!
Keep people around who CELEBRATE YOU unconditionally and appreciates all of the hard work that gets put in.Distance yourself from the folks who manipulate, hate, and hurt.
Hélà
🤞🏾♾— Hélà (@KyrieIrving) February 3, 2023
“To my peers: Just be Yourself and grow! Keep people around who celebrate you unconditionally and appreciates all of the hard work that gets put in.
Distance yourself from the folks who manipulate, hate, and hurt.”
That could totally be unrelated, but it also sounds exactly how you’d think someone would feel when contract extension negotiations go awry.
Certainly, we’ll find out more in the coming days. But the Nets are right back at square 1 here and that has to be frustrating.