Rich Klieman Downplays Friction Between Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving
Written by SOURCE on May 22, 2022
Kevin Durant’s manager and business partner Rich Klieman stopped by Hot 97 this week, where he chatted with Ebro, Peter Rosenberg, and Laura Stylez about the drama surrounding the Brooklyn Nets.
During their conversation, Peter Rosenberg brought up Kyrie Irving, who holds a $36.5 million player option for next season, though he’s also eligible for an extension worth nearly $200 million if he elects to opt out.
When asked about the uncertainty regarding Brooklyn’s future, Klieman maintained that the countless questions relating to Kyrie’s contract extension and Durant’s long-term future with the team, are merely discussions that every team has during the offseason.
“Let me tell you about something that happens in the NBA,” he explained. “When you don’t win a championship, and sometimes even when you win a championship, the entire summer is built around all of this.”
Klieman added, “When the dust settles, everything somehow resets…and [then] we gotta play ball.”
Earlier this month, Nets GM Sean Marks revealed he’s non-committal about Kyrie’s future with the team.
“I think that’s something we’ve been discussing, and will continue to debrief on and discuss throughout this offseason,” he said. “It’s honestly not just Kyrie…we have decisions to make on a variety of free agents throughout our roster.”
Marks continued, “We haven’t had any of those discussions yet, so it would be unfair for me to comment on how it looks with us and Kyrie, because, to be quite frank, he has some decisions to make on his own.”
