UPDATE: Kyrie Irving has not signed with Anta. The website selling Anta shoes whole showing him as ambassador for the company is apparently fake. The Mavs star remains a sneaker free agent.

Dallas Mavericks' All-Star Kyrie Irving is signing a shoe deal with Anta, a Chinese sporting equipment brand, according to Bally Sports' Brandon Robinson. Nike ended Irving's contract last year in the wake of his controversial Twitter post containing a link to a documentary that featured antisemitic messaging before he was traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Mavs.

Irving sought deals with Adidas, Puma, and New Balance but ultimately sided with Anta.

Anta sponsors several other NBA players, most notably Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson and Charlotte Hornets' Gordon Hayward.

“The cooperation between Anta and Kyrie Irving is a successful cooperation model, which jointly creates a trend-leading sports brand image,” Robinson said of the deal. “The cooperation with Kyrie has made the Anta brand gain more recognition and praise in the domestic and foreign markets, and realized the global brand influence.”

These days, nobody uses Irving's name with positive connotation as it relates to public perception, so that's kind of a weird quote. In any case, it seems like Irving just wasn't able to strike a deal with a U.S.-based company, so he turned overseas for an extra buck.

Irving's sneaker free agency is over, but his basketball free agency is not. The Mavs are the only team that has publicly expressed an interest in signing the 31-year-old. However, the Houston Rockets are rumored to be in the sweepstakes if they don't land James Harden this summer.

There are likely several other teams that could use the unmatched skill Irving brings to the point guard position if they can get over his off-court distractions. Time will tell, as NBA free agency begins on June 30.