Kyrie Irving Requests Trade: Report

Chicago Bulls v Brooklyn Nets

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Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving has reportedly requested a trade ahead of next Thursday's (February 9) deadline, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday (February 3).

"Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving has told the franchise that he wants to be traded ahead of Thursday's deadline, source tells ESPN," Wojnarowski tweeted.

Irving has had a tumultuous tenure with the Nets since signing with the franchise as a free agent prior to the 2019-20 NBA season. The guard was suspended for eight games in November after sharing a link to a film with antisemitic material.

Irving also missed the majority of the 2021-22 NBA season due to his refusal to get vaccinated amid New York City's COVID-19 vaccine mandate enforced at the time, which prohibited from playing in home games at Barclays Center, as well as the Nets' games against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Irving publicly claimed he "gave up" a more than $100 million extension to remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the 2022-23 NBA season.

"I gave up four years, 100-and-something million deciding to be unvaccinated and that was the decision," Irving said during Nets media day on September 26 via ESPN. "[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.

"And I was going to understand probably far into the future ... there was a level of uncertainty of what this was going to look like of me coming back. And I had questions, they were answered truthfully. And that's all I needed. And now it's just having the support around me and giving the support to my teammates."

Irving is currently averaging 27.1 points, 5.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds during the 2022-23 season, which includes averaging 33.0 points in his past eight appearance.