NBA
Kyrie Irving Is Loving Playing For The Dallas Mavericks
The word most commonly used to describe Irving these days is maturity. In fact, he has even spoken about how the move to Dallas has helped him mature.
Jun 5, 2024
The issue with Kyrie Irving has never been about his basketball talent or work ethic. It has been about his off-court antics, which ultimately spilled over to his suspension during the 2022-23 season for promoting an antisemitic movie on his social media accounts. Something he struggled to apologize for.
Irving also famously fell for the Earth is a flat conspiracy and for years defended it before finally caving. Despite his missteps along the way, he is one of the most well-respected players with current and former NBA players.
After being traded to the Dallas Mavericks, countless articles and podcasts claimed Kyrie was washed up. Fast-forward to his first full season with the Dallas Mavericks, Irving finds himself in the NBA finals and appears to have had a renaissance both on and off the court.
The word most commonly used to describe Irving these days is maturity. In fact, he has even spoken about how the move to Dallas has helped him mature.
"This has been the greatest … portion of my career," Irving said Tuesday ahead of the NBA Finals, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. "To be able to now give wisdom and also speak from a place of experience. When you're a young person, again, you're trying to speed through life, you're trying to get through everything."
THE UNDERRATED OPINION
On a podcast after the trade, I joked that he should send his pods to Los Angeles. Like most people, I thought the Dallas experiment was going to be a trainwreck. But I was wrong—sometimes, people just need to be in the right situation at the right time, and it appears the Mavericks organization is the best place for Irving to ride out his career.
Clearly, Irving loves playing Luka Doncic and while winning another ring is a possibility, it is great to see this new Kyrie Irving on and off the court. I'll certainly be pulling for Irving and the Mavs in the NBA finals, which on paper looks like a tough matchup for the Mavericks, but if the games are close, the advantage goes to Luka and Kyrie.
