Kyrie Irving wants out of Brooklyn in latest Nets drama

Brooklyn Nets heat magnet and resident conspiracy theorist Kyrie Irving wants the team to deal him elsewhere prior to the NBA trade deadline or he’ll leave as a free agent, as reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Irving, 30, had previously requested to be sign-and-traded ahead of the season, according to Woj, citing sources. The guard is in the final year of his four-year $136+ million contract with Brooklyn.

Irving, the mercurial point guard who was No. 3 in our 2022 Idiot of the Year list, is currently averaging 27.1 points per game for Brooklyn (31-20), who sits third in the Atlantic Division.

His teammate Kevin Durant requested the Nets trade him back in June.

As I’m sure you remember, in since-deleted messages on his social media, Irving promoted the book and documentary Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, which pushes several lies about the Jewish people and their mistreatment of people of color. Nike subsequently suspended its relationship with Irving, who later declared he was “free.”

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He didn’t apologize until after the Nets suspended him for eight games and the Anti-Defamation League rejected his donation.

Irving is also a known flat earther, and anti-vaxxer, claiming his stance on the COVID-19 vaccine cost him over $100 million.

“I gave up four years, 100-and-something million deciding to be unvaccinated and that was the decision,” Irving had said at Nets media day in September. “[Get this] contract, get vaccinated or be unvaccinated and there’s a level of uncertainty of your future, whether you’re going to be in this league, whether you’re going to be on this team, so I had to deal with that real-life circumstance of losing my job for this decision.”