Kyrie Irving has been a subject of intense debate among NBA circles over the last couple of years. The Brooklyn Nets guard has been embroiled in one controversy after another since he joined the team back in 2019 and many have wondered if he is even worth the headache at this point, despite his immense talent.
While initially, it seemed like the Nets would be unwilling to give Kyrie a long-term extension, a new report has stated that Irving looks set to stay with the team. Charles Barkley was asked yesterday how he would handle Irving's contract extension and Sir Charles stated that he wouldn't give the star guard a long-term contract.
“If it was me, I would say, ‘Hey guy, we can’t trust you,’” Barkley said. “We don’t know what you’re going to do. We’re going to pay you that $40 million next year to see if you’re going to act right. Because if you don’t act right with $40 million, you’re definitely not going to act right with $240 million. So I’m not giving you a four-year extension for $200 million because we can’t count on you.’”
Barkley is insinuating here that Irving picks up his player option this summer worth $36.9 million and then plays the rest of the season without an extension. It would be a fair way to go about it, as there are just too many question marks at this point.
If Irving can go through the 2022-23 campaign without causing any problems, then the Nets can look into a long-term extension, but if he keeps acting up when he just has a one-year deal, then you can only imagine what he'd do with long-term security. If the latest reports are to be believed, however, then it does seem like the Nets will cave in and give him an extension. We can only hope for their sake that he stays out of trouble for the foreseeable future.
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