(Basketball news) Kyrie Irving has decided to exercise his $36.9 million option in his four contract next season and will remain with the Brooklyn Nets for the time being after being linked to join the Los Angeles Lakers in a sign in trade. The seven-time All-Star averaged 27.4 points and 5.8 assists this past season for the Nets, with whom he has already spent the last three seasons. He's about to enter the final season in a four-year of his major $137 million deal with Brooklyn.

Irving had until Wednesday to inform the Nets about his decision but he ultimately opted to stay and take the money. For the time being it closes one element of the ongoing saga regarding his future, which has been one of the biggest stories as the league prepares for Free Agency on Thursday. However, he may not be a free agent but Irving could still have his contract extended before free agency begins. The Nets could still trade him and in fact, many teams might be more interested in a deal now since Irving is on an expiring contract.

He only appeared in 29 regular-season games this past season, largely because of his decision to not be vaccinated. That made him ineligible to play in Brooklyn, until he was allotted an exemption to the New York City's vaccine protocols. Irving, after the Nets were swept by Boston in the first round, said that he planned on remaining in Brooklyn. He even talked about him and Kevin Durant managing the franchise along with general manager Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai. Marks later made it clear about Irving's future as they would have to involve discussions about being more available to the team, and he also added that he could not come to an agreement on a long-term extension that could have seen Irving paid an additional $185 million over four years.

Last season the Nets looked on track to reach their first Conference Finals before Irving sprained his ankle in Game 4 of the East semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks, who rallied on and went on to win the series in seven games. The Nets returned this past season thinking that their title core of Irving, Durant and James Harden might go on to win the NBA Championship but it didn't work out anywhere near as planned. Irving wasn't with the team for the majority of the season and Harden ultimately got traded to Philadelphia. The Nets needed to play the play-in tournament just to make the playoffs, and Nets then got humiliated by the eventual Eastern Conference champions, Celtics.

Durant and Irving have always been close friends as they came to the Nets together in July 2019. Durant signed his extension last summer, but Irving did not. Durant is also thinking about his future at Brooklyn but with Irving back in the mix, and with Ben Simmons, who hasn’t played at all this season is now set to team up alongside Irving and Durant this coming season, Brooklyn could quickly return to contender status if these three superstars can figure out a way to play. Or else both Kevin Durnat and Kyrie Irving will hand in trade requests.

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