With just a handful of games remaining in the regular season, the Brooklyn Nets are looking to stay in the top half of the Play-In tournament. If they finish as the 7th or 8th seed, that means one Play-In win and they're in the playoffs. If they finish as an 8 or 9 seed, they'll need to win twice to move on.

At shootaround in Miami, Irving was asked about his monster free agency coming up. He is set to be an unrestricted free agent. Earlier in the season, the Nets offered him a max extension worth $187M but he never ended up signing it. He could have made much much more by waiting for a five-year deal by (this) summer of 2022…or so it seemed until the whole crazy vaccination saga began.

But now that NYC Mayor Eric Adams has made the key exception for unvaccinated local players to perform everyone started to wonder if the plan was still to keep him in town for the next four or five seasons.

Per Barbara Barker of New York Newsday Irving says “There's no way I'm leaving my man seven anywhere.”

Hmm, we wonder who he might mean by number seven:

More from Alex Schiffer of The Athletic:

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Kevin Durant, of course, changed his jersey from 35 to 7 when he came to the Nets. It signified a metamorphosis in his career.

Per the Wall Street Journal Magazine:

“[Durant's] not afraid of reinvention, either the physical kind he’s carrying out after rupturing his Achilles during the NBA Finals, or the sort symbolized by changing his number from 35 to 7—a biblical reference to the concept of completion. “I’ve always been on a search,” he says.”

Had Irving not found “completion” in his vaccination saga, his free agency would have hung as a major major question mark on this team's future. Durant is signed through 2026. Ben Simmons is signed through 2025. Irving could be through 2027.

But if the Nets lost in the Play-In or first round with Irving as just a part-time player, who knows what type of resentment there might have been. How could Joe Tsai and co. have justified offering him well over $200M to go through that indefinitely? Would they have instead let him walk for nothing, seeking a team in a city that lets anyone play? Maybe explore sign-and-trades? Max Kyrie and continue to wait for him to find a plant-based vaxx or hope to lobby Mayor ‘Eric'? 

Now, none of that comes up. The Nets can make Kyrie Irving one of the highest-paid players in the NBA and potentially extend a window of contention for years to come. Durant noted seven is a symbol of completion. If the Nets get eleven signed alongside seven for the long haul, the front office may feel they finally found some completion too. Sean Marks wanted Durant, Irving and James Harden all signed long-term. If he gets two out of the three, with Ben Simmons in town, he'd be thrilled.

It will be interesting to see what happens.