Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving‘s well-documented and controversial history are significant enough to impact multiple teams desire to acquire or retain his services.
Nonetheless, within days of making a trade request amid a contract dispute with the Brooklyn Nets, Irving landed in Dallas alongside perennial MVP candidate Luka Doncic. And while the opportunity to pair he and Luka in the backcourt was obviously the driving factor in their decision-making process, Mavs general manager Nico Harrison doesn't appear to be overly concerned about Irving's history.
In fact, Harrison believes that he understands Irving, at least in a general sense.
“He wants to be in a place where he feels respected, feels like he can be himself,” Harrison tells Cappie Caplan of Dallas Morning News.
“Our job, my job, is to take away all the distractions so that he can just focus on basketball in a place that he feels love.”
For an eight-time All-Star and NBA champion, Irving is in the news far more for what he says off-the-court than what he does on it.
Even before he tweeted out insensitive misinformation about the Jewish community or decided not to take the COVID-19 vaccine, Irving was a polarizing player. He left the Boston Celtics after two seasons despite claiming that he wanted to play his entire career there. He left the Cleveland Cavaliers after winning a championship because he wanted to prove that he could lead a team himself.
In a vacuum, one could simply say that Irving is well-meaning but poorly advised.
Yet, Harrison is also spot-on in his assessment of what Kyrie appears to be searching for.
He left the Cavs and the Brooklyn Nets because he didn't feel the respect. He left the Celtics and the Nets when he didn't feel loved.
Perhaps he could find both with the Mavs. Nonetheless, a potential free agent this offseason, Irving will need to feel that by the summer. Or else he could be on the way to a new team.
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