A month ago, Nets general manager Sean Marks expressed his confidence in signing James Harden and Kyrie Irving to contract extensions by the start of training camp, which is a week away. On Tuesday, he admitted he might need a little more time than he first thought.
“We’ve had very positive conversations with both those guys, and whether it’s family members, people and so forth, I think it always helps to do these things in person,” Marks said. “With this being summer, we’re very cognizant of letting people have their own time away before we all get back into the swing of things here. We’re looking forward to sitting down with them over the course of the next week, two weeks, and furthering those discussions.”
Marks and head coach Steve Nash met with the media on Tuesday to mark the start of the season, and contract extensions, along with the latest edition of Brooklyn’s super team, dominated the conversation. Both Irving and Harden, who ended last season injured, appear to be in good health and ready to start the season.
While both are still currently entering the final year of their contracts, Marks doesn’t expect the lack of extensions to be a distraction.
“This is something those guys know exactly how we feel, and I think they’ve been vocal about wanting to be part of this and build this together,” Marks said. “I think we’ve got an opportunity to hopefully build something special here for the foreseeable future. The fact that they want to collaborate, they want to come here together, they want to build this together.
