It’s not quite the case that the Dallas Mavericks’ front office was always sold on the idea of having Kyrie Irving in the home team’s uniform at American Airlines Center.
In an interview with Shannon Sharpe on his podcast, “Club Shay Shay” Cuban said that he didn’t always harbor the most positive connotations when it came to Irving.
“Honestly, before I did the work, I thought he was the team killer. There was no reason for me to talk to people about him. If he doesn’t want to play when the Mavs come to town? Things don’t work out on another team? Great. But when the opportunity to trade for him came, it’s okay let’s do the work,” Cuban said.
Cuban went on to detail how he relied on his head coach and general manager in both their previous run-ins with Irving, as well as their own research into his situation.
“Nico did the work. J-Kidd knew him. Nico knew him for years. It’s was like okay, let me talk to folks. And everybody loved him. Then you looked at the organizations he was at — that didn’t help the situation?” Sharpe asked before Cuban affirmed.
“I knew all these owners. I knew the circumstances. So, it wasn’t a hard decision,” the now minority owner of the Mavs said.
Irving will be entering his 14th season in the NBA this fall after helping the Mavs to the 2024 NBA Finals where they were beaten 4 games to 1 by the Boston Celtics.
His time in Dallas has been largely drama-free up to this point, which may come as a surprise to some after a tumultuous couple of stints in Brooklyn and Boston prior to that. While he was a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Irving refused to take the COVID-19 vaccination, which caused him to miss the Nets’ home games due to New York City’s mandatory vaccination policies at the time.
While Irving was a member of the Boston Celtics, he at one point announced his intentions to re-sign with the team in free agency before he teamed up with NBA superstars Kevin Durant and James Harden in Brooklyn, much to the dismay of Celtic fans.
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