The idea of Nets trading Irving for Simmons seems laughable

NEW YORK — If any NBA star is going to retire early, my money would be on Kyrie Irving. But the only thing funnier than the notion that his retirement somehow hinges on a trade is that the trade would be to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons.

Irving is equal parts humanitarian and hooper, dare I say more of the former than the latter. The latter speaks for itself: He is an NBA champion gunning for his second ring, a Kobe Bryant understudy who doubles as the most gifted ballhandler in NBA history, triples as a clutch performer and quadruples as one of the highest degree-of-difficulty shot makers in the game.

If he wanted to play until he turned gray, Uncle Drew could still make an impact on a game.

But Irving yearns to make a larger impact helping underserved communities. There are few, if any, NBA players who have done what Irving has done across the globe.

His charitable efforts at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic were well documented. He paid the full tuition for nine college students headed to Lincoln University, a historically Black college (HBCU). He purchased a house for George Floyd’s family, donated $323,000 to Feeding America, helped distribute 250,000 meals to New Yorkers and shelled out $1.5 million to ensure WNBA players who opted out during the COVID-19 season were still paid.

As recently as July, Irving’s KAI Family Foundation funded a solarpowered water plant in Rohan, a poor village in Pakistan.

“I want to make changes daily,” Irving said on July 19. “There are so many oppressed communities and so many things going on that are bigger than a ball going in the rim.”

That’s why I think he’s set to retire early. He is not playing the game for money, only for love, the craft and the art. Irving is a humanitarian first, even if his day job is reducing mortals to ash on the basketball floor. Yet in recent days, some have opined as to whether he could be made available for trade.

Fox Sports’ Nick Wright said those in Irving’s circle told him explicitly the All-Star guard would retire immediately if he was traded in a deal for Simmons, the young Sixers talent whose offensive struggles have taken a hatchet to his trade value. As if a Simmons-Irving swap made sense on any level in the first place.

Simmons, who can’t generate his own bucket, for Irving, the walking bucket himself and head of the snake on an aggressive-scoring Nets team. The league’s drug testing policy should be extended to anyone who thinks the framework for such a deal exists on this planet.

Here’s the deal: Kevin Durant is the Nets’ best player, and James Harden is in control of the offense as the team’s most gifted passer and playmaker.

Irving, however, is the draw. He’s the most electrifying player on the team, maybe in all of basketball.

The second he touches the ball, everyone in the building knows magic is about to happen.

The Nets are not trading that unless it’s for Stephen Curry or Damian Lillard, two players some consider better than Irving but would have an extremely difficult time proving that in a one-on-one setting. They certainly aren’t trading that for Simmons, who the Sixers haven’t even been able to flip into D’Angelo Russell or De’Aaron Fox, let alone a Hall of Fame-bound point guard of Irving’s caliber.

The idea of a SimmonsIrving trade is laughable. And the Nets are far removed from their days as the NBA’s punching bag.

Adam Hunger / Associated Press Nets guard Kyrie Irving (11) reacts against the Bucks during Game 1 of their second-round playoff series in June.