Dallas Mavs’ Kyrie Irving Reflects on Brooklyn Nets Tenure Before First Matchup Since Trade
DALLAS — When the Dallas Mavericks face the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, it'll mark the first time Kyrie Irving will have faced his former team since being traded ahead of last year's midseason deadline.
Irving attributes much of the "choice and noise" from his Nets tenure to media coverage, reporting different versions of sourced information regarding the situation that ultimately resulted in a superteam falling apart before it had much of a chance to compete at the highest level. He doesn't consider himself to be on "bad terms" with the organization despite how his departure unfolded.
"I was never on bad terms with the organization. I think there was a lot of chaos and noise, as usual, from the media," Irving said. "I’m not going to blame you guys or anything. But again, nobody really knew what was going on behind the scenes. And I’m sure that people have their sources they go to what was going on, and what really happened."
When reflecting on the end of his time in Brooklyn, Irving acknowledged it being "rough" to handle, but he has zero regrets about asking to be traded. He went as far to say that asking to be dealt from the Nets was the best decision he made in his career.
“It was the best decision of my career, just to be able to ask for a trade," Irving said. "I knew I needed peace of mind. It was rough all the way around after COVID and after the situations that took place there, circumstances that were either in my control or out of my control."
During Irving's first press conference in Los Angeles after being traded to the Mavs, he told reporters he felt "disrespected" and that he desires to be in a place that makes him feel celebrated instead of tolerated. When asked about those comments, he maintained a desire not to place blame on others in public remarks.
“I didn’t want to play the blame game. I had a media interview, and I said there were some disrespectful things going on behind the scenes," Irving said. "And that happens in every organization, as an employee. So it’s not out of the ordinary to come out and communicate that, but again, when it’s me, it’s a fire-starter. Everyone loves to use my name to build up whatever credibility they need. And at the end of the day, I don’t have a problem with that.
"I think my criticism is fair as long as you keep it on the court and judge me off our team's success and don’t try to dig too deep into who I am as a person, because I don’t show who I am as a person in this business because it’s always constant, constant, constant, eyewitness views, just random things that I don’t necessarily agree with is being written about me.”
During his Nets stint, Irving played with two of his NBA superstar friends — James Harden and Kevin Durant, but the situation was short-lived. Harden requested to be traded as Irving continued to be limited by local regulations preventing him from participating in home games. Was Irving's commitment to not getting vaccinated a "final straw"? He doesn't see that way.
“I was just trying to enjoy the time that I had with some of my good friends and my peers in Brooklyn, with James [Harden] and KD [Kevin Durant] and young guys that we drafted," Irving said. "We had a plan in place, and when plans change for individuals, you’ve got to make the best decision for you and your family. Again, when you have that eye-to-eye communication with your teammates and people on staff, and you can articulate how you feel, it shouldn’t matter what’s being said about you on the outside."
Dallas Mavericks superstar Kyrie Irving during the team's win against the San Antonio Spurs
Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports
Irving seeks to move on from his Nets tenure but continued to receive questions about it from some familiar faces in New York media that covered him while playing in their market.
"Being in New York, the media capital of the world, I think people hold on to the weight of my words, and I’m not trying to put anybody in that predicament here or in Brooklyn," Irving said. "I’m just really trying to move past that man, and hopefully everybody does the same.”
When a joke was made about the difference in COVID restrictions in Texas compared to New York City, Irving laughingly mentioned perhaps the Nets could have made the situation easier by just releasing him from his contract.
“Brooklyn should have just released me," Irving said with a laugh. "It would have made it a lot easier for everybody. But 20/20 hindsight.”
On a serious note, Irving remains proud of his lasting impact on some of the Nets' ascending talents, who often leaned on him to be a mentor.
“I’m nothing short of proud of them. They’ve grown tremendously," Irving said of his former Nets teammates. "They put in the hard work in the offseason, in-season. They’ve been almost like rock steady for me, even off the court.
“I was dealing with, you know, a lot of things, and for them to be so young and want to be there for me emotionally meant a lot," Irving explained. "That’s why we have such a great bond still to this day.”
The next time the Mavs will face the Nets will be on Feb. 6, marking Irving's first game played at Barclays Center since being traded to Dallas.
