It’s all over but the signing. In a series of tweets early Saturday evening, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Kyrie Irving is in New York to sign his new contract with the Nets. And he added, with Irving’s arrival, D’Angelo Russell will now depart the team he led to the NBA playoffs.
Free agent Kyrie Irving is meeting with the Brooklyn Nets in New York on Sunday and both sides are motivated to move quickly toward reaching a 4-year, $141M deal, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2019
The Nets are expected to announce Irving’s new deal shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday when free agency begins. They will then turn their attention to signing the second —and bigger— star in what they hope will be a Dream Summer, Kevin Durant. Durant will meet with the Nets as well as the Knicks, Clippers and his current team, the Warriors in New York over the next few days.
Marc Stein said that while Irving’s signing is important, even crucial, to the Nets pursuit of KD, Durant has said he can’t be recruited.
The Nets have no choice — they MUST secure a commitment from Kyrie Irving ASAP — but team officials also know doing a deal with Kyrie first lessens their chances of landing Kevin Durant in one regard: Durant is said to be adamant about making his own call without being lobbied
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 29, 2019
The 27-year-old, who was a Nets fan as a child in New Jersey, will become at once the highest paid Nets player ever, their biggest free agent signing ever and the first All-NBA player to join the franchise since the Nets traded for Deron Williams nearly a decade ago.
Irving is also the Nets most accomplished player since Jason Kidd, with an NBA championship, Olympic and FIBA World Cup gold medals, six all-Star appearances and two All-NBA selections, including this year. He won his NBA ring and Olympic gold medal within a matter of two months in 2016. Only three other players —his then teammate LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen— had done both in the same year. He followed that up with the 2017 FIBA world cup title, winning the MVP.
Last year, in an admittedly disappointing second season with the Celtics, Irving averaged 23.8 points, 6.9 assists, 5.0 rebounds and shot 48/40/87. Many in Boston blamed Irving for the Celtics limited success, but in recent weeks, there?