After requesting a trade from the Brooklyn Nets in 2023, Kyrie Irving thought about joining LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks star told FOX Sports’ Melissa Rohlin.
Rather than reunite with James, his former colleague with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Irving joined Luka Dončić and the Mavericks.
“Everything was taken into account,” Irving said to Rohlin. “He’s a wonderful brother and friend of mine. Obviously, we were on the same Cleveland team. Everyone is aware of our past. But the intervening variables varied greatly. When it comes to business choices, you have to question the presidents and general managers about why particular initiatives didn’t succeed.”
Irving and the Mavericks are looking to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night in order to go to the second round. After falling short in five games against the Denver Nuggets, James and the Lakers were eliminated on Monday.
In response to the issue of whether Irving’s signing will improve the Lakers in February 2023, James said, “I would say that’s a ‘duh’ question.”
The next day, Irving was traded to the Mavericks.
Irving re-signed with the Mavericks in September of last year after becoming a free agent the following offseason.
Irving “had a strong interest in reuniting with James… either in Los Angeles or Dallas,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne revealed in January following Dallas’s previous season’s elimination from the postseason.
Shelburne claims that the Lakers had “internal discussions” for over a year about perhaps chasing Irving, but following the team’s unexpected run to the Western Conference finals, they opted to stay with re-signing existing 2023 core.
Following his three-year contract signing with the Mavericks, Irving told reporters that he “had Dallas as No. 1 on my list,” according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “Obviously I looked elsewhere— salary cap opportunities, where I could fit in with other guys around the league— but there just wasn’t much space.”
James and Irving spent three seasons together in Cleveland, where in 2016 they helped the Cavaliers win their first NBA championship, ending a 52-year championship drought in the city.
According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Irving’s streak came to an end in 2017 when he asked to be traded in order to pursue a bigger role with a different team.
Now that James and Irving seem to be willing to collaborate once more, it appears that the front offices who are assembling the lineups around them would be open to the idea.
If the Mavericks choose to pursue the Lakers star this offseason, James still hasn’t committed to his player option for the 2024–25 campaign, so there’s still a chance the two may play together in the future.