Kyrie Irving, the eight-time All-Star and Mavericks guard, expressed his happiness and eagerness to return to Dallas.
After an exploration of his limited options in the league, Kyrie Irving, the eight-time All-Star and Mavericks guard, expressed his joy at rejoining the team. Irving recently re-signed with Dallas in free agency, sealing the deal on a three-year contract worth a maximum of $126 million. The negotiation of this contract was skillfully handled by his agent, Shetellia Riley Irving, who also happens to be his stepmother.
Thanks to the Mavericks having Irving’s Bird rights, a privilege acquired through a trade last season, they were able to offer him significantly more lucrative terms than other potential suitors. Among these interested parties were the Phoenix Suns, who were restricted to offering only veteran’s minimum deals during the free agency period.
“It wasn’t too difficult of a process,” Irving said after Thursday’s practice, the first time he has spoken to the media since the final week of last season. “Had Dallas as No. 1 on my list. 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. And me being 31 now, I had to have a different vantage point, and I felt like I could not just settle here but be happy to come back here and be welcomed back with a warm embrace.
“So I took everything into account. I took my time a few days before free agency just to be with my family, gauge how they felt about being in Dallas alongside me. And everybody was excited. I mean, even when I got traded here, midseason, a lot of my family was excited and they were just looking forward to me having a peace of mind just on the court and off the court. I had already dealt with enough last season or the past two seasons, so they knew that I just wanted a lot of that off my back and off my shoulders of feeling like I had to be Superman or I had to be perfect. I just wanted to be myself. And then going on the last few years, just figuring myself out. So I think this is the best place to do it and continue to mature and grow as a man.”
Irving’s contract features a player option for the last season, along with $6 million in potential incentives. These incentives consist of $1 million each year if he plays a minimum of 65 games, and an additional $1 million if the team manages to secure at least 50 wins while Irving plays at least 58 games. These incentives are officially labeled as “unlikely” because Irving did not meet these criteria in the previous season, where he played a total of 60 games split between the Brooklyn Nets and the Mavericks, and Dallas concluded with a 38-44 record.
“I wanted everything that was structured in my contract incentive-wise to be based on production and that was wins and how many games I’m playing,” said Irving, who last played more than 65 games in 2018-19 for the Boston Celtics. “I hear all the noise. So I just wanted to make sure that I had some friendly terms, but also some realistic expectations for myself going into the season, looking to just play as many games as possible.”
In a significant trade last February, Dallas executed a blockbuster deal to bring Kyrie Irving on board, parting with key starters Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith, along with an unprotected 2029 first-round draft pick sent to Brooklyn. This strategic move was driven by the Mavs’ aspiration to find a co-star for Luka Doncic, with the aim of elevating the team to contender status.
Despite the high hopes, the Mavericks experienced a late-season slump, resulting in a failure to secure a playoff spot. Both Irving and Doncic faced injuries, with Irving nursing a foot injury and Doncic dealing with a thigh ailment. However, Dallas encountered challenges in finding synergy when the two star players shared the court, tallying a disappointing 5-11 record in the games they played together.
“I think we were being too passive with one another,” Irving said. “We’re both killers on the court, everybody knows it. We want to win. So we just have to continue to have that consistent mentality together and lead the team as best we can alongside other guys that have experience in this league or young guys that we have to coach even more. So it’s all been a learning experience. It was so quick last year and it was so much pressure on us to win now, win big, and ‘It’s Luka and Kyrie, why can’t you guys win games?’ So we were answering a lot of questions that honestly I don’t think we were ready for.
“And health is everything in this league. So us not being 100 percent and going through last season and trying to do the best we could mentally and emotionally and physically, I got to give ourselves some grace and some credit.”
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