Reports: Kyrie Irving is headed to the Nets. Or is it the Knicks? Or maybe the Lakers.
What do you know, there are more reports about Kyrie Irving’s future, and we are no closer to knowing the Boston Celtics point guard’s actual plans than the last report.
Two weeks ago, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said a reunion with former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate LeBron James on the Los Angeles Lakers was a possibility.
“He has had discussions with people about playing for the Lakers,” Windhorst told us. He added, “I think the possibility of Kyrie and LeBron reuniting — that door, which was deadbolted, has been un-deadbolted and has now been cracked open.”
Fox Sports analyst (and Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant’s latest media punching bag) Chris Broussard followed that vaguely sourced nugget with one of his own: “Brooklyn is going as hard after Anthony Davis as anybody. ... Their dream is to pair AD with Kyrie. They really only want to try to get AD if they got Kyrie.”
Last week, ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan ruled the Lakers out, telling Windhorst on his podcast, “I did a little digging around, and my feeling is very strongly that, while LeBron and Kyrie have kissed and made up, that Kyrie is not going there. He’s just not. I just don’t believe it. And I think people close to him just don’t believe it either.”
That leaves the Nets, then.
On Saturday, SNY’s Anthony Puccio reported that “Irving and his camp are strongly considering Brooklyn if he decides to leave Boston.” According to Puccio, the Nets would be open to pairing Irving and D’Angelo Russell if they cannot land Durant.
But wait.
That same day, another ESPN staffer, Stephen A. Smith, pegged the odds at 95 percent of Irving joining Durant on the New York Knicks. “Only potential hiccup is KD changing his mind,” he tweeted. Smith doubled down on his television show on Monday, when he also backed MacMullan’s Lakers-related reporting about Irving.
[Deep breath.]
Then, on Tuesday, Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report and Fox Sports informed us, “It’s between Brooklyn and the Lakers,” and, “I was told in the last 24 hours Kobe [Bryant] has been busy recruiting Kyrie in particular to try to get him to the Lakers. Now, everything that I’ve heard, I would still expect Kyrie is going to go to Brooklyn. That’s the odds-on favorite, and ... he just bought a place in South Orange, [New Jersey].”
And you wonder why Irving is confused by media punditry. That’s six different reporters — five of whom work for two outlets — all with different takes on where he will end up next season. Among the sources are a real-estate purchase in his hometown and, as Smith said, “a text message from folks close to Kyrie’s family.”
Game 1 of the NBA Finals hasn’t even tipped off yet, and there is a month to go before free agency begins. How much do you want to bet these reports change between now and then? (For the record, oddsmakers have the Knicks as the favorite to land Irving, followed by the Nets, Celtics and Lakers in that order.) I will say again what I’ve said all along: It’s best not to try to figure out what he’s thinking.
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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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