The NBA rumor mill has been relatively quiet with six days to go until the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline. Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving appears motivated to change that.
On Friday, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Irving has informed the Nets that he “prefers to move on” ahead of the trade deadline “or will leave in free agency in July.” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed Irving’s desire to to be traded ahead of Thursday’s deadline.
The Nets overcame a choppy start to the season—fueled by Irving’s team-issued suspension after he shared an anti-Semitic film on social media and initially showed no remorse about doing so—to go 18-2 over a 20-game stretch from late November through early January.