All eyes were on Nets stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant as they stepped to the podium for media day, speaking publicly for the first time since Brooklyn's chaotic offseason.
Despite a summer full of trade rumors, both stars will suit up for the Nets this season, but not before addressing everything that took place over the last few months.
Irving, in particular, is coming off the most unique season of his career, only playing as a part-time player for the majority of the year due to his vaccination status and New York City's mandates.
Irving opened up about the difficulties of navigating that situation, speaking on how being unvaccinated cost him millions of dollars in contract negotiations with the Nets.
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Irving was in line to sign a contract extension with Brooklyn ahead of the 2021-22 season, but because it was known he would only be available for road games (with the uncertainty of when the city's vaccination mandate would be lifted), the Nets hesitated to reward the All-Star guard with the money he felt he deserved.
"We were supposed to have (contract negotiations) figured out before training camp last year and it just didn’t happen because of the status of me being unvaccinated," Irving told the media, according to NJ.com's Adam Zagoria.
"I didn’t appreciate how me being unvaccinated came to be a stigma that I don’t want to play and I don’t want to give up being a voice for the voiceless," Irving continued.
"I gave up four years, 100-something million to be unvaccinated. I just had to live with it and it was a tough pill to swallow, honestly."
Irving ended up going into the season with his contract situation unresolved, which bled into the start of this past offseason.
He then shocked the NBA world when he elected to opt-in to his $37 million player option for the 2022-23 season, making him an unrestricted free agent in 2023.
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Irving admitted he had some options to leave the Nets this past offseason, but he ultimately decided Brooklyn was the best place for him to be.
"Yeah, there were options. But not many, I’ll tell you that, because of the stigma of whether or not I want to play, whether or not I’m committed to the team," Irving admitted.
"Now that I'm here at media day and not on a zoom call, it feels even better.
"I had a lot of time to think and making the decision to come back to Brooklyn was the best one for me."
Irving, Durant and the Nets will open the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 19 against the Pelicans.
