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Kyrie Irving endured plenty of low points during his time as a member of the Brooklyn Nets. His decision to join the the Nets in 2019 was met with celebration, but four years later, his mere presence gave the Nets franchise consternation. During the 2022-23 season, the Nets reached its last straw with Irving following a controversial tweet, and the veteran guard eventually asked for a trade. It was the Dallas Mavericks that swooped him and acquired him, but it did not come without its fair share of risks.
However, the Mavericks' decision to take a chance on Irving has paid off in a big way just a year later. The Mavs are four wins away from hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy for the second time in franchise history, thanks in large part to Irving. As a famous general manager once said, “scared money don't make none” and the Mavs are certainly thankful that they took a leap of faith in bringing Irving in, with franchise president Nico Harrison banking on his relationship with Irving to serve as a catalyst for the talented guard's much-needed blank slate.
“Honestly, (the confidence) was just the fact that I know Kyrie. I know his character, and I know how talented he is,” Harrison said, per Sam Amick of The Athletic.
It wasn't like the Mavericks had to break the bank to bring Kyrie Irving on board. The Mavs traded Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick (as well as two second-rounders) to the Nets in exchange for Irving and Markieff Morris; it's safe to say that Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith, while important pieces during the Mavs' run to the Conference Finals in 2022, don't even come close to the talent that is Irving.
Thus, given Harrison's familiarity with Irving during their days working together with Nike, the Mavericks saw a golden opportunity to buy low. Even in free agency, the Mavs were able to sign Irving to a less expensive contract than what it took for the Houston Rockets to bring Fred VanVleet in.
“You can’t just get talent like (Irving). It’s not out there. Think of how many guys in the league who are available that are that talented. It just doesn’t happen. So we were fortunate that Kyrie became available. For me, I didn’t listen to the outside noise because I have my own relationship with him,” Harrison added.
Through Kyrie Irving's one and a half-year stint thus far with the Mavericks, he has been a model professional whom his teammates have looked up to. Irving has emerged as the team's vocal leader, as well as an assassin the team can get behind in the clutch. Even the Mavs would say that the trade worked out better than they had envisioned, especially given how deep in the gutter nearly everyone's perception of Irving was at the time.
The Mavericks took a big risk in bringing Kyrie Irving in after a tumultuous stint with the Nets
2021 was when disaster began for Kyrie Irving in a Nets uniform. Irving sustained an injury that kept him out of the Nets' second-round defeat at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, and from there, it only went downhill. Prior to the start of the 2021-22 season, the city of New York required athletes playing for a team based in the city to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
Irving decided not to take the vaccine, and as a result, the Nets franchise decided not to play him altogether at the start of the season even though he could have suited up for the team on the road in cities not requiring vaccination. When the Nets were faltering in the middle of the season, that was when they brought Irving back to play road games, and later on, the city lifted vaccination restrictions, paving the way for Irving to suit up for home games as well.
That was when the relationship between Kyrie Irving and the Nets franchise began to crumble completely. His controversial tweet in 2022 led to an indefinite suspension, further fracturing the relationship between the two parties. So even though the Nets recovered upon Irving's return, even going on a 12-game winning streak from December 7, 2022 to January 2, 2023, the talented but polarizing guard requested a trade not too long after.
At first, it looked like the trade was going to be a disaster, what with their struggles following the 2023 trade deadline that led to their decision to tank their final few games just so they could keep their lottery pick. They then proceeded to build a group of hard-nosed defenders and competitors around Irving and Luka Doncic, and they went all-in on their core with their trades for PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford back in February.
But without the Mavericks doing nothing but provide a safe haven for Irving to be his unabashed self, they won't be able to reach this point. Welcomed and beloved with open arms, the 32-year old guard has elevated the Luka Doncic-led team and has helped them to within four wins away from a championship in return. And it all started with the Mavs' decision to block out the noise and accept Irving for who he is.
“I think we had to look past the noise. Like, we’re talking about Kai the basketball player. The noise is the noise. It could be good noise, bad noise, but you just have to look at what you feel fits on the floor. And that’s all I think we looked at,” Kidd said.
Minority owner Mark Cuban, who was still the Mavericks' majority stakeholder at the time of the Kyrie Irving trade, echoed the same sentiment.
“You know, in this business — and every business, really — you’ve got to just block out all the social media experts and just go with who you are. Yeah, (the noise around Irving) was different. But that’s the easiest stuff to block out. When they talk about someone’s personality, or this and that, and then you see Kai and how he interacts with players from around the league, everybody loved him.”
